Bye bye fifth wave

As I scroll my social media feed and see people in other parts of the world on spring break around the world, I feel like I am living in another planet. While mask mandates around the world have been lifted, I can’t even go for a run outside without a mask. Even V who would yank off the mask before i even put it on now knows to ask for it when heading out. Thanks Hong Kong.

We have however, had ample time to explore some new hiking trails. Recently, we did a long 13km hike from DB to a nearby town called Tung Chung. Thanks to our lovely aunties, we were able to have a civilised hike sans kids. In fact, we did this hike with our close friends C and N (who also have 3 kids the same age as ours). We left the 6 children in the capable hands of our ever patient aunties and set off early in the morning. It was a challenging hike, crossing over many peaks, but definitely worth the ‘I can hardly move my legs‘ feeling the next morning. We had to climb several peaks and what seemed like a never ending amount of stairs uphill, but the view was spectacular. I’m just pretty proud I kept up w N who has done some crazy things like run across the whole of England, 100 marathons in a 100 days and attempted a 24 hour HK hike including hiking in the pitch black night.

Hiking is definitely addictive. Despite the sore muscles from our 13km hike, two weekends later we were back on the peaks. Once again, we left the 6 kids and set off early. This time we took a cab to Ngong Ping, home of the famous Big Buddha and hiked the route back to Tung Chung, following the same path as the cable car. This hike was along a much more man made path, bit still 6km long.

Thankfully, while beaches have been closed, there are no restrictions on renting a boat and being out on the water and this is literally hubby’s favourite thing to do. Over the Easter long weekend we once again rented a boat, a sailboat this time, and spent the day out on the water stopping at a ‘secret’ island where the kids explored and discovered some exotic fruit (which none of us were brave enough to try)! We were joined by our lovely extended cousins R and V and we had a fabulous day with the wind in our hair.

Living in tropical weather also means you can have a proper outdoor Holi celebration. Ofcourse the social restrictions meant we couldn’t invite a group of friends, but we were able to celebrate with one of our family away from family friends - E and A. They came over with their troop (of also 3 kids). We had a lovely time with colours, water balloons and a water gun fight!

With the fifth wave of Covid subsiding, life has returned to some sense of ‘normal’. The girls are back in school, playgrounds are open, and there are no limits on meeting privately. Now if only they remove the hotel quarantine and testing on arrival, it wouldn’t feel like such an island.