Around Stanley

Here are some photos I've taken around Stanley over the last couple of weeks. The first photo is what David and Hugo have come to call "The Rubbish Pirates". They get around in their green outfits, in boats, and pick floating rubbish out of the water. The two photos of a small cove were taken at a gorgeous, quiet spot at the end of Stanley Markets. Gorgeous except for the incredible amount of rubbish. An unbelievable amount of rubbish. We immediately thought about coming down with some bags, for a family night activity, but rejected that idea once we examined the rubbish more closely... David told me this evening, that the Rubbish Pirates actually cleaned up that beach, and that it is now clean. They took away all the shoes, dead fish, empty water bottles, plastic toys, bits of boating junk and even a fridge. Quite magnanimous, as far as pirates go...

The green leafy entrance is the gateway to St Stephen's College. David and I walked over there yesterday, because I wanted to see the college and the prison, because it was on those two grounds that the Japanese Internment Camp was set up during World War Two. How spooky. To think that just over sixty years ago there were guns, and POW's, and a war. Ever since I read Fragrant Harbour, I've been dying to see the place where the expats were imprisoned.

You can't really get to the jail, as a civilian, but David and I did have a quick walk through the Corrective Services Museum http://www.csd.gov.hk/english/hkcsm/hkcsm.html There's a little bit of info about it on the link. It was really interesting. Hugo wants to go now, since I told him that there were photos of pirates with their heads chopped off. Lovely. They had other interesting punishment methods too, including a treadwheel, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a wheel with steps on it, and you just have to keep stepping or you'll fall off, and probably get hanged. (YES, TL! That is the correct form of the verb!)

The other picture is of Stanley Plaza (about 120 steps from our apartment) which was having some kind of music event yesterday. These guys were setting up, but it got very crowded, and throughout the day, all kind of choirs and bands performed.