Biker cove

The following article originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia

Hong Kong is much more than a big bustling metropolis; it also has some of Asia's finest hiking trails and soft adventure hotspots. Justin Wastnage recently donned a bike helmet and took to the cycle path to find out

Cantopop, the saccharine monotonal pop music that Hong Kong has made its own, is an acquired taste. Yet few of my fellow riders along the stretch of the Shing Mun River that leads out into Tide Cove seem to share my view. For unlike the French, who stereotypically place a freshly baked baguette in their bicycle baskets, Hong Kongers like to use the wire frame to hold a music player. Mobile phones, MP3 players with speakers dangling and even an old-fashioned ghetto blaster were all pressed into action in the cacophony of competing cantopop classics.
I had picked up a bike at Sha Tin, the high-rise development that is firmly ensconced within most visitors' perceptions of Hong Kong. However, Sha Tin is also the start of some 18km of cycle paths that lead almost up to the border with mainland China. As the Shing Mun petered out into the cove, known locally as Sha Tin Hoi, the notions of Hong Kong being a city of hustle and bustle started to peter out too.
<[stk 1]>My guide, Fred, had clearly not been on a bicycle ride for 20 years. I darted off at every twist and turn, only to look around to see him struggling with the gears, brakes and general balance. Once I weaved my way back to his side, he told me of the 200 islands that make up Hong Kong. Only one, Hong Kong Island, was formally conquered by the British. The rest were all the New Territories leased to Britain before famously being handed back in 1997 when the lease expired.
Most of the New Territories are still relatively natural. There are even some uninhabited islands where cars and people are banned, Fred tells me between wheezes. Few people think of Hong Kong as a countryside destination, he says, but deep inside the New Territories there are hiking trails, waterfalls, wooded ravines and sandy bays that are all relatively deserted.
The Sha Tin cycle path is not one of these undiscovered natural gems. Being a Sunday in August, the two-way track is packed full of leisurely families pedalling their way around. In search of tranquillity, I press Fred onwards past the crowds and up to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. Here was where the fortunes of the opium trade were once made and lost in epic gunship battles, he says.
Nature is also close at hand on the island itself. Thousands take the Peak Tram every week and the Peninsula Hotel group (which incidentally owns the tram) would prefer if everyone took advantage of its newly built viewing platform and adjoining amusement arcade. A far more rewarding, if slightly more strenuous option is to take the Peak Circle Walk around the top of the mountain. Starting off along Lugard Road, the track narrows as it gets further away from the funicular terminus and nature starts encroaching.
Hong Kong is a tropical city, although you'd never know from the air conditioned malls, but up here you can see the vines and lush forest trying to reclaim the real estate. Signs posted around the 3.5km walk tell you about the local flora and fauna, but modernity is still the real drawcard: views of the city skyline from 400 metres above are worth stopping for, especially around dusk. As I stroll around, some power walkers and joggers zoom past on morning constitutionals. Thankfully, each of their iPods is playing their choice of music for their ears only.

Hong Kong Made to Measure

This article originally appeared in Luxury Travel & Style Magazine Spring 2009 issue

OUR IMPERFECTIONS, IT SEEMS, ARE MERELY DETAILS IN THE HONG KONG BESPOKE PRODUCER'S GOAL OF MADE-TO-MEASURE PERFECTION, WRITES JUSTIN WASTNAGE.

It is not customary to point out physical defects of customers, least of all if you are trying to sell them clothing. But Manu Melwani is a little different.
I am standing before him and he tells me my right arm is five millimetres longer than my left. A common enough problem, he reassures me. Melwani, whose father Sam opened his eponymous tailor shop in the bustling back streets of Kowloon fifty years ago, is not one to stand on ceremony. His rich and famous clientele, most of whom are displayed in photographs on his pokey shop's walls, do not have time to stand around for the endless alterations and fine tuning your Savile Row tailor might wish to make. John Howard and Mark Latham both attest to having had garments made to measure at Sam's, as do Bill Clinton, David Bowie and, inexplicably, Kate Moss.
Instead Melwani has to size you up from the start. “You prefer not to wear a tie, you generally don't button up the jacket,” he asks rhetorically as a seamstress
is measuring my inside step.
There is nothing quite like a made-to-measure suit to flatter unusual body shapes and hide life's excesses. Normally, though, it is price that drags us
back to prêt-à-porter. But Melwani's team of tailors will generally whip up a suit, with an extra pair of pants, and a few hand-tailored shirts for $500.
Hong Kong used to be the capital of copying. The then-British outpost was doing a roaring trade in knock-off bags, watches and t-shirts. But for the more discerning customer, these days Hong Kong's industrious artisans are put to much better use than clumsy counterfeits. Highly skilled jewellers, milliners and shoemakers can make almost anything to measure.
An auspicious event looming in my life, I had investigated the opportunity of having a diamond eternity ring hand made for my wife. Rushing back to Hong Kong Island by metro (far quicker than any other method, but lacking the romance of the Star Ferry), I sidestepped the lunchtime crowds to reach Central. Emailed correspondence ensured that by the time I entered the premises of David Kingsboro, a discreet jeweller upstairs in a nondescript shopping mall, Cynthia Chan had already picked out twelve quarter-carat diamonds and dispatched preliminary sketches to her silversmiths. I was invited to inspect each one for flaws and told to return in two days to pick up the ring and settle up.
Just around the corner, via the Hong Kong franchise of Harvey Nichols, is Admiralty, where inspiration torn from a magazine page can be recreated into a pair of hand-stitched, leather-soled killer heels that fit your feet like a glove at Lii Lii Shoes. A friend tells me to ignore the Russian hooker footwear piled up around the untidy premises and to focus on the sublime experience of having every millimetre of your foot mapped.
A crooked toe, just like a shorter left arm, is no longer the domain of schoolyard freak shows. Our own imperfections, it seems, are merely details in the bespoke producer's goal of made-to-measure perfection.

------------

LUXE LIST
Lii Lii Shoes, set over a few stores in the Admiralty Centre, will
make custom ladies’ footwear from HK$1800 (A$280) per pair. Allow one week.
Shop 75, 1st Floor, tower 2, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Rd, Central

Sam’s Tailor, a formal wear institution, sits just off Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Beware of numerous touts en route pushing imitators. Suits from HK$2000 (A$310), allow three days.
Ground Floor, Burlington Arcade, 94 Nathan Road, Kowloon www.samstailor.biz

David Kingsboro has a very secure shop right in the heart of the luxury part of Queen’s Road. Jewellery custom made either to order or after consultation. Allow
two weeks from scratch, or one week if pre-arranged via email (davidkingsborojewellery@yahoo.com.hk)
Shops C & D, 2nd Floor, Entertainment Building, 30 Queen’s Road, Central