Weekend getaway - Lake Egret Nature Park

What's in your mind looking at this picture?

 

The picture above is not from my Swiss travelogue...indeed it's a local nature park in Tai Po, N.T. - The Lake Egret Nature Park.

I wouldn't have imagined so much fun in this place when my friend Gary told me what I could do with my group of friends there are boating, water cycling and having dinner at the restaurant...I thought, in a remote location (yea it's pretty remote anywhere beyond walking distance from the MTR station) and calm environment like this, I wouldn't expect anything more exciting than a chillaxing hang-out.

But I was wrong.

Walking in, the beautiful view from the restaurant's patio overlooking the lake, and the perspective of the curved patio itself wowed me. The first thing coming into sight usually makes an impression, and that surely made a good one.

Towards the end of the patio smelled my favorite cheese of all time, the chèvre goat cheese? Wondering why, a herd of black goats appeared right away :) Goat-feeding is one of the park's many activities, the goats are kept right by the lake, they are just like gatekeepers of the dock and watch every excited visitor going out for boating or water-cycling simply with indifference. They only concern how much hay you have in hand to feed them~ funny :D

 

Just now I mentioned there are many activities for individuals and families, children to adults at Lake Egret, what are there to offer? Some available activities include sand painting, reed weaving, bread making, leather craft making, sand-filled bottle craft, paper clay...there is also a Museum of Ethnology to satisfy the most curious and fun-loving minds. Reservation is required for most of the guided activities.

Bread making - doughs were ready, what we did was to shape and decorate - this simple but fun DIY workshop made us laugh like kids

Dinner at Little Egret Restaurant was great too. What more could you ask for when you are already sitting out in a beautiful weather, being served attentively, and eating in the spectacular sunset view by the lake? Perhaps a gigantic whole pan-fried dover sole fish (left of the below photo), which was crispy and savory outside but tender and juicy inside :D Another dish that was cheerfully done was the crab meat, mango and avocado salad (right), its mango puree dressing went well with .

I had a great getaway filled with fun and decent food there! Lake Egret Nature Park is designed to house a range of events, venues with different functionality are available, from birthday parties for kids, weddings, BBQ parties, to corporate meetings, banquets and trainings. You can find more details from its website. 

For Easter, there will be a Woodstock outdoor concert and BBQ party welcoming people of all age to join. Details here. Don't forget to stay tuned to their adverse weather notice! Happy Easter long weekend!


Lake Egret Nature Park 
2657 6657
2 Hung Lam Drive, Tai Po Kau, N.T. Hong Kong

How to get there?
MTR Train: Get off at Tai Po Market Station, then transfer taxi (around HK$21) to reach "Little Egret Restaurant"

Have yourself a merry little GREEN Christmas 2012

Been working on quite a lot of green projects with my client, it's normal to get influenced and inspired by exposing to renewable energy, carbon footprint, energy saving and green lifestyle round the clock, especially for a cause I am personally so supportive for (well but I don't dare to admit I am green enough in terms of daily life habits though...). So, at this special festive time of the year, I wish to contribute a bit to raise some awareness on green living, so that we, and our next generations could enjoy a sustainable future :)

To recall my Facebook post, in these couple of weeks before Christmas 2012, I will select and share 10 things to do/ places to go for a green Christmas- stay tuned to my post and my Facebook update folks!

Green Christmas Idea #1 - Eat Green
The carbon footprint, or foodprint, associated with the food you eat is the greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking and disposing of the food on your plate. Even being a meat-lover myself, I seriously started to consider doing some vegetarian weekdays to reduce my foodprint and to explore some increasingly popular veg eateries in Hong Kong! Sassy Hong Kong is being a great guide for veg-eating newbies: A few of Sassy's recommended ‘green’ dining spots are: O Green Café, Posto Publico, Life Café, and The Herbivores. There are so many more vegetarian restaurants of different styles around town, not to mention the Chinese Buddhist "齋舖"  :o If it's not for the religious meaning of Christmas, it'd be quite innovative as an eco-friendly choice having Chinese 齋(fyi, most are to-fu based dishes) for Christmas..oh well haha!
 


Credit: Sassy Hong Kong

Green Christmas Idea #2 - Yummy, Trendy and Healthy
What's more special than a customized and healthy gift to give to your beloved ones? A pot plant with microgreens (Definition: seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs) comprising different herbs would be all lovely and wholesome (aww~) A study revealed that microgreens generally have higher concentrations of healthful vitamins and carotenoids than their mature counterparts. Foodies must love to have this handy fresh condiment pot around the dining room :D 

Credit: Uncommon Goods

Green Christmas Idea #3 - Share the love to your friend with an endangered animal
It’s shocking that there are only about 1,600 giant pandas and 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild, despite the fact that we see China generously giving out pandas to other countries to show their diplomatic friendliness, and tigers locked up in many big zoos around the world. 

The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has been continuing its effort in raising the awareness of wild animal conservation, how? Their tactic is to leverage human being's desire to "own". Yes, you care if you own something, be it an animal or a tree.

How meaningful and lovely would it be to adopt a wild giant panda and have the adoption pack with certificate sent to your friend as a gift for Christmas! You could choose either a monthly donation of minimum HK$50/month, or an one-off donation of minimum HK$400/month (surely this is a better option as a gift). WWF make it really easy to register an adoption and have the gift pack safely posted to your / your friend's home - all done online from the call-for-action link below. There are also a lot other great gift selections at the Panda Shop.

Call for action: Adopt a panda for your friend / self now :)

Watch the video below of WWF's call for your support to their conservation work in improving the wild panda's habitat in China:

The content of an adoption gift pack (Credit: WWF)

When it comes to conserving wild animals or sustaining the environment, we, human, as being the intellectual on the planet earth should take up responsibility not to offend the law of nature, or try to minimize our impact to the environment. WWF's website information are sufficiently mind-striking to wake some eco-conscious city people, who live in within concrete walls and are temporarily fooled by the illusion of a distant nature equalizing an non-existing nature, to take action. Indeed, there are so many things we could do to help save the eco-system and the nature, perhaps I should open another post to share some relevant ones with events / parties (yay! topic's set for next time :)) Back to this Christmas, hope you like my sharing of this gift idea and would consider giving your friend an adopted panda!





7 more Green Christmas Ideas coming up in the succeeding posts :)) Stay tuned...!

Panorama bar near Nathan Road - Jewel in a Boutique

Surprises bubble up every now and then if you keep you eyes and mind open - this time I am talking about a cozy rooftop panorama bar housed in a new boutique hotel in Jordan, Madera (a.k.a.木的地酒店). If all you want is a little quiet place in the middle of the vibrant Kowloon, with astonishing view and a friendly bar-tender at your service, you may find the Panorama Lounge an oasis in the concrete surroundings.

The Panorama Lounge is located on the 29/F of the hotel building with a living room size lounge bar area with living room setting (couches and plasma TV...what else do you need? Yea, the bar of course!). Walk up the stairs to the rooftop, you will be wowed by the unique panorama view of the Kowloon peninsula plus HK Island just a stone's throw away from our usual viewpoint from TST. Like my friend would say, one can't usually see the Nathan Road that straight from close. Haha it makes no sense but when I looked at it, I couldn't agree more!

The bar-tender was nice and thoughtful but he was about to move on and work at another bar in TST by the time I visited - good luck! Anyway, this bar is kind of family style so whichever you name, as long as the ingredient is available, you'll get it.

So I got my Cosmopolitan with a luscious squeeze of the lit lemon skin (so as to release the lemon oil) - such a long-lasting savor! We also got some other cocktails out from creativity. The best thing was to watch the bar-tender's skills and chat along.

Litting up the lemon skin

After cocktails, it was close to the closing time at 11:30pm, Mr. bar-tender was itching to show his skills again~ and made us some dangerous shooters!! Olala!

Panorama Lounge at Madera is generally a great venue for private parties - which can comfortably accommodate approx. 20 pax at the 'living room' plus rooftop. Check its website for details. Cheers!

Madera - 1 Cheong Lok Street, Jordan, Kowloon+852 2121 9888

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