BBQ in Aberdeen Country Park

Meats roasted in various stages including my char siu about to be cooked

We take a break from protest programming to describe an outing we had last Saturday.

Now that the weather has cooled down considerably, my relatives came up with the brilliant plan of having a barbecue -- at 10am.

We all met at Aberdeen Centre and from there took a short mini bus or a taxi ride up to Aberdeen Country Park where there are barbecue pits free of charge. For me it was the first time taking the no. 58 mini bus from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen Centre, which took about 20 minutes.

The country park has a nice (developed) setting for barbecues

One of my uncles who lives near there went ahead earlier and occupied one of the pits which is the perfect spot: under the trees for shade protection and next to a picnic bench. Nearby are public toilets and even a commissary should you need extra snacks and drinks to supplement your barbecue.

This uncle had already placed newspapers on top of the picnic bench, then a big plastic sheet over the table top and held it down with string in three places. So professional.

My other uncle and his son started the fire by arranging the charcoal bricks like a Jenga tower but with spaces in between. This turned out to be completely unnecessary once the fire started going and the charcoal became white and the tower collapsed.

They had also brought marinated meats along, like chicken wings (two kinds), thin pork fillets in a char siu marinade, and a selection of offal, like liver. There were also processed meats like sausages and even fish balls and squid balls. And being Chinese, we also had a container of pickled vegetables, fresh cabbage leaves, corn, and sweet potatoes that we placed in the pit to roast.

Walking along the path to the Upper Aberdeen Reservoir

Once the fire toned down and the charcoal started turning white, that's when the real barbecuing began and it was quite fun sitting around shooting the breeze and slowly cooking our food. In the background I knew there were clashes going on at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, but this was a good way to get our minds elsewhere.

When I was pretty full, I asked my relatives where I could go for a walk and they gave me directions to walk to the Upper Aberdeen Reservoir. 

It was about a 15 minute walk up a gentle slope, where there are more barbecue pits. However they seemed to have attracted a family of wild pigs! The mother led her five piglets away from the barbecue pits and into the hillside and for me it was my first encounter with wild pigs so close up. The mother didn't seem to mind us humans, otherwise she would have been defensive in protecting her piglets.

A family of wild pigs near a barbecue site!

I walked passed them and kept going until I hit the upper reservoir, and it was quite an impressive sight. There were also lots of butterflies everywhere, enjoying the sun.

The Upper and Lower reservoirs were built to supply water to the west side of Hong Kong Island. The project began in 1929 and finished two years later. The Upper Reservoir stores up to 820,000 cubit metres of water, and together with the Lower Reservoir have a total capacity of 1.23 million cubic metres that served 850,000 residents.

From here I turned around to go back and again encountered the same wild pig family, that seemed to like to linger in the area... I wonder why...

When I came back the fire was perfect for roasting marshmallows and helped my cousins get that golden brown, slightly crunchy on the outside, and wobbly gooey inside. I couldn't help eating a few myself!

A scenic view of the Upper Aberdeen Reservoir

We finished in the late afternoon and needless to say there was no need for dinner except for some fruit! But it was also a good mini escape from the stress of the protests and enjoy a bit of nature (and food).

Visiting the Butterflies

Getting up close and personal with butterflies in Phuket

On our last day in Phuket before heading to the airport we checked out butterflies and other critters at the Phuket Butterfly Garden & Insect World. It's north of Phuket Town and in an off-the-beaten-path kind of location.

For an admission fee of 300BHT ($9.23) you can get up close and personal with many butterflies, while the insects are thankfully locked away in wired cages and boxes.

In the Breeding Room a butterfly decided to hang out on me!

Upon entering the complex we were greeted by staff who gave us a sugary drink and then a tiny plastic cup filled with a bit of banana soaked in sugar water in the hopes of luring butterflies to eat.

We wandered into the hot and humid open garden area where butterflies were flying among the greenery and orchids; our driver had told us now is not the season for viewing the flowers, but we saw enough here to make us happy.

It was difficult to photograph the butterflies at first, probably startled by another group of strangers wandering in their 'hood. But eventually we found a few lazy ones or perhaps more photogenic and didn't mind us coming up a bit closer to take pictures...

There were many butterflies with various colours and patterns

We had to follow the route which included visiting an area housing scorpions, reptiles and even cockroaches! I couldn't even bear to photograph them they were so frightening to look at, particularly the latter!!

The Pupae House is a cool enclosed space where you can see pupae hanging from wired box cages in various stages of development, with the smallest pupae a lime green colour, to the older ones a muted brown-gray. There was the odd butterfly trying to stretch its wings and flying around the small cage. Again we got to have a pretty good look at its underside!

Then we managed to get close to the butterflies sans cages in the breeding room, a small enclosed area with some orchids and a table like an altar with bananas on it. Again the butterflies here seemed nonplussed to have us there and we could take even closer pictures of them.

This creature decided to feast on some sweet bananas...

Here we could observe up close the intricacies of the patterns and colours on their wings, but it was a pity to see many of them have damaged wings, which is perhaps why they didn't fly around so much.

Nevertheless it was a wonderful experience to see them up close; staff were not even around to hurry us along and in fact the brochure encouraged visitors to stay as long as they wanted before closing time at 5pm and to take lots of pictures.

The brochure explains the Phuket Butterfly Garden breeds butterflies and then releases them annually in the hopes they will help to further pollinate flowers and fruit trees.

This butterfly sadly had a damaged wing

We wonder if the scheme really works considering the captive butterflies mostly feed on bananas already peeled for them! Nevertheless, we like the idea of the garden breeding the butterflies and hopefully educating more people about the importance of these creatures in our ecosystem.

phuketbutterfly.com