Mission insanity accomplished

We hit Tai Long Wan beach at mid night (roughly a 1.5 hour walk from Sai Wan). It was a full moon night, and a CLEAR sky. At 1:45am we started for Sharp Peak... and were on top of the peak by 3:30am. Thats pretty good pace for a night hike on one of the most slippery and by far the steepest accent in HK. 14 people turned up for this hike. 7 headed back on the treacherous trail at 4am... and 7 of us decided to stay back for sunrise. This was not the safest of night hikes. I personally found it difficult to come back down even in day light (thanks to the morning dew which made it a bit extra slippery. Not fun at a couple of spots where you are walking right on the edge of the hill)

Anyways, the BEST part about this hike was that from 3am until sunrise we were in clouds. We could not see anything beyond 20 to 25 meters. It was as if we were in heaven. Occasionally, the clouds would clear and we would gaze at the stars. And then we played a bit of rock... kicking it off with Comfortably Numb... and ending it with Stairway to Heaven. Perfect. Sunrise was scheduled at 6:06am. We missed that because the clouds did not clear off by then.




I am interested in doing this again. So if you are up for it, give me a shout and we will organize one (the HK Trampers will not repeat this hike any time soon, so I need some people). Couple of short videos taken just before sunrise.

Mission Sharp Peak

Its going to be a full moon night this Saturday. And its going to be mission insanity. The Hong Kong trampers are going to start off at about 10pm from Pak Tam Au for Tai Long Wan beach.. camp there until 3am, and then head out to conquer Sharp Peak - equipped with a torch, a full moon, hopefully a clear sky and yes - a little bit of courage. We aim to make it to the top just in time for sunrise.

Visit HK Trampers for the exact timings and meeting point and please read the disclaimer.

A YouTube video of Sharp Peak in day light:

Day 2

So today was session 2. I did really well with the bat. Was probably more aggressive than I should have been. So next week its going to be all about controlled agression ... ;) Bowling was a LOT better than last week as well, but I still need to work more on it.

Anyways, there is a bigger problem. I strained my lower back today. There is a good 3 more weeks of training and am not sure how I will manage to bowl next Sunday. We'll see.

Cricket in HK

I bowled just about average. Despite being extremely apprehensive before I started, I surprising hit the right line and length with my first few deliveries, got excited by that, tried to bowl extra quick and lost it all! But the good thing about bowling in nets is that even when you bowl shit and/or the batsman plays a cracker of a shot, the ball still remains inside the nets and the psychological impact is not that bad ;) ... I mean, it still hurts... but not as much as seeing the ball fly out of the stadium!

This was last weekend at the Hong Kong Cricket Club

The teams are comprised of mainly Aussies and Kiwis - and some Brits. These are expats who have played professional cricket of some form before moving to HK. There are about 90 active players in the Hong Kong Cricket Club which form the 5 teams that play against each other every season. And these training camps have been organized to finalize the teams for this season.

I will be there again this Sunday, with a much stronger bowling arm ... and much better foot work. I got embarrassingly clean bowled twice. I think I will get rid of the helmet in tomorrows session. Lets see. Still 3 more sessions to go before the selection process is complete and I am not giving up yet.

Flash back mode

Earlier this week I was checking photos from VESIT days. Time flies and a lot has changed since 2004. Just a handful live in Mumbai... many are married/engaged or are on the verge of it. Things have changed.. but memories do not. So I felt like going into flash back mode and yes, it was nostalgia at its very best! Read on...



- Trip to Mahabaleshwar in 2001 with Chitnis, Annu, Suyog, Sari, Jaimin, Hande, Raghu. "Enlightenment number 1,2..." , the "proposal", Anjane Kyon....
- The dreaded Mechanics Sem 1 results. I had attempted 47 marks. 40 were required to pass. And I scored 52. And that summarized Mumbai University for me!
- The "Dil Chahta Hain" Goa trip in 2002 with Harsh, Gerry, Jaimin, Suyog... Biking across Goa and the stomach upset!
- Those crazy hours spent in the library and canteen 2 weeks before exams with Harsh, Suyog and Jaimin. 9am to 8pm - non stop and then the transit back home. It was always a question of life and death in those last 2 weeks and sem after sem we would curse ourselves for not starting a week earlier.
- Daily train commutes from Mulund to Kurla with Vibha, Suyog, Jaimin, Raji, Mamta in the first 2 years... and then the bike rides with Suyog, Jaimin and Vibha back home in the last 2
- Birthday surprises and night outs.
- IEEE events, meetings, night outs, parties, interviews (!), marketing drives throughout 2001-04 with Suyog, Abhi, Yash, AK, Shanks, Apu, Neelesh, Sandesh, Smruts, Pillu, Shubs, Jayesh, Rohan, Sari
- Matheran Class of 2004 trip.
- The deserted movie hall where we danced to songs from "Yeh Tera Ghar Hain Mera Ghar"...... Crappiest of movies like "Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hain" and "Main Hoon Na" were so much fun. The marofication of dialogues and scenes in such movies was so ruthless, that it would put the makers in some serious state of depression.
- The Praxis 2004 core ("chor") committee music session...... SE lab music sessions
- Final year project night outs with Jallu, Vishy, Apu.
- KGB (RIP) lectures. We finished all our assignments in his lectures.
- Somehow managing to get > 70% attendance despite missing the first 1-2 lectures almost everyday!
- And the best of it all - Suyog and Jaimin fighting/competing over girls. No, it was not funny then.. but the best part is that both of them will laugh it off today - embarrassingly ;) ....

I do not have a lot of photos from these days... but I have tried to compile an album of what I have (most of them thanks to Jaimin, who always managed to carry his camera, while the others either did not have one or never carried one 24X7 like Jaimin did)...