- Once we caught a fish alive…
We’ve been dropping by for hour-long pedal boat rides at Wong Nai Chung Reservoir Park… Unlike some of the other reservoir parks like in Hong Kong Chye (Little Hong Kong) or Pok Fu Lam, you’re allowed to feed the umpteen fish and a few turtles that reside here… And they always seem to be up for the bread you can buy (HKD8/loaf) when you rent the boats..
- Two, actually…
It’s quite easy to catch tiddlers along the banks – we just recycled the bags the bread was in…
- Rockstar let them go again…
Why did we let em go? Uh…
1) What else are you going to do with two nondescript baby fish from a reservoir when you have no idea what they could grow up to be? Piranha? Giant catfish that snap at the dog?
2) How are you ever going to justify kidnapping these two from Fish Paradise (giant lake, lotsa eats, plenty friends) and making them live in whatever little plastic container you can find, from which your rockstar will then go HOW AH YOU FISH? MUM!!! WHY AREN’T THEY MOVINGG?? (At least the dog can still voice disapproval, fish are useless at it, they disapprove by dying for no apparent reason. Only solution is don’t keep them.)
3) Speaking of which, I deemed the death rate for our aquarium fish too high, so Kings is forbidden from venturing into Goldfish Street in Mong Kok and coming back with something, anything live for the Rockstar. Rockstar has a virtual fishtank on my iPhone.
4) All pets require the prior approval of current pet and Mum (see above). Though I wouldn’t mind a Gecko. But Kings hates reptiles.
- (Yes we try to include JD in as many family activities as we can… Pics taken on 2 different occasions btw, in case some eagle-eyed reader notices Rockstar is in different clothes)
Anyway current pet took it upon herself to hop off the boat when we got near enough to the far shore… And Kings got really mad…
- No points for initiative… She also got into trouble for disappearing onto the docking area to wait for us while we were getting the bread to feed the fish… This is why she doesn’t do well in obedience events (but is quite good on complicated agility courses)- because she does the whole obedience set before you can give her each instruction for each manouver, “I already know what you are going to want me to do”…
(I mean really, JD is so good at hopping on and off boats from when we used to wakeboard, she barely even got the tips of her paws wet – another time, Kings was really upset because she sat on me for most of the ride so when we got off my Vince navy ankle-length casual summer dress was coated in dog hairs down the front.
The Rockstar says things like, “Mum. You need to make sure there are no more crumbs on the sofa before Daddy comes back/ wakes up otherwise Daddy will scream” (metaphorically, he means). And then when I told Kings, he just smiled absentmindedly while on his laptop, patted the Rockstar on the head and said “Well done Rockstar.” This is my obsessive compulsive husband. )
- One unhappy turtle…
At which point napping Kings – he wasn’t home for dinner a single night last workweek – woke up (there was some commotion over the kidnapped turtle scrabbling about in the boat) and asked “Why was that turtle so stupid?” (To get caught, he means)…
The turtle-nabbers are from Hawaii, they struck up a conversation with us to ask if we were Canadian, because they heard Rockstar and I speaking in English… They were surprised to hear some Malaysians (and also Singaporeans) do speak English as a first language… Hearing that they are vacationing here and stopping by Shanghai next, I ask if they’re traveling alone, at which point they indicate an old-ish couple pedaling about much further away. Wow, wouldn’t have thought they even knew each other, their folks were off pedaling on their own and paying no attention to the turtle nabbing furor…(Note to self when Rockstar becomes a teenager if he still willingly goes on trips with us)
- Feed fish/ feed dog/ feed parent/ steer boat/ giggle
Rockstar has a proud video of the fish taking bread from his fingers (you have to drop a few other little crusts around and then they get so excited they forget Rockstar’s fingers are attached to one of the pieces)
- Back to shore…
- Oh, and here rates
Ps: There’s a sign saying you shouldn’t bring a dog, but JD doesn’t mark, bark, or behave in any other way dog-like beyond walking on all fours and every time we’ve gone people are really nice to her, staff and visitors…
Seems like a very nice place for a family+dog outing. But is it a tourist spot as well? (re: the turtle-nappers from Hawaii)
Not very touristy actually… We’ve been a half dozen times at least, haven’t seen a single ang moh or other noticeably foreign visitors.. The Hawaiians were speaking in Cantonese to the locals btw, tho they spoke American-English to us.. We love that this place doesn’t get too crowded and people often bring small kids… JD’s been with us every time, and the other families get quite a kick out of watching JD navigate on the boat.. Once when she’d jumped off onto the far shore, a local couple (no kid), pedaled over to ask if we needed help getting her back… Not all Hk is like that, we’ve had ppl yell at us on the street, but well in Singapore I really don’t think the dog wud ever be allowed on the boat n parents of little kids would freak out about her… Here she gets “borrowed” quite often by other Hk families who don’t have pets
Seeing how some people and children react towards dogs, they should be taught in schools on how to behave around/towards dogs. JD is such a darling from what you have written so far about him.
Sometimes (but not always) it’s not a lack of education though, it’s people looking for an excuse to bully.. JD is right at the “cut-off size” for HK regulations about muzzling/ leashing.. definition of “large dog” ie requiring tethering is 17kg and up… On a fat day, JD would be 17-ish.. Ironically it’s usually the yappy small, excitable dogs that are more likely to scratch or bite.. But yeah her temperament is really good, usually we have to protect her from rowdier children not the other way round…
Oops, got it that JD is a she. 🙂 Actually it is the temperament, not weight that the regulations should consider. I was once chased by a small, yappy supposedly *adorable* toy dog – I ran because I don’t want to risk being nip at the ankle. Wouldn’t want to resort to kicking that toy dog though.