The Squat Rack, Maybe

Hong Kongers are quick to advise you to take up swimming if you want to keep fit.

That's all well and good but for one problem: the public pools are not all that attractive; not because they're ill-maintained, but because people occasionally decide they're the perfect place to throw up or relieve themselves. Yes, even of excrement.

Yuck.

Any time someone poops in the pool, it's either drained, cleaned and refilled; or worse, someone fishes out the doody and then the pool is superchlorinated.

Double yuck.

Sometimes folks ask me why I don't swim in the seas around Hong Kong, and it's for much the same reason. In fact the Environmental Protection Department just downgraded the popular surfing spot known as Big Wave Bay because of excessive E. coli bacteria, which means in essence that the area is a giant toilet. That's not to say there aren't cleaner beaches, but I can't be bothered having to check the EPD's web site to learn which faraway beach has the least amount of human waste in it.

I also can't be bothered to locate private pools for which I'd have to pay high fees to access. But I do like to keep fit, so instead I go to the gym.

At least there I'm unlikely to encounter a turd by the free weights.

← Older Posts · 早前 | →