Rocking Out

I’m starting to think that the people in the “alternative sports” industry are enjoying watching me make a fool of myself at various activities, because last weekend I found myself in an industrial estate in San Po Kong at the invitation of Just Climb Bouldering Gym to have a go at rock climbing. Actually, I think I did pretty well, bearing in mind that my last experience with rock climbing was at age 12 on school camp in Sai Kung and I couldn’t get more than a foot off the ground. Just Climb is set up on the ground floor of a factory building, and offers several climbing walls of varying degrees of difficulty. Most of them are around 12 feet high, and you can choose to either scramble up to the top, or if you want a bit of a challenge, take different routes where the hand- and footholds you’re allowed to use are clearly marked. Climbing enthusiast M—whom I brought along as an instructor/chauffeur—was impressed by the facilities, which he said were very technical and allowed you to practice overhangs, corners, finger holds and even hanging upside-down on the trickiest wall, a cave-like yellow construction for only the most hardcore climbers. I also liked how you can hire shoes there, as you have to BYO at most private walls. Danny, the founder, is a climbing enthusiast himself and has competed at many events around Asia—including at the annual Cheung Chau Bun Scramble. Just Climb is clearly a labor of love, and judging by the comfortably busy pace of enthusiastic customers on a Saturday morning, he’s more than doing his bit to raise the profile of the sport. Just Climb has a $20 joining fee, and you have to take an hour-long safety course ($100) before you can drop in and start climbing. After that, it’s $78 for a day pass, $300 for a monthly pass, $870 for a season pass, $1,700 for a half-year pass or $3,200 for a one-year pass. Roughly half-price for under-18s. Just FYI, if you’re driving, you can’t access via Prince Edward Road East; you need to go around the back of the building where you’ll find a $10 per hour car park.
Room D, G/F, Prince Industrial Building, 706 Prince Edward Rd. East, San Po Kong, 3561-7868, www.justclimb.hk.

Sugar Sweet

I had a $1,000 Lane Crawford gift card from a birthday burning a hole in my wallet, and so I decided that it was high time I bit the bullet and bought something. Trouble is, a grand doesn’t get you far if you don’t believe that $6,000 (original price $7,000) is an acceptable price to pay for shoes. So where do you go in Lane Crawford when you can’t afford their fashion, homewares or accessories? The cosmetics department, of course! And what does a beauty columnist buy for herself when money (well, up to $1,000) isn’t an issue? A gigantic tub of Fresh’s brown sugar body polish. This is absolutely the best scrub I’ve tried. It’s made with sugar (obvi) rather than salt, and so doesn’t sting the way salt-based ones can. It’s also oil-based with a combination of evening primrose, sweet almond, apricot kernel, citrus and jojoba, so not only do the big brown sugar crystals stick to your skin, the oils lock in moisture and leave you super soft in the way that you can only usually get by hitting up a spa for a pro-scrubdown. Yes, it’s pricey at $600, but that’s what gift vouchers are for, right?
Available from Lane Crawford, 3 Canton Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2118-3428.

Email me at sfung@asia-city.com.hk, or follow me on Twitter: @sarahefung