A Man after my own heart - The Earth Walker - Paul Coleman

I have the pleasure of going to many motivational speakers and being around very inspiring people. Last night I got the thrill of meeting a person that blew me away.

Paul Coleman and his wife Konomi Kikuchi are absolutely inspiring humans with a clear vision of helping the planet survive - one step at a time.

Since 1990, Paul has walked over 44,000 km through 39 nations, planting trees and encouraging people to preserve the natural environment. Along the way he has delivered an environmental message to all aspects of society, from the jungles of the Amazon to the highlands of Zimbabwe, and even into war; when he walked to Sarajevo to plant a tree on Earthday 1995 during that city's three year siege.

With the help of friends and supporters around the world, millions of trees have been planted. Through these efforts, he hopes to inspire others to actions on behalf of the Earth. Paul's greatest support comes from the people that he meets along the way, who feed and shelter him, thereby enabling him to keep on walking...

If you have the chance to hear Paul speak then take the opportunity. Check out his story at http://www.earthwalker.com

His goal is to plant 100 million trees!!! Lets help him exceed this goal many times over.

Louise and I had the pleasure of sharing his plans for walking from Hong Kong to Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games. His energy and dedication has given us a boost to continue with our dream of helping green Hong Kong.

Bread and Water wrapped in Plastic

Amazed yet again by the lengths we go to to make the basic things complicated and more damaging to the environment.

Bread can not be sold without being encased in a plastic bag - how can it breath?

Water can not be served from a tap though rather from a bottle - how can this be?

Yes both are true based on my experience here in Hong Kong.

I was in a bread shop and watched them bring out beautiful freshly baked bread. Tasting a sample it was bread rather than some of this mass produced bread that is sweat and contains something that means it still has not gone off even after a week in the humidity. Anyhow back to this wonderful bread. They then proceeded to put it into plastic bags and it started steaming up. I asked them why they did not use paper bags. They said they would love to though the food safety authority insists that a loaf of bread must be served in plastic bag. Both the bakery staff and myself still do not understand why a paper bag does not do the same job of protecting the customer as a plastic bag. It is not as though Hong Kong needs more plastic bags!!!

Now to the water experience. I was in a juice bar and asked for a water along with my smoothie. They said I could buy a water from the fridge. I said that I was happy to drink the tap water. The staff then said to me that they were not allowed to serve the tap water to customers as it may not be safe and therefore they recommended I buy bottled water. So while sitting drinking my water from the bottle (yes another plastic item added to the waster for that day) I watched them make my smoothie. In went the ingredients including water from the tap!!! You go figure the difference between me drinking the water by itself and it being added to a cold smoothie.

Next they may be telling me I can not breather the air unless it comes from a plastic bottle or bag. Actually that may be a good thing.

EcoLog04 - 123 days of HK Living

I just can’t believe that we have now been in Hong Kong for four months (123 days)! We have well and truly settled in to our new abode coined “Valley Vision”. It is taking shape rather nicely although there is still an awful lot to do to convert said little house into the style of home that most of you are accustomed to.

I am of course in my absolute element. I just love to be able to get up in the morning and throw a bucket of cold water over myself or wallow in my home made swimming pool…created from a tarp boxed in by the little mud brick wall at the edge of our patio and some strategically placed crates. Louise on the other hand crave a real shower. A girl can only take so much of standing outside under camp solar shower, which she has had laying in the sun for the day or have resorted to topping up with boiling water from the kettle boiled on the gas ring. Our next focus for our home will indeed be a bathroom make over. The facilities currently consist of a closed off area at the end of our kitchen with only a toilet (western style thank goodness) and a hole in the wall where it joins the floor so the water from the shower (when we have one) can flow to the outside. Don’t worry… we have covered the hole with a bit of wire mesh so that the snakes cannot venture in! The local electrician came to quote to put in an electric water heater a month or two back but when the workers were due to actually come and do the work they had a sick day. We tried to arrange for them to come on another day however boss man Mr Mok insisted that he was far too busy and could not tell us when he would not be too busy! I think that we are most certainly far too far up the valley for them to bother coming all this way so we really need to make alternative arrangements.

We would like to focus on a solar heating system and have heard that it is very reasonable to buy this across the border in Shenzhen, however we just have not made the time to investigate this option yet. We are coping with the shower arrangement while the weather is warm but we may have to look at as gas water heater in the interim pretty soon.

We have had a couple of snake encounters around the house recently. One day we came up the steps and had to wait until a Red Necked Keelback decided to move away from our gate slithering under the concrete of the edge of the patio. We looked this snake up in the book and read that it is only venomous when one is bitten by the back fangs not the front! Comforting huh!

The other day when emptying the said swimming pool and there he was again - our little Red Necked Keelback slithering along the edge of the tarp with a great big bulge in his middle. Must have got one of the frogs also enjoying the swimming pool! The other night there was an exquisite baby green snake on the top of our wire netting fence. I looked around for mama and papa and fortunately they were nowhere to be seen. Then to top it all off we had a snake in the house!!! We discovered it before it set up shop inside and encouraged it out the front door. I think it must have come in through the open side door. I have to say that this visit did indeed make me nervous as who is to know that we don’t have other snakes inside the house. I am however choosing to believe that this little chap is the only inside visitor of the snake variety and now that he has vacated all is good!

Summer time in Hong Kong sure is hot. We have lost count of the number of sunny 30+ deg days that we had in a row - about a month’s worth I think. Then the weather turned and we had about a fortnight of hot rainy weather (marginally cooler with the rain). This then culminated in our first experience of a Hong Kong # 8 typhoon. Typhoon Pebuk started heading our way on a Thursday afternoon a week ago but by Friday morning it had passed us by at a only a level 3. It then decided to reverse itself and head back towards us. The typhoon warning had shot up to Level 8 in a very short space of time and by the time Lousie and I meet each other and made it to the ferry terminal all the gates were locked up. We wandered around the side entrance and were very fortunate to be let in a side gate along with about half a dozen others thus managing to be almost the last people on the last ferry to Lantau Island. Nearly had to go knocking on the door of our Kiwi friends Kate and Gary to beg for a bed for the night!!

When a typhoon reaches level 8 status most forms of public transport in Hong Kong just stop. There is absolute chaos in the city with everyone packing up and going home as quickly as possible. The typhoon itself really was a bit of a fizzer. We have experienced better southerly storms in Newlands! The most damage was the amount of debris that we had to negotiate on cycle path while riding up the track to home.

Last Satruday night we were in Mui Wo having dinner with some friends (Alan and Carmen) when the most spectacular thunder storm hit. We sat it out in the restaurant and watched the most fantastic display of fork lightening (forced to stay for chocolate brownies)! When the worst was over cycled up the valley only to find when we arrived home that we had no electricity! Got the Power Company boys up the next morning but the lightening had frazzled the mains switch inside so we had to pay for an electrician to come up and fix the switch.

Some of the pluses we enjoy by living in our bush clad home are the wonderful view, the joy of watching the butterflies go about their business and of listening to the parrot sounding birds, which we have coined the “cheeky chatter birds” playing in the trees around our house.

There are of course one or two challenges, namely the army of ants sneaking in through the gaps around the air con whenever we have happened to leave a smidgeon of food out on the table. The mega centipedes sharing our outside bathroom (that so far have not ventured inside thank goodness) and of course as mentioned before the resident snakes in the neighborhood! I do love our resident geckoes but I’m not so fond of their poo deposits stuck to our white washed walls and ledges. It is fun watching them clean up the ants and mosquitoes though and we especially love watching the midget baby geckoes learning the tricks of being a gecko from their elders. Watched one crawling across the ceiling to then fall 2 stories onto the tiled floor. Sat for a few seconds and then crawled off. That must be like one of us falling off the Sky Tower and then walking away!

We had a trip to Macau this week. Louise’s last visit to Macau was 10 years ago and boy has the place changed. Buildings springing up everywhere, mainly new casinos and hotels to support the influx of tourists coming to the Vegas of the east for a flutter! We spent a bit of time (not money) people watching in the casinos. Spending time in casinos is neither of our cups of tea but clearly the Chinese absolutely love it with bus loads coming in from the mainland. We did a bit of a walking tour around the old town visiting some of the churches, Chinese mansions and the light house on the top of Gaia Hill and found a rather cute little café called Café Chocolat which was as the name suggests a good place to visit.

XL Hong Kong is going really well. We have managed to organize some great speakers and have had lots of positive comments about our networking events by both XL Life Members and guests.

The Ark Eden project has gone a little quite at the moment as it is summer holidays therefore Jenny has not been running her environmental projects for kids. We are currently waiting on the Ark Eden Charity to be formed. This should be organized soon and once this is up and running we can start applying for grants and really move ahead on some of the concepts of the project.

We do have spare beds in our Little House so would welcome visitors anytime. We offer a bed and breakfast opportunity to anyone traveling through Hong Kong. Rather than staying in a hotel you get to stay with “locals” that can give you a different accommodation experience. You may of course wish to wait until that bathroom makeover has happened!!

Summer in Hong Kong

Well after over 3 weeks of beautiful hot summer weather, with blue skies without smog you could start asking yourself why all the talk about poor air quality in Hong Kong.

The government is claiming the superb weather is due to the changes that they have implemented and the difference in how businesses are now working.

The environmentalist’s are saying that the prevailing winds have meant that the pollution is being blown away from Hong Kong.

I will leave you to decide whether it is “word of change” or “winds of change” that have made the sudden difference!

While we may be baking under the heat it is with concern that nearby parts of China have either been flooded or are still in severe drought. In addition, probably having to cope with the wind blowing towards them with the air that Hong Kong is missing.

I agree it is very warm walking in 30 degree heat. We do that each day and you certainly do not need to go to the gym! What I am surprised to hear is the number of people that say they are just going to stay at home or head to the air-conditioned malls for their day. They say we will visit Mui Wo once the weather is cooler. How sad to miss such a wonderful time of the year when you can be sitting in the shad of a tree at say the Pui-O beach having a nice cold drink from the local restaurant. This is what summer is all about. They are also missing the chance to “see” Hong Kong with the clear skies.

Louise and I have enjoyed a beer at sunset a couple of times in the last few weeks. These have been at Mui Wo beach watching a beautiful moon rise, the Central Ferry pier and on our patio of our house with friends. Come and visit Mui Wo on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It is very different to what the central Hong Kong.

If you are in part of the world with summer then get out and enjoy the heat. Those in winter are probably huddled around a fire to keep warm and are dreaming of a summer holiday.

Live your day with what you have. It is your choice!

EcoLog03 - 55 Days since leaving NZ

Hello To One & All

Well on Fri 1st June it was 55 days since we left NZ to start our new life adventure here in Hong Kong. I know that because Louise and I have both been keeping a diary – yep it is the first time in my life that I have regularly recorded daily happenings.

Life in our valley in Mui Wo, Hong Kong is certainly quite different to our life style in NZ. We are still staying at Jenny’s. The main reason for this is that Henry only moved out of our Little House at the top of the valley on Sunday 27 May and then the following Wednesday we headed to Singapore to attend the National Achievers Congress (with over 5000 other people). It was great to experience a conference with such a large number of people attending. XL Results Foundation was the main sponsor so we had complimentary tickets which we were then able to upgrade to Gold status (almost front row seats) via Les, our Hong Kong XL Country Manager who has become a bit of a National Achievers Congress groupie having attended every year for the past 7 years!

There were 11 awesome speakers at the congress the most notable for me being Mark Victor Hansen who recently joined XL as a USA Life Member and is best selling author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series and “One Minute Millionaire” (which I have read and greatly enjoyed). T. Harv Eker who wrote “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” whom I found a great speaker but was put off by his 45 minute hard sell at the end of his 1.5hr speaking slot! Andrew Matthews who wrote “Being Happy” and “Follow Your Heart” - which I also recommend as a good read, Roger Hamilton who as the founder of XL Results Foundation and who as always gave an inspirational presentation, and perhaps the surprise of the event for me was James Skinner who had a very similar philosophy to what XL stands for….i.e. You are the author of what you want out of your life so to quote the XL mantra - Show up, Step up, Give back!

We were fortunate to have been able to stay with Irene and Rahim in Singapore. They are fellow XL Life Members and have a very cool condo complete with balcony and roof top gardens that they have landscaped with wooden pavers, rocks and tropical plants. The jacuzzi and a Balinese bale complete the look on the roof top garden. What a great place this was to chill out when we were not at the conference.

Singapore was very hot and muggy. You would think that I would have been acclimatized after 35°+ temps and 80 – 90+% humidity here in Hong Kong, but I have to say that Singapore topped HK. Having said that I am far more comfortable in hotter climes than the NZ winter that I believe is just starting to set in now!

I am happy to report that Louise has not fallen off her bike for several weeks! She did have spate of tumbles in the first couple of weeks but appears to have mastered the chicanes down the bottom of the path (where she managed to gracefully roll off her bike and into the bog on one occasion). Louise admitted that even though this may not have looked too good to any bystanders (Jenny was the only witness) it had to be the softest landing I have had so far!

We are moving into Little House at the Top of The Valley sooooon. While we were in Singapore we employed Nancy and Ron, (Jenny’s Pilipino helpers) to clean the house for us. Louise had spent 3 hours removing the first layer of dirt and they then spent a full day giving the place a really good spruce up. We are now investigating where we can buy paint from to give it a good lick and polish before we move in. Seems to be one down side living on the outlying islands! Most of the good deals for paint etc are either in Wanchai on Hong Kong Island or in Mongkok on Kowloon Peninsula so you always have a bit of drama in ferrying stuff home!

The place is really shaping up well though. It is going to be very cool when we have revamped the house and garden. It really is beautiful looking down the valley, especially at the moment with the flame trees flowering. We have had some really clear days here lately too. The smog has blown away so the almost permanent haze disappeared over the last couple of days. You can even see Aberdeen from Mui Wo, which believe me is saying something!

Living at the top of the valley does have some small challenges. It is of course a bit of a trek to Mui Wo to bring the groceries up to the house. Roll on the day we can employ our own Filipino helpers to do the domestic chores! There are also a lot of bugs sharing our house and garden with us too. We don’t mind the geckoes residing in the house but Louise was a bit perturbed when she managed to encourage a rather large spider out of the main door only to have it shoot back in through the side door! There are super sized cockroaches and other bugs too…not to mention the mozzies that we have a daily battle with! But these are really small challenges when I weight up the pluses of not having to drive to an office each day and being able to work from our home eco-environment doing what we love to do!

As always it is good to hear how everyone is getting on so keep in touch.

EcoLog02 - The move from NZ to Hong Kong

Hi to you all

Our little valley here in Hong Kong is all that we imagined. From 6.30am all the birdies are twittering away. Jenny (whose home we are living in) has very kindly given up her room for us. We can look out of the window at the trees surrounding the house and foggy hill tops. It is all very green with splashes of red from the bougainvillea and hibiscus flowers with many colourful butterflies flittering by. Mr Magpie has already woken and is hassling pussy cat that sleeps on the balcony. They play a game where cat gets fed, magpie stalks food. Magpie seems to have the upper hand. He wouldn’t if it was Mr Bo and Humphrey (our fluffy monsters in New Zealand) were out there defending there food!

We now have our very own transport. Yes our own mountain bikes! In the first couple of days here we did a bicycle tour of Mui Wo. It is a nice little village of about 4000 people, which has its focus at the ferry/bus terminal where there is a massive bike park for all the locals whose only form of transport is pedal power, as the road across Lantau Island ends at Mui Wo. Have checked out the local supermarket, bar and café are – all the important places. Looped around the market and discovered the flower shop and a fantastic book shop. Cycling up the valley is a bit of a workout. The homeward journey is not too steep but has three distinct “ups” that you need to negotiate. No need to frequent the gym. All the cycling and walking exercise is going to keep us fit.

Jenny has 5 dogs that all spend most of their day sleeping in the yard. They are various sizes with Belle the little pug the most lovable. Charlie the pig has a wonderful new house. Since moving into the kid’s pink dolls house he has become a very lazy pig – not keen at all to say hello now that he has no need to move from his salubrious accommodation except at meal times!

Jenny has two teenage children who live at home along with Nancy and Ron, Jenny’s Filipino helpers who do all the cooking, cleaning and home maintenance. Our day generally starts with business activities that can be attended to from our “home office” then in the afternoon it may be time to go into HK Central to catch up with people at our own XL networking events or spend time at other organizations’ networking events. Today we also worked with Jenny on an environmental project where Year 2 school kids came into the valley to learn about organic farming. Yes it is a pretty idyllic life style!

Yesterday we had a good poke around our little house at the top of the valley. It is a very cool place and we are looking forward to having real fun decorating and setting it up.

EcoLog01 - Why move to Hong Kong

Why Hong Kong?

Three key reasons

1) A Business

We have been involved with XL Results Foundation, an entrepreneur's coaching network since 2004. A year ago we took on the license to run XL in Hong Kong and Macau. Now we are heading over to really get this business rocking. The business is about helping people grow their businesses so that they can then have more resources available to donate to charities.

Another core part of the organization is what is called Wealth Dynamics, a personality profiling system that shows you your path of least resistance for generating wealth. For more info on the profiling check out http://www.wealthdynamics.org/ and to learn about XL head to http://www.resultsfoundation.com/

2) A Conservation Project

For those of you who know about Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington (http://www.sanctuary.org.nz/) or the Eden Project in the UK (http://www.edenproject.com/), we are setting up a similar type of project on Lantau Island called Ark Eden on Lantau (http://www.arkedenonlantau.com/).

The basis of it is working with 2 other people who as teachers now have children come to the village of Mui Wo to plant trees and learn about nature conservation. We are going to assist this through providing eco-tourism ventures such as accommodation, bush walks and cultural tours.

3) A Change

We were thinking of going off on a big OE trip as a holiday. Then thought why not make it a working one where we are working on our own businesses rather than working just for money and not necessarily in areas that we are passionate about.

The business and conservation projects both really excite us hence why we can not wait to get to Hong Kong.

So what does that mean for us...
You will have to read the EcoLog's of our journey!

Grow well
Merrin and Louise
The Ecopreneurs

Connecting Asian Ecopreneurs

Welcome to the Asian blogspot for connecting Ecopreneurs!

I value your time and realise that as an Ecopreneur you are in a very exciting position.

For those of you who are not familiar with the goals of an Ecopreneur, they are based around the vision, and action, of connecting businesses with nature conservation. Put another way, there is no point in businesses making huge profits if their process for making those profits result in their shareholders (and fellow citizens) not having a beautiful world in which to enjoy their success.

The excitement comes from seeing the growing change in the business community to further support the health of our planet.

As an Ecopreneur in the Asian region I would love to hear how you are assisting the goals of ecopreneurship and to be connected with those people and businesses that you know who are making a real difference to the environmental health of people and nature.

Merrin Pearse
Asia's Number 1 Ecopreneur