VIBErations podcast Ep 35. Pete Spurrier at VIBE Book & Music Shop in Mui Wo on Lantau Island in HK on 16th October 2021

https://www.blacksmithbooks.com

BIO

Pete Spurrier is the author of three guidebooks for exploring Hong Kong’s wild and interesting places: the Serious Hiker’s Guide to Hong Kong, the Leisurely Hiker’s Guide and the Heritage Hiker’s Guide. He arrived in Hong Kong by happy accident in 1993, at the end of a journey along the Silk Road through all the newly independent ‘Stans’, which he only embarked upon after an old man in Greece gave him a decades-old map of Central Asia. He ran out of money, when he crossed into northwest China, but another stranger told him that he could probably find work in Hong Kong, so he hopped on and off trains to get across the country to Lo Wu.

He has had many jobs, including acting in TVB dramas, managing an unlicensed restaurant, teaching Vietnamese boatpeople and editing a free magazine. Nowadays he runs Blacksmith Books, which has published more than 100 titles on Hong Kong, focusing on culture, history and the life stories of its people. The first flat he rented in Hong Kong was in Silvermine Bay, and he still returns to Lantau for the hiking.

10 Questions….

1. Favourite book or author? - 'Down & Out in Paris & London' by George Orwell

2. Favourite musical artist? - David Bowie

3. Preferred drink? - Guinness

4. Life motto? – ‘Prior Preparation prevents piss poor performance’

5. Favourite HK walk? - 8 Peaks on Kowloon side or Fan Lau to Tai O

6. Favourite HK restaurant? - Taj Mahal in Chungking mansions

7. Faced with a python whilst walking up to the Peak, what would you do? - Freeze and then walk backwards very slowly and move away

8. Best advice you were given? – “Why don’t you go to HK - you could probably find a job there”

9. Finish this sentence… I live in Hong Kong because… Because all my friends are here…

10. Favourite area of Hong Kong? - Sai Kung