Long island

While on exchange, I had a three-day school week and plenty of time to explore Hong Kong. So I decided to make my way down to Cheung Chau (長州) on a very random note, after realizing that this is the place where McDull (麥兜), that cute cartoon pig, learnt how to climb a 包山 during the annual Bun Festival from his bald sifu. The island is said to be nicknamed "dumb-bell island" because of its shape.

Anyhow, there were no 包山s around when I was there; the festival is held annually in May (I think), but there were quite a number of people around, both visitors and islanders, and I did have a good time doing the long stretch of coastal walk. The island is not exactly big, but it'd have been much wiser of me to have rented a bicycle to cover more areas in that short afternoon.

And here are some pictures from nearly a year ago:

#1 Berthed - Some of the remaining fishing fleet of the island.

#2 Ladies speak up.

#3 BB Kill indeed!

#4 Water-front dining; lots of seafood restaurants here

#5 View from the coastal walk

#6 Tried to imagine what it'd be like to do a beach start here.

#7 Just a couple of 師奶 who just went grocery shopping

#8 It was nice to stop by the lovely beaches to watch the waves wash ashore and feel the sea breeze in my face

#9 Can't help but wonder if this angler went home with any catch(es) at the end of the day

#10

#11 Tricycles for rent; it seemed fairly common for couples to rent this while I was there

#12 Moody-looking sea

#13 The weather was just starting to turn warm then

#14 This should be (not verified) a karang guni uncle/auntie's home; it was felt a little strange (and maybe eerie too) to see this soft-toy at the entrance of some sort of courtyard with many other old things lying around - partly due to Mandarin oldies playing in the backdrop too.

#15 A rather unfamiliar nursery rhyme on magpies that someone shared with me sometime back:

One for sorrow 

Two for joy

Three for a girl

Four for a boy

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven for a secret, never to be told

Eight for a wish 

Nine for a kiss

Ten for a bird you must not miss

#16 Long Island's Hachiko?

#17 Out-of-operation

#18 Looks deserted, but it's not

#19 Modern-day kampong?

#20 Looking out to sea

#21 Island fire brigade; entrance shutters

#22 How the locals get to their boats (that are berthed a distance from land); by using a raft made of jerry cans and pulling themselves forward!

#23 Near sunset

#24 Sun is setting, sun is setting

#25 Derelict would be an appropriate word to describe it

#26 Sunset sea 

#27 Friendly couple I met on the island; the wife was on one of those tricycles and offered me a lift to the other side of the island. The lady shared with me some of her life stories; notably events that led to her Christian beginnings before we arrived at the other side where her hubby was. We took a picture on their film camera too.

The pace of life on Cheung Chau's vastly different from what you can get on mainland Hong Kong; much more laid-back in comparison. I reckon this car-less island (they use some other sort of small motorized vehicle) makes a good place to explore for tourists who've been to HK one time too many and think that the Hong Kong is all about skyscrapers and over-crowding human beans. I'd love to have a meal at one of those sea-front seafood restaurants in my subsequent visits.

Hong Kong's Venice

After some extremely lucky sightings of white dolphins, we reached Tai O not too long after. 

Some background information:

Tai O is a quiet and (slightly) sleepy fishing village that's located on the western side of Lantau Island (大嶼山, better known as the island with that giant Buddha statue) and has stilt houses that were built in the past to avoid rising tides. Tourists who drop by this part of the island usually leave with widely-sold island-made preserved fish and other dried seafood products.

We were given about 2 - 3 hours to walk around this small village and here's some of the things that we saw:

#1 Eagles - a common sight in this part of HK

#2 Fishing vessels docked near the jetty

#3 Still Lantau Island, I think

#4 Aud

#5 Strings of dried fish maw hanging at a shopfront

#6 Dried shrimps

#7 Yvonni with her malt-candy biscuit (麥芽餅)

#8 Doris and Aud; that was the best 麥芽餅 I had when I was in HK btw - I think it's the crackers

#9 Pearls for you?

#10 Narrow streets of Tai O; this very same street was flooded (slightly higher than ankle-level) when we had to head back to the jetty

#11 Old-school letter boxes

We ventured a little deeper into the village and came across a man feeding some ginger tabbies with steamed fish.

#12 A whole family of ginger tabbies

#13 Probably one of Yvonni's worst nightmares hehe

#14 The man told us that one particular cat (who came to feed only much later) is always behaving like the leader of the group, and they nicknamed it King.

#15 Ancestral worship hall?

#16

#17 This is where things start to look a little like Venice

#18 Belonging of a biker would-be

#19 More narrow streets; way too narrow for any motor vehicle to pass through

#20 Duct-tape reinforced windows

#21 This is how I nua.

#22 Everyday I'm shuffling

#23 Annoying dog - different dog from the first

#24 Same annoying dog

#25 Ancient-looking house

#26 Matching blue

#27 It's not exactly the same as Italy's Venice, but I can see why they would call this Hong Kong's Venice.

#28 Drying kum quats

#29 Fish? Or squid?

#30 More dried fish maw

#31 Salted fish; I saw many visitors leaving the island with these wrapped in newspapers

#32 Salted egg yolks; is that salt I see?

#33 I would really like to know what this strange place is all about.

#34 Shared a cheesecake snack; the remnants

#35 Cheesecake cafe

When it was nearly time for us to head back to the jetty, we came across this old man who was selling 炭燒雞蛋仔 - of course we had to try it!

#36 Uncle hard at work.

#37 Filling the mould with batter

#39 I just realized that this uncle is quite famous after doing a search on 炭燒雞蛋仔 online; apparently he's one of the last few people in Hong Kong who still makes 雞蛋仔 this way.

#40 Scrapping excess bits of waffle from the sides

#41 And this has got to be the most delicious 雞蛋仔 that I've ever eaten in my life. If you ever come to Tai O someday, don't forget to try this!

I had such a good time hanging out with the girls, and looking at a different way of life that Hong Kong's got to offer. Totally glad that I decided to tag along for Audrey's field trip!