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!