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!

#5 Dreams

Talking about dreams here in the sleeping sense; as opposed to the aspirations' sort.

I've heard a saying that says dreams are a result of one not working hard enough in the day; that's why our minds wander when we are in deep slumber. If this saying happens to be true, then I've probably never worked that hard in my entire life since I have dreams more often than not for as long as I can remember.

When I was much younger, I dreamt that I had super-powers, that I was constantly being chased by something or someone evil (resulting in me leaping off long flights of steps), that I walked together with dinosaurs, etc. There was one time where I even dreamt that I was 3-months pregnant - this particular one freaked me out quite badly in the dream. And I've had dreams that made me sob in my sleep too; those generally have to do with my family; I dreamt that all my family members turned to stone when I was 10. Found out that I wet the pillow quite badly later when I woke up.

These days, I dream of happier things and times, though some of them can get pretty weird and awkward still. I've met my dream guy(s) in a couple of dreams too, though I can not put names to those faces, not for now anyway - Jenny laughed at me when I told her about it.

And just last night, I dreamt that Dad bought YF and I the cutest Maltese puppy (ever!) from a pet-shop in Hougang but we had it changed to another cute Dachshund instead after agreeing that the hair would be easier to manage. It's never going to happen in real life though, because both Mumsy and Dad are not animal-lovers and they collectively agreed that they would release whatever dog/cat we bring back home into the wild :(

Anyhow, I really enjoy the dreams I'v been having so far. Most of them anyway.
They somehow seem to make sleep a little less boring for me.

Back from Khmer.

As usual, it feels awesome when the plane touchdowns at Changi airport and I know that I'm less than an hour away from my comfy bed and home. It's been an awesome 5 days at the land of Khmer - Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang have been three contrastive places, but still, I'm (always) happy to be back.

Made a realization this trip, and that is, the only times when I go to and get out of bed early are when I'm traveling! That's supposed to be good for me right? Maybe I can use that as an excuse for more traveling :p

While on the buses where long hours were spent on the roads, I managed to finish a first reading of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. And it's managed to make me feel mildly flustered, with the recurring themes of dreams (both the sleeping and aspiration kinds), spirituality, beliefs and love. Out of my disbelief of most things spiritual, I barfed a few times in my mind when the author described scenarios which had a lot to do with religious faith (which is totally inappropriate, I admit and apologize for it). And yet, at the same time, I felt as though I could identify so well with the dreams Santiago (the protagonist) had and some of the mental states of mind that he went through in the book. Something that Paulo wrote about love in the novel also struck a chord with some stuff that's been on my mind recently; stuff that a new friend talked to me about a few days back, and that's made me start to re-think the path that I've set for myself awhile ago. 

It's made me think that perhaps I shouldn't be basing my life for the next few years so rigidly and irrationally on just one path, and not offering myself any alternatives. Who knows, like Santiago, I might just fall head over heels in love with someone whom I'm going to meet in the desert; someone who will not get in my way of living life to the fullest.

Okay, best to stop before this turns into some mushy stuff. 

Pictures coming after I've finished clearing them of the multiple dust spots. Sensor/lenses are dirty as hell.

A happy kind of tired

because holidays are here again!

It's been a long week, long day and I'm just really glad that things are over.

On a slightly irrelevant note, I'm feeling kinda sad about the effects of the late nights this semester :(

Sometimes, all we really need is a short break to clear our minds before we can move on with our lives.

Like an auntie

I miss using Cantonese on a daily basis, however unproficient I may be.

So when I saw a cooking workshop that would be conducted in Cantonese while browsing through PA's website last month, I signed up for it almost immediately; after checking my availability - and ignoring that it'll be held 3 days prior to my last university exam.

There was much joy as I watched how steam escaped quickly and furiously from beneath the bobbing pot lids, smelled pungently aromatic whiffs of garlic and fermented beancurd paste that filled the room, and listened to the sounds of the knife on the chopping board. Hearing Cantonese phonemic syllables roll off the instructor's tongue was somehow comforting too, strangely enough.

It was more of a demonstration since the participants were only involved in the observing of processes (and not getting our hands dirty) and sampling of products at the end of the session. Here are the dishes that were cooked during the session:

#1 玉兰鸡; boiled boneless chicken with ham and kai lan.

#2 腩乳扣肉; pork belly and taro in fermented beancurd paste.

#3 粉葛排骨汤; pueraria with pork ribs and dried oysters.

#4 龙珠果花鸡汤; chicken breast with tofu, carrot and flower of dragon fruit.

I liked the chicken and pork-ribs soup best after trying morsels here and there; they reminded me strongly of grandma's cooking, from which my very first impressions of Cantonese cuisine came about.

Keeping fingers crossed that I'll get down to cooking some of these dishes for my family when the exam is over.

Expectant

Like a pregnant mum who is expecting the arrival of her baby on 23rd (with no complications, of course).

That's exactly how I'm feeling right now; towards 440, that is.

Calm, but not surprisingly.

Giddy with excitement, but not going to count the eggs before they hatch.