I woke groggily, stumbled as quietly around as I could without waking up my roommate, grabbed my toiletries and opened my door while rubbing my half closed eyes.
Sunshine poured in from the window across from our room. The view of the mountains from the balcony was clear, in HD and beautiful. Instantly I felt awake, and thought myself crazy that I wanted a few more moments in bed. Besides, we were going on an adventure today - to Lamma Island!
Lamma Island is the third largest island in Hong Kong, behind Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island. It is located southwest of HK island, and a 20 minute ferry ride from there. The island boasts great seafood, relaxing atmosphere and beautiful beaches! According to Wikipedia, the name 'Lamma' was given because of the shape of the island - it resembles a fork of a tree. In Chinese, Lamma Island is called 南丫. The first character 南 means south and the second character 丫...is not really a character in Chinese. However, it is still used and is pronounced as 'ah'. Lamma Island can also be translated to 'Southern Peninsula'.
The legendary Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a special day full of dancing lions, street food that allure tourists and locals alike...and buns. Lots of lots of buns. Buns all shapes and sizes, made from many materials (although you wouldn't want to eat the plastic ones really).
Although this day isn't part of our exchange trip to Hong Kong, I thought it would still be proper to include it here. After all, our exchange blog is about our travels to different countries in the world and once upon a time, I was a traveler to Canada :) This country is such a special place to me and I'd like to wish her a happy birthday while writing a bit of my own reflections!
My family and I immigrated to Canada in 1993; I was a wee three year old kid, unaware of the giant life change ahead of me. Due to his business, my father had to say back in Asia while my mom supported us here in Canada. It was difficult; although I couldn't comprehend it then, I now know the struggles my mother had to go through to raise 3 young toddlers while holding a job on the side. The three of us were lucky in that our mother is a strong and intelligent woman and gave up very much to provide us with the best childhood possible. We were also lucky that we were able to see family, such as our grandparents and father, every so often so we weren't completely apart from our dear ones.
