Lamma Island Outing! 南丫島

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'.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival! 長洲包山節

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).

Thailand - Part 4: Chiang Mai

The next morning was yet another early day; the four of us had to pack our bags, check out of the hotel, and get aboard the bus to take us to our first tour destination. The transportation was not exactly what I in mind - somehow, I thought there would be a cushy small tour van that would take us to place to place, but instead, we find ourselves in the back of a truck-like taxi vehicle, where we sat on benches along with 6 other people. I didn't mind it though (until one of the benches broke down...but we'll get to that later) :P

Our first stop was a butterfly/orchid farm. In my opinion, it was kind of disappointing. The orchids were indeed pretty and fragrant, but I didn't really know enough about orchids to tell the difference between this one and the other :S. The butterfly farm appeared to have only 1 butterfly. To our horror, the facility used heavy metal chains in the doorway to brutally stop (and kill) any butterfly that attempts to fly though through the "door". It really wasn't very pleasant stepping through the killer metal chains.

Jordan sniffing the orchids.

Another type of orchids

Jean and I posing with the beautiful flowers!

A nice lady took a picture for the two of us

Some of the tourists were more enthralled with the cat

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail - A step into the past

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail is literally a step into the far past. Not far, far past in terms of China's history, but far back in terms of Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Located up by Tuen Mun MTR station, it's a completely different place, exactly the type of thing we'd been looking to find since we got here.


We got up in late morning and had our breakfast and met up with Chris, and began our MTR journey to get up to Fanling station. It's one of the very farthest stations from our east side of Kowloon, so it was quite a journey. Probably took almost almost an hour to get there! Once we arrived in Tuen Mun, we hopped on another little mini-bus and made up way up into the hills to find the heritage trail. Upon landing, the first realization we make is how spread out and new the houses look. Some of the houses look like they were built in the last 5 years. The siding is new, the metal railings are shiny. We're supposed to be looking for an ancient heritage trail, yet our first observation is brand new housing developments. The mysterious double story of Hong Kong history arises again.


Our very first stop is a map board that clearly declares the beginning of the trial. It is standing in the small courtyard of Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, just a stone's throw from 6 tenant apartment building where a man is washing his patio. Here on Google maps. An old man is sitting in the courtyard, chatting away in Cantonese into a mobile phone, dispelling all conception that this area has been left forgetting by Father time. We look to the map board and see a description about the early walled settlements built by the Tang clan, one of the first clans to move into Hong Kong, settle, and proliferate themselves in history by the construction of walled villages, or "Wai", 圍)

 The Map showing the different wai

Outside Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall 

Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau

It was another cloudy day in Clear Water Bay in Hong Kong. We were hoping for a bit of sun, but the slight fog definitely wasn't going to dampen our spirits. We were headed to a new place for adventure today - Aberdeen!

  

Jordan by the ferry boats

Now, the name 'Aberdeen' to Vancouverites means a shopping mall in Richmond, but it had quite a different meaning here. Aberdeen in Hong Kong is know for their fishing and seafood industry, as well as more tourist geared places such as floating restaurants. The public transit trip there took quite a while - approximately an hour and a half, but we enjoyed the ride as we talked to our fellow exchange friend, Chris, about school, Hong Kong, a bit of philosophy and lots of food.

Sai Kung weekend: Seafood and hiking

Ended up in Sai Kung twice this weekend. Saturday night was a seafood adventure. We got off the bus and walked around looking for restaurants to eat at. Found this one place and managed to get a pretty reasonable price for an amazing dinner. Initially found out that the prices were generally high in the area following the period of Chinese New Year. Finished dinner and went around for a walk. Found their "Temple Square" where a large bamboo stage was built for a traditional Chinese Opera, which was about to start. We ran across the street to one of the three 7-11's that we saw in Sai Kung and bought some beers and went back to enjoy one of the acts in the show.
We didn't have a very Cantonese dinner group so we didn't stay at the Opera for long, but we were there long enough to admire their intricate costumes. Walked further around Sai Kung and found some of the larger restaurants with their fish tanks - the ones that you point at a lobster and get to have it steaming on your table 20 minutes later.

 Beautiful Scallops dish