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).

Sha Tin - A Day of Culture, Heritage and Snoopy

This day, Feburary 26th, was a planned day. Jordan and I had discussed exploring around Sha Tin area for a while, and we invited a few friends that we knew that liked to explore. So on Sunday morning, Chris, Nigel, Jean, Jordan and I congregated at the Sundial at HKUST and left campus for a day of sightseeing. The weather was better than I expected - the whole week had been foggy, wet and misting. But today, it was relatively dry, and quite fogless. I was happy.

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 

Taiwan Adventure Journal - Day 6!

So this is Jordan's first time delving into the lengthy writing process of our Taiwan, so spare me if these entries aren't as well written as Melody's :P

Day 6, aka Jan 22, was the day we went to the mythical Taipei 101. Please note that this is also Chinese New Year's Eve.

The first thing to know about Taipei and a lot of Asia in general, is that Chinese New Year is not a big street party. It's a time when people get time off work to go home and take care of their family, see relatives they haven't seen in a while, and generally eat a lot of food. That said, all that family time means that a lot of food stalls and attractions are actually not open. For this reason, we had to leave the morning comfort of our Taipei hotel room to get our breakfast for the first of 3 or 4 days where the city was very quiet in many different areas.

This particular morning, we got some Chinese baking and some noodles for breakfast.

 This is how dead the malls are on CNY Eve

Taiwan Adventure Journal - Day 5!

January 21st was actually one of my favourite days, simply because we ate such amazing food. All the food we had was pretty amazing already, but today was EPIC. My uncle and dad picked us up from the hotel, and we set off to Tam Shui (淡水). A more proper translation is actually Danshui). The first stop was at a temple called Guandu Temple 關渡宮. This temple is a Tao temple, so there were many different statues of different gods that they worship. Like many other temples, this one was very beautiful as well! It was special in the way that it was very large; the part we entered in was where people would practice and light inscents. We walked up the stairs and onto the look out area, where we can see a majestic view of the infamous red bridge that brings people into Tamshui. Before this bridge existed, people had to take the ferry over to get into this town. As we progressed further into the temple, there was a park and garden area where people can relax enjoy the beautiful view. We didn't have much time to spend around the garden area, because we were actually on a schedule today, but it was nice to enjoy the calm, serene part of the Guandu temple.

 Outside GuanDu Temple

Taiwan Adventure Journal - Day 4!

January 20th is another packed and fun-filled day! Both my uncle and my dad were busy in the morning/afternoon, so it was Jordan's and my first adventure out into the BUSY STREETS OF TAIPEI BY OURSELVES! Dun dun dun. My brother told me of this awesome area where they sell a lot of stuff for crafts, beading and DIY (Do it yourself) stuff, so we decided to set that as one of our destination points. We did a bit of researching on how to get there, and set off explore the city!
Fortunately (and amazingly perhaps?), we did not get lost and we ended up in the middle of many DIY and beading stores. We shopped around for a couple hours, got a few awesome crafts stuff (Jordan got some too!) and starting heading back to the MTR (subway) station. BUt we realized how hungry we were, so we followed our hungry stomachs to the smell of yummy street food. It was the first time we looked for street food without my dad or uncle's help! We ended up eating some awesome fish cakes, dried stewed beef noodles and also so dumpling-like pancakes. Our next stop was the Long Shan Temple (龍山寺), because Jordan really likes looking at the different temples. It is right beside an MTR station, which is really convenient. I love the Taipei MTR! There is just so much to do at many of the MTR stations, and the MTR is so fast, efficient and cheap.

 Food stand 1!