Lamma Island

Last weekend marked the 3 year anniversary of me and Hoi Yee spending inordinate amounts of time together and so to celebrate we decided to head out to one of Hong Kong’s numerous outlying islands. In fact Hong Kong has more than 260 outlying islands, many of which are uninhabited but we decided to head to Hong Kong’s third largest island (after Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island itself), Lamma Island.

Our day started with bacon and eggs on toast, a very unusual breakfast for here, replacing our usual weekend morning/lunch meal of either Tzuk (Congee) or Dim Sum. As a side cultural note, it’s actually difficult here in Hong Kong to buy bread with the end crusts. Most “loaves” here are actually half loaves with the ends cut off, probably only 7 slices in total.

Anyway, after breakfast we slowly got ready and headed to Central Pier where a lot of the boats / ferries to outlying islands depart from. Once aboard it was a short trip around the western edge of Hong Kong Island to reach Yung Shue Wan. It’s a very peaceful harbour town, built right along the edge of the water. Hong Kong’s only wind turbine peeks over the horizon and looks as out of place as I did at the ‘Hello Kitty Secret Garden’ which, incidentally, I went to last year.

It took me a while to realise that there aren’t any actual roads here, no cars, just narrow paved walkways. This is hammered home as we watch a mini-sized ambulance part the crowds on its way to somewhere. It’s actually kind of refreshing to think that there’s no cars here but the stacks from Hong Kong Electric’s Power Station (also peeking over the horizon) stop me from becoming too wistful. A quick tour along the main street nets Hoi Yee a handful of hippie-esk jewellery and a new bag, all I might add at surprisingly low prices for a touristy hotspot. We chow down some silken tofu that was okay, but not the best ever and return to our wandering. You’re actually able to walk to the village on the other side of the island and take a returning ferry from there but time was running out so we headed back to the ferry we arrived on stopping only to down a pint of bear-zuo (coke for HY, the waitress had never head of a ‘lemon, lime and bitters’), that’s beer for all you gweilo out there.

After returning to central we decided that instead of the separate Japanese noodles and post-dinner karaoke we had planned, we should follow the examples of chocolate and orange or car and boat, and combine the two. This ended up more along the lines of the second example, as eating while singing caused not so great crooning and the food was just plain not that great. Cultural note: Karaoke in Cantonese is called Cheung Ka-la-o-kay (basically “sing karaoke”) which (because Hong Konger’s are notoriously lazy with their own language) is usually shortened to Cheung kay, leading to a combined karaoke / dinner being called “kay buffet”. Karaoke here is quite an experience in itself and one that I thoroughly recommend, although in the future, I think I’m going to stick to separate singing and dining.

Peace out,

Joe

Hong Kong's only wind turbine peeking over the hill


Obligatory anniversary couple photo


Sunset over the harbour in Yung Shue Wan