We just had another 3 day weekend due to a holiday on Monday. It's unbelievable; Hong Kong gets like 15 public holidays. Anyways, on Saturday, we decided to go to Cheung Chau, one of the outlying islands surrounding Hong Kong. It takes only a 30 min ferry ride to get there, so it makes for a nice day trip. From our ferry, we saw another high speed ferry which was impressive. It had these fins on the bottom of the boat, one at the front and two in the back. They somehow lifted the boat completely out of the water, so the main hull wasn't even touching. Consequently, it went really fast. I've never seen a ferry like it.
We went with our friends Mike and Tina and had a wonderful time. The island is known for hiking, beaches, seafood, and a relaxed atmosphere. We didn't do too much hiking, as Tina is about 5 months pregnant, but we had a blast doing everything else! First on the to do list was to snack it up. This is Mike eating some fish balls. They are much better than they sound and look. Basically they grind up fish and add some flour, so the inside is all white with a smooth texture. Then they fry it and add different spices, such as spicy, curry etc. Not my favorite snack, but not bad either! Mike loved them, however.
Tina's favorite snack (and mine too) were these mini tarts, straight out of the oven. They were about the size of a silver dollar, so you couldn't feel too bad eating them :)
We also tried what I call chips on a stick. They aren't individual slices of potato, but one continuous twirl, which made it fun to break apart and eat. Also added were spices and salt. Not sure what is more unhealthy for you, chips on a stick, or chips in a bag? Maybe chips in a bag because there are more of them?
We didn't try this snack, but the island is actually famous for its large buns filled with things like red bean paste, lotus seed paste, water chestnut, or corn. Every year in May, the island has their own bun festival, where they build a tower made from these buns and young men from the local village climb the tower to see who can reach the tallest bun. We are going to have to go back next May to see this in action!
After our insufferable snacking, we decided to show off our food baby bellies and go to the beach. There is a main beach right in town, which is where we went, and there are a few other smaller ones you can hike too. The beach was not very wide, but it was nice and long, so lots of space to find a place. The water was still warm enough to get in without much hesitation. Who knew I'd be swimming in the ocean in October! The water was interesting here as it got deep really fast. You were over your head within 15 feet of getting in. But, there is a shark net here, and docks you can swim to (which is what Drew and I did) so I wasn't worried. No real waves though.
After a few hours at the beach, we decided it was time for our big seafood dinner. We went to one of the most popular restaurants on the island, got 5 seafood dishes and veggies, and the total bill was only $300 HKD, or about $40 for all 4 of us. Incredible! Our dishes included two helping of crab, sautéed shrimp, stir-fried clams in a black bean sauce, honey lemon fish (divine!) and broccoli. I plan on taking every family member who ever visits us back to this place, as it's the best valued seafood we have found so far! Thanks Tina for discovering it for us.
I have to say, eating crab with only chopsticks was interesting though. We were told to simply bit into it, suck out the meat form the shell, then remove the shell from your mouth using the chopsticks. After almost choking myself twice and swallowing more shell than meat, I decided to ditch the chopsticks and just use my hands, which is also acceptable, but not as proper. I like crab too much to sacrifice a meal of it just to improve my chopstick and meat-shell separation skills.
We also got to walk around the local town a fair bit, which is always a blast. They had lots of small shops selling all sorts of things. Every kind of dried seafood you can imagine (those stalls smell like death). Fruit stalls, snack stalls, toy stalls, everything. It was nice being in a place where they tallest building was only three stories.
We also got to watch lots of other entertaining day visitors. This included a bunch of Filipino helpers hanging out at the beach drinking from a box of Franzia. They were shwasted, and it was great fun to watch them make their own fun, such as covering each other in sand, dancing congo lines etc. We also saw this lady carrying her mini poodle in a baby carrier on her chest. The dog seemed perfectly content! But that is not a little dog to carry around all day. Why can't the dog just walk you ask? Nobody knows. We faked like Drew was taking a picture of me to take a picture of them, hence my lovely smile.
Also in the town was a little park with a foot massage walkway. The stones were place on end, so they dug into your feet as you walked on them. The stones were loosely spaced at the beginning of the walkway, and very tightly spaced by the end. Mike was in agony. It did hurt. I needed to use the railings to make it. The funny thing was, only a day prior, my language partner had asked me what the English word for this type of walkway was. Ha! This is a good example of something lost in translation. One word simply doesn't exist to capture the essence of this walkway, because foot reflexology is not a popular concept in the US. You can describe in with a really long name such as "A stone foot reflexology and massage walkway," but one word? Nope.
Thanks love for giving us this wonderful adventure. And for carrying the pack all day :)
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