Visit to Island of Cheung Chau

It was a dream come true for me to visit an island of fishing villagers around Hong Kong's 261 islands. I had only lived at my sister's house in Lantau Island back in the late 1980s. That was before the new Tsing Ma Bridge was built to link the new Chek Lap Kok Airport after the closure of Kai Tak Airport in 1997. Those days I had to commute daily by speed boats from her home at Discovery Bay in Lantau Island to Hong Kong daily. Whenever it rained heavily, all the residents would be left stranded at the pier at Hong Kong Island as the seas were rough with choppy & dangerous waves.

The weather was really good and little warm. Their weather reports lied that it would rain everyday but it didn't as God was kind for me to enjoy the holidays.  We took the MTR train until Central in Hong Kong. Walked briefly to the Pier 5 and passed the panoramic view of the high rise buildings. It started to get hot inside the crowded boat ferry and I was well prepared with a paper fan. I was truly the only 'aunty' with the paper fan in the whole 2 decked boat!!! Everyone jealously stared at this 'aunty' from Malaysia while sweating profusely as there was no air con in the cheapo boat we took. You need to pay more for the other luxury boat with air con which we boarded on the return journey.

The boat was huge and comfortable except that there was no air cond. The journey from Pier 5 took 55 minutes to reach the pier at Cheung Chau. We passed many islands along the way including Lantau Island, Tsing Yi, Lamma Island and many others.  

The big ferry boat berthed at the pier and it was fun all the way. There was a big crowd as it was a Sunday which happens to be the eve of their Annual Dragon Boat Race and Bak Chang Dumpling Festival. It was sunny hot and we bought frozen fruits to eat. It was so delicious to enjoy the frozen watermelon and pineapple! Try to make them at home.

It is a famous fishing village and you could see live fishes being sold at the markets. Lots of fresh seafood everywhere on this island. Can someone please tell me how to eat sun dried starfishes?? They are selling like hot cakes there.

We saw several dragon boats having their last minute practices before the finals the next day.

It is truly a very relaxing place away from the hustle bustle city life in Hong Kong. We love this island so much that we planned to stay there for 1-2 nights on our future trips.

This famous swimming & picnic spot in Cheung Chau has been filmed thousands of times in the TVB dramas & HKG movies. I had to do what the locals do and stripped my clothes off to jump inside the sea! All my HKG friends and relatives were stunned in disbelief to hear that I really went swimming there as they had never swam there all their lives! 

We had lunch and dinner there with beer to celebrate. The food was very delicious and tasty. I am not able to write out what I ate and exactly how the juices oozed out of my mouth as I am no foodie blogger like others. I could only advise you to visit Cheung Chau for day trips.

Next post: The visit to the famous pirate Cheong Po Tsai's cave in Cheung Chau.

***

Hong Kong Island @ Central & Mid Levels

I came back from Hong Kong after staying there for a week. It was the first time I really had free and ample time to wander around aimlessly alone to discover the exciting city. I might have visited and transited at Hong Kong for over 10 times since 1985 but I had never roamed the streets alone until recently.

Hong Kong is definitely a very safe and exciting place with crowds of locals and happy tourists shopping every where! My wife was away at the Hong Kong's education university for 3 days and we met up for dinner nightly. We stayed extra 3 days to catch up with my long lost friends of 21 & 16 years respectively! One was my childhood family friend who is now a wealthy tycoon living at the hills of the HKG Jockey Club vicinity and the other old friend was during my tour inside TVB Studios @ Clearwater Bay during my office trip. We didn't see each other for 21 years and he is still so funny like a comedy actor.

My wife and I also found time to make our way to visit a famous island called Cheung Chau which was a wonderful bliss. I will blog about Cheung Chau later on. You must hear about that famous Qing Dynasty's pirate Cheong Po Tsai.

I sat outside alone to admire the prominent landmarks around Central. Next to my left is the famous hotel where the popular singer jumped down to commit suicide at 6.43pm. It made me think about how fragile life is and we should help everyone who is depressed. Only depressions would cause suicides. Please spend time with your loved ones who might show depressions and worries. I quickly left that spot before that 'fateful hour' as the law of universe would see victims repeat their suicide acts at the same spot and time until their "supposedly lifetime duration". It means that if you are supposed to live as a human cycle till 80 years but killed yourself at 50 years old, you might have to kill yourself in the same manner everyday for 30 years until your 80 year's age! The same pain and bloody death would be repeatedly inflicted again & again beyond help. Every religion says humans should never commit suicide. That is the reasons many accident spots and houses became spooky & haunted due to the unseen factors.

Every Sunday, you will see thousands of Filipina maids gathering like happy birds singing & relaxing all over Central's district on their off days. HKG has not enough parks for people like them in the city's meeting point as their forests and green parks are located too far in the suburbs.

This is the famous Hollywood Road where the famous police station is located on the right. Hundreds of movies and TVB dramas have filmed this building.

We both explored around Central and decided to walk our way up to the swanky hills at Mid Level. It was truly an eye opener to see how tall and crammed the living space there. Need I say more?

The condos and apartments are so tall as we soared higher and higher till the Upper Mid Levels. It looks scary to see them building high rises on every inch of land but they are very solid buildings that have survived all the typhoons. They never had "Highland Towers" tragedy here.

It was Hari Raya and I was pleased to see a green mosque located right in between the high rise condominiums at Upper Mid Levels. I opened the small gate and promptly walked inside to admire the facade of the mosque which has nice and serene ambiance.

I saw property advertisements everywhere in Central and my eyes went really big like gold fish eyes!! Their average rentals was over HKG$20,000 until $80,000 per month! Then the selling prices for less than 1,000sq ft would start from HKG$16 million till $60 million for slightly bigger units. Walau Eh! My big eyes popped out of my sockets onto the floor. I need to be a slave for many lives to own a unit there.

As I had plenty of time to loiter around from stations to stations of the whole Hong Kong and Kowloon MTR lines, I started to notice that many people waited and met up with acquaintances at the railings that barricaded the inbound & outbound passengers! I really learnt a valuable lesson here. They could be one coming from opposite end at Chai Wan in HKG island to pass a package or documents to someone at far away Tuen Mun in Kowloon side. They just meet at the railings to pass the goods without alighting from the exit gate and board the same train back to their place of origin. That would save a lot of money and time. Our MRT extended lines are new in KL and I will definitely adopt this cost saving delivery in future.

***

Greetings From Hong Kong

I arrived Hong Kong today. You can say it is my WORKation trip again. My wife will be attending a conference at the Education University of Hong Kong where she will speak about the Computational Thinking education in Malaysia.

We are staying at a hotel at the busy Nathan Road where there are many shopping and dining excitement. It has been raining almost everyday and we will be here for a week! I have to carry umbrella like an old lady. 

The flight this morning was pleasant but the plane was 100% full. We enjoyed the above fabulous meal on board the Dragon Air. I ate salmon with rice with delicious fruit salad & sausages plus a yummy cup of strawberry Hagen Dazz ice cream!!

The plane touched down at Hong Kong International Airport after flying for 4 hours. It was raining and I had a bigger shock to see water leaked into the plane itself! The crew had to open up umbrellas for the passengers to wriggle out of the plane. 

*Posted From My Smart phone!