ON AN ISLAND, PART 1: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES

[defrog]

I spent Sunday on a day trip out to a couple of Hong Kong’s outlying islands – specifically, Tap Mun and Tung Ping Chau. The HK Professional Teachers Union (of with my mother-in-law is a member) had a special price for it. And I haven’t been island-hopping for awhile.

Plus, Tung Ping Chau just happens to be where the bridal unit spent the first few years of her life on this planet.

So I just had to look.

There’s much to show and tell, and you are all busy people with better things to do, so I’ll split the narrative up into episodes. A few generalities:

Island-hopping in Hong Kong can be grueling, as it involves lots of long, slow open-air ferry rides (the shortest one being around 45 minutes). In this specific case, it involves catching yr ride at the Ma Liu Shui Pier near Chinese University in Tai Po – which is about 90 minutes worth of bus and train rides from our flat. Which meant we had to get up at 5am in order to make it on time.

Then there the massive thunderstorm we had wade through just to get to the bus. And that was nothing compared to the eventual sunshine and 36ºC heat we experienced while hiking along the countryside or rocky shorelines for an hour at a time. Each way.

On the bright side, it was educational. Which is always important.

I confess I have a mild fascination for remote islands with shantytowns and abandoned buildings. And Hong Kong’s remote islands are full of those. The newest building is usually at least 30 to 40 years old, made of concrete and corrugated sheet metal with lots of additional improv from the local fishermen who sell cold drinks and dried seafood to tourists to get by. By no coincidence, there is always at least one seafood restaurant. (The best seafood restaurants in Hong Kong, incidentally, are on the outlying islands. Fact.)

You can’t imagine anyone actually living there. And yet they do. KT and her mom did almost 40 years ago. Her mom in fact taught at the local school. Granted, everything was newer then. And as usual, I’m overselling it. These days, they’ve got enough of the basic conveniences – electricity, plumbing, telephones, mobile network coverage, Internet access, etc. So it’s not like they’re living in mud huts wearing fig leaves.

But still, it feels 100 times more removed from civilization than the average American small town or farming community. Hence the appeal. At least for a day.

Pictorial coverage begins tomorrow once I sort through the pics and upload the better ones.

Land ho,

This is dF

Comments

[isis-lives.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I look forward to the pictures.

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

I think I've been to Tung Ping Chau on a school trip, it has some sort of geographical thing that's worth showing. I only remember drinking the made in China cola there, the glass bottle imitates Pepsi Cola...