Mau, now available in extra crispy!

So tired. Last week I signed up to go on an island tour offered by the Chinese Language Centre here at CUHK. It was meant to be a ferry ride around some islands in the New Territories and the objective was to speak in Mandarin/Cantonese for the entire day.

Well, we rode the ferry and saw the islands, but the Mandarin/Cantonese conversations were none-existant.

Pei-chin and I woke up at 7am to get ready because we had to be at the language centre by 8:30am. Gah. Much too early in my opinion.

Anyways, the day was a lot of fun. I hung out with a bunch of European students that I never really hung out with before, so it was fun getting to know them better and chat about nothing in particular.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the first island. The island, Ap Chau, we visited was supposed to be known for it's certain rock formations that looked like a duck's eyes, feet, and head. I think someone was smoking weed when they saw these things, because the "Eye" was a mere cave that looked like a generic cave. I was more amused by poking at crabs with my pen than looking at the rock formations. We had barely been on the island for 20 minutes before we were ushered back on to the ferry to go to the next island.

The next island, Kat-O, took about another 20 minutes to reach. We were supposed to have lunch there, so Kristin and I decided to make a quick bathroom break. Err, maybe I should call it a hole break? Yeah. Even the bathrooms in Beijing weren't this scary. It was a hole in the floor, with a bucket of water to "flush" with afterwards. Oh well. At least Beijing had prepared me for squatting. (I think I've grown an unhealthy obsession for describing bathrooms.)

Lunch was amusing. We sat with people in other introductory mandarin classes. One guy had brought along his girlfriend from Holland (she had flown in the day before) so this was her first "real" chinese meal. Unfortunately for her, it was also very authentic... With the entire chicken being served on a platter, squid balls, octopus tentacles and the like. You could tell she was a wee bit horrified. The food was okay. Nothing terribly fantastic, and I'll admit that I took a perverse pleasure in "slurping" up my octopus tentacle. (I also gained shock factor points for picking up a random internal organ from the chicken and eating it - turns out it was liver.)

We got to wander around the island for a bit and everyone stopped at this random dessert place in the middle of the fishing village. They were buying weird desserts they couldn't name and stuff like that. I tried some weird green sticky pasty thing and also had a rice ball full of peanuts - the thing was SOOOO tasty! *drool*

It was interesting walking around the village because it was very authentic. People were doing their everyday things - I don't think tourists go there that often.

We returned to the ferry and had to travel for another hour or so to reach the final island, Ping Chau. The ride over was fun because we sat in the prow of the boat so we had a great breeze and the sun was shining on us. (I got a wee bit burnt on my nose - hence my blog title.) Once in awhile the boat would hit a wave and splash us a bit. I wasn't feeling particularly safe though considering I was at the very very very front of the boat and the ropes that were meant to act as a fence from falling off were merely tied in a loose knot. (Note that I noticed how unsafe my "railing" was but that I didn't move. Har har har.)

The final island was pretty nifty. It was covered in sedimentary rock that was fun to walk on. I felt bad for our tour guides because trying to get us to walk from one destination to another was like herding cats. (Then again, you normally don't try to herd people by speaking in a language they don't understand - all instructions were given in Cantonese.) The weather was so beautiful that a bunch of us took off our shoes and wandered into the water. However, again we were in there for a mere 5 minutes before the guides began shoving us away.

We walked around the edge of the island to two large rocks that were jutting upwards. We all got on them and the guides took our photo - it was a photo op for the Chinese Language Centre - there was a banner saying something good about the CLC and whatnot. Afterwards I got to spend some more time poking sea life (mainly sea urchins) with my pen before being shooed off again.

The village on this island was by far the most "authentic" of 'em all. The houses were lacking in things such as running water, electricity and sometimes roofs, but it was all good. I saw the most decrepit bathroom EVER while I was there. It was a small stall with a lawn chair. On the middle of the chair seat was a hole. Below the hole was a bucket. I don't think I need to elaborate on this anymore.

We returned to the ferry and it soon became apparent just how badly the heat/sun had hit us that day. Everyone began dropping like flies, going to the sweet land of sleep. I managed to stretch out and fall asleep for like 45 minutes. When I finally got home, I never realized how nice a shower could feel until I had to wash off my grime from the day.