Beach fun

I guess it's time I update my blog with the info on my Lantau island trip. As mentioned before, Lantau Island is Hong Kong's second largest island (the first being HK island itself). The trip was an absolute blast, I only knew about 3 of the 10 people who went, but all of us had a great time together anyways.

The thing I love about Hong Kong, and Asia in general, is the transportation system. You don't need to reserve your tickets ahead of time or really plan your way of getting anywhere - you just appear at the pier/bus station/whatever and hop on the first available transport because there's so many. (e.g. in Guilin, China, there were about 3 or 4 buses all headed to Yangshuo and they just chilled until they had enough people - and even then, the bus would drive slowly through the city with people yelling out the bus' destination and random walkerbys hopping on.)

Anyways, all 10 people who would be crashing at the apartment managed to make it to the Tsim Sha Tsui pier with no problem. As mentioned, I only knew about 3 of the people really well, and maybe 2 of the others by sight only. There ended up being 3 Japanese guys, a Hong Konger, an American, a German, a Mainlander, a Taiwanese, and 2 Canadians. Quite the mix if I do say so myself.

After a quick trip on the ferry, we arrived in our destination, Mui Wo. First impression? So pretty! It was a beautiful day - we're talking beaches with beautiful blue water and mountains in the background. So amazing. The fact that it was 22 degrees also helped. :) (Feel free to pelt with snowballs right now.)

While we were waiting for our checkin time to roll around, we rented some bikes and began to explore the surroundings. There were lots of BBQs going on. I think the most surprising thing we encountered though were the white people. I began to feel like I was back in Canada - they had invaded the place! I don't know why Mui Wo would be so popular among the Westerners, but it was amusing nonetheless.

The biking went well until I started biking up a small incline... Upon which I then had to get off my bike and start pushing it. 5 minutes later, I gave up (I was in the lead) and that's when we found out the trail did nothing by go straight up. Queue the quick turnaround and riding back in the opposite direction. We got advice from a local to go check out a more rural village in the opposite direction. So we started biking in that direction, but had to stop in the middle of a bridge. Apparently the village had forgotten to post their "cattle crossing" sign. There were about 5 or 6 cows just chilling in the middle of the road, or walking around the planters eating the city-planted shrubbery. Very amusing. Off we go again.

The rural village wasn't as rural as the ones I've seen in China - it was just an older village. It was still fun to bike around though because it had very narrow paths. We encountered a hiking trail near the back of the village and since half the group wanted to go up the trail, but the other half didn't, we split up. I and 3 others started to go up the trail because apparently there was a great view up there. Well, half an hour and no view later, we finally called it quits and descended again. (The top of the trail merely melted into a BBQ/camp site and other trails - and all the views were completely blocked by trees/bushes.) The four of us ended up biking further into the various villages and had a great time just sight seeing.

We finally met up with the rest of our group so we could go for a dinner at an apparently famous beach/restaurant. We hopped on a bus and made our way to a beautiful fine grain beach. Of course, it was night by now, so we couldn't see much, but it was still pretty. All the restaurants were set up partially inside the restaurants, and partially on the beach itself. Very chic. We ended up sitting at The Stoep, a South African/Mediterranean restaurant. Sadly everything was expensive, but at the same time not. It was dirt cheap by Canadian standards, but middle priced for Hong Kong. I did end up ordering an amazing piece of lasagna though. Delish!

Prior to the meal though, the Japanese fellow sitting across from me was falling asleep. I'll admit that at first I was really annoyed - he seemed to be acting really rude - not making any attempts to make conversation or anything. But it turns out he was feeling really ill. Minnie actually asked the restaurant owner if he could sleep for awhile in her house. (I swear, the people over here are willing to ask the weirdest things, and expect to get them!) And by god! The restaurant owner said yes! So Shouzo went upstairs and crashed. We suspect that he was suffering from dehydration or sunstroke. Either that or some weird tropical disease that's slowly incubating in my body as I type.

After dinner we returned back to Mui Wo whereupon our little group separated. 7 of us decided to go buy some alcohol and go to the beach for some fun. I ended buying a single wine cooler and a huge bottle of cheap strawberry wine. (No worries, it was only 7% alcohol. :P) The beach was So. Much. Fun. We sat at a picnic table and played the Hong Kong version of spoons, had a Canada vs. Japan battle (Canada won of course), and played some drinking games. We ended off the night by harassing some local Hong Kong girls with our German guy.

The next day, we waited until noon for some of our other friends to reach the island. They hadn't wanted to/couldn't crash with us at the apartment, so they came this day instead. Upon the arrival, we returned our bikes and boarded another bus, this time, headed to Ngong Ping - home of the Big Buddha. Since it's still the Chinese New Year, the Buddha was insanely busy. Thank goodness I had already been there once before - I could escape having to walk up the steps with a guilt-free conscience. Therefore those of us who didn't want to climb up went for a vegetarian lunch offered by the monastary while everyone else went to check out the temples/buddha.

After lunch our group gathered together again for a walk to the "Wisdom Path." Apparently some famous guy read a sutra of some sort, was blown away by it, and felt the need to construct a giant figure 8 out of wooden posts in the middle of the countryside. Some people need hobbies. Each post had a part of the sutra written on it, so it was cool, but otherwise unremarkable. That's when Scott, the American began asking if we wanted to go for a hike. There were quite a few hiking trails along the edge of the mountains. I wanted to go, but I didn't at the same time. It was about 4:30pm by this time, none of us had much water, I was lugging around my purse and whatnot... But at the last minute, I caved and ran along the trail after them.

It was such a pleasant change to be in the middle of nowhere, rather than be surrounded by people and buildings. I just wish that the middle of nowhere I went to had less stairs. The entire frickin' trail was like a StairClimber - up and up and up. Plus we were racing against time - we wanted to get to the top and try to descend before the sun set because there were no lights. I'm sad to say that I only made it a bit more than half way up the trail before I finally caved. I told the group that I would go back down the trail and wait for them there. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who's legs were crying for mercy. The other chick also decided to join me.

I also had the great pleasure of watching the sun set over the mountains. I think this was the first time I had EVER seen the sun truly set. Usually it's marred by trees or buildings or something similar. This time, it slowly sank behind a layer of smog/fog/mist. It was so amazingly beautiful because the valleys in front of us were also filled with a mist that was moving really quickly and drifting along. I've never seen anything like it.

Vris (no, that's no a typo) and I ended up waiting for the boys at the bus station, and it's a good thing we did. It turns out we had missed the last bus back to Mui Wo. Luckily, the people actually arranged a bus just for us. So nice! That's probably the best customer service I've seen here in Hong Kong! (I find that customer service skills are considerably lacking when compared to North American standards.)

We finally made it back to the apartment just in time to help light the BBQs for dinner. I dunno if it's because we're urban dwellers, or whether our charcoal was crap, but it took us forever to light the damn BBQs because they're campire style - not a barbeque in the North American sense. However, after we got everything burning nicely, the feast began. So. Much. Food! Oh my gosh, I don't know how we managed to eat everything. It was crazy though.

After the gorging was complete (seriously, it can't be described by any other way), the beach party group decided to try to recreate the previous night's festivities. I don't think that we succeeded very well, but Lukas certainly put a lot of effort into it. He and I had bought 2 Smirnoff's each from 7/11 and while waiting for our other pals, he managed to finish one entire bottle while I had only made a quarter of the way through my own Smirnoff. I ended up running back in and buying another 2 bottles for he and I, and I swear, he managed to down the second bottle while we were waiting. He's German, maybe all those Oktoberfests have helped him to build a resistance.

Since the beach was super windy, we ended up taking shelter in a small wooded bench area. Unfortunately, talk alone wasn't keeping us awake. (I sold Lukas my 3rd Smirnoff because I was having a hard enough time getting through my first drink.) We ended up going back to the apartment and having another failed attempt at a roof party. We fled the wind and went back to Vris' and my room and played cards instead. I taught them how to play Dragon (one of my new fave card games from Taiwan), and 99. Lots of fun ensued. We didn't end up crashing until around 3 or 4am.

Our final day was spent by going for a dim sum breakfast. I think this was one of the best dim sums I've gone to since arriving in Hong Kong. We ate so much and had a fun time, because most of us didn't know what the hell we were eating. Sadly, after the meal, there wasn't much to do except wait for the ferry. Again it was a beautiful day - I sat on the edge of the pier and chilled in the sun.

When we arrived back on HK island, our group decided to make one last trip - this time up into the IFC building - the International Finance Centre - the tallest building in Hong Kong. Very cool. I didn't even know we could go in there! We had to register and get visitor passes and the whole caboodle. Unfortunately we could only get to the 55th floor where the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had a small museum thingie, but it was cool nonetheless.

Thus ended my trip to Lantau Island. It was a great time with a diverse group!

P.S.
For those of you who were wondering, alcohol can be purchased at all convenience stores/grocery stores, and yes, you are allowed to carry it around in public.