Advertisement
Published: December 4th 2008
Entry from Jules Despite the lack of continuous sleep on Monday night, we were determined to make the most of Tuesday as Margaret and Dave had taken the day off work. We travelled up to the north, out of the City, away from the hustle and bustle, densely populated estates and new towns, through the territories and across to an island called Tap Mun. In English, this translates to Grass Island.
On arrival onto Tap Mun the contrast between the City is immense. Initially we only saw one lady, painstakingly sawing lengths of bamboo and bundling them up together. Around her were several racks of whole fish hanging out to dry as well as trestles angled towards the sun bearing filleted smaller pieces of fish underneath wire mesh. As with any rural environment, there were plenty of local dogs to greet us as well as escort us around the island. They did all look rather similar however….
Stopping at one of the many small places with fridges of cans, we rested for a few moments in the sun for a drink. The owner jumped upon the chance to talk to us in English, telling us about his house
(formerly his fathers) and the rest of the island. He also mentioned that his brother had moved away to live in Scotland in a place which, when pronounced, sounded like King Kong. Later on though he referred to Edinburgh - answers on a postcard if anyone knows what King Kong might be.
We walked around the island, following a well laid, if not crazy paving type path, through the small villages made up of ramshackle buildings over two floors (that’s a bit of a novelty in Hong Kong) constructed overlooking the water. There appeared to be plenty of refurbishment and new building going on during the day - which seemed odd given the ageing population of the island is 98 and dwindling - perhaps they know something we don’t. Even the temple was getting an overhaul.
Away from the villages we followed the path up onto higher ground affording us views in all directions across the water including towards China itself. One of the reasons to visit the island is to see the Balanced Rock located on the shores of one of the many small beaches made from boulders (one of these beaches is called Pebble Beach -
this isn’t strictly true so don’t expect to be able to pick up the ‘pebbles’ which lie here and try your hand at skimming them into the sea). Balanced Rock is a feature, presumably created from hundreds of years of erosion by the sea which essentially looks like a rock is balancing upon another.
The path took us through several graveyards. Given the limited space each person has in Hong Kong to live within, these appear particularly spacious, each with an area in front for mourners to leave and burn offerings (often paper money) and for incense burners. What I found slightly disconcerting were the photographs of the dead pinned onto each of the headstones. Whilst I can appreciate that it maybe reassuring to see an image of your loved one these photographs were largely black and white and of the passport style. No smiling faces, no sense of happiness in each person.
Having consumed a very large meal comprising squid, prawns, foo young, vegetables and rice we headed back to the mainland via the ferry. On the way back to the City we stopped off at Sai Kon which has a very seaside resort and holiday feel
to it with a promenade along the front. All along the front fishermen were selling their catches of the day from their boats - it’s just a case of pointing at what you want and then watching it being prepared (de-scaled, filleted etc) in front of you, alive. It’s a bit like choosing the unfortunate lobster from the tank in those more exclusive restaurants back home - not really for me.
The latter part of the evening was spent wondering through the stalls of Temple Road night market back in Kowloon. This is where you can get just about anything so long as you don’t mind it being fake or ‘copy’ as it is marketed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0389s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wendy P
non-member comment
Bob
Bob is going to be a very dirty dog by then end of this!