Cheng Chau

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When I met my friends at the ICF Building at 11am last Sunday (actually 11:15am—husband couldn’t find his swimming trunks), the question was simple: expensive seafood, nice beach/cheap seafood, unknown beach. Decision: Cheng Chau. Though no one had made it past the below-cost garlic squid on our selected island destination, the light-on-the-wallet refreshment was a venerable reward for risking the Cheng Chau beach. We boarded the appropriate ferry and were fortunately forced into the middle seats. No easy harbor-view, but no green faces either. Upon arriving at Cheng Chau, we skirted the menu-toting restaurant-walas, and followed the smell of shrimp paste. Within 5 minutes, the beach was in sight. Ok, so the obviously human-made sand was hot enough to roast a whole chicken, and no person was permitted to exceed his or her 4x4 allocation of beach, but we were at Cheng Chau and we were going to enjoy it, damn it! Indeed, once we settled under an umbrella, the close proximity of our sandy neighbors meant we didn’t even have to pretend to read our books. With a trio of greasy, muscle-flexers to our front, a family of four leaving no skin exposed to our left, and teenaged poker players to our right, there was plenty to talk about.

The hours trickled by—tanning, water, shade, tanning, water, shade. By late afternoon, the shrimp boats off-shore had instilled a lazy appetite for seafood. We squished our towels and books back into the bags from which they had come, and re-located the way to the ferry. By then, the main road was lined with tables readied for dinner guests. We selected the café sporting the least aggressive menu-holder, and immediately made our beer order. Dishes came as slowly and steadily as the lapping waves. More bottles of beer came a bit more quickly. Two hours later, with all of the plates emptied, someone spotted the ferry pulling in. We asked quickly for the bill and joined the horde walking rapidly toward the boat home. With two minutes to spare, we fell into our seats—in the middle of the boat. Though it was a more sedate trip back over the water, we went home with our bellies full, sunburned, and content that we had made the right decision.

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