Cheung Chau

February 22, 2009

No pictures of this one folks - sorry I grabbed my camera case but forgot the camera was on the charger. . .

This goes down as another wonderful HK Island day. Similar to Lamma Island this is a small island that doesn't have cars (except the combo ambulance/fire truck that we saw). I met up with a HK Hiking Group and we took the Ferry to Cheung Chau to hike the perimiter for the afternoon. We started by walking along hte pier of the fishing village, once again flanked by seafood restaurants. We then passed the Pak Tai Temple where the Bun Festival is in April/May. The Bun fesitval in addition to the seafood is what the island is known for.

We passed a beautiful beach and one of the ladies on the hike said you can rent chairs and umbrellas there come summer. We then hiked the "Little Great Wall" section of the island and saw Vase Rock - a supposedly naturally occuring rock that looks like it is about to teeter & fall into the ocean. We then continued around the island finding small beaches and pockets of small towns dispursed around the perminiter of the island. We walked by the Cheung Chau Cemetary which is beautifuland built up on a hill. We also went to the Cheung Chau Cave.

Now the Cheung Chau Cave is where I have seen the most enterprising person yet. A man sits with flashlights at the entry to the cave. It only takes you about 10 feet to realize you will need one to find your way to the other end of the cave. He charges you HK$6 for the flashlight. Now it was good we had Chinese speakers with us because evidently, if you return it afterwards you get HK$4 back. Talk about a smart man. Making money off a light that cost him no more that HK$10 and has probably earned him that much in about an hour as there were lots of people at the Cave and I assumer there are most weekends. I didn't help him out though, I have a flashlight on my cellphone, but most of the people I saw did rent these lights.

Then we went back to the village and ate a massive seafood meal. I think there were 10 courses for a "8 person set." Let's just say with beer it cost us each HK$52 - less than $10 USD a person. We had a bunch of things including crab, prawns, whole fish, a pork/noodle dish, clams, soup, fried tofu, broccoli and I am likely forgetting something. I will say, it is alot of work to eat though as most everything is served on the bone/in the shell.

We took the fast ferry back, it might cost over twice as much, but its is about 35 min versus 55, and twice as much when the original price was about $1.50 USD is not too shabby. I think the fast ferry was about $4 USD. Not to shabby at all.