2 Fish in The Ocean....A Poignant day...

Busy day today!!!

Em was back to the grind and I was up and out early....To Lantau Island.
First stop, pier 3 for an uncle Russ Coffee...A must have in the morning.
Next stop, Pier 6 for the slow ferry to Lantau, incidentally someone said in conversation today that they didn't understand anyone getting the slow ferry as it always leaves before the fast ferry after it, but gets in afterwards at Mui Wo....to which I replied "Exactly"!!.
After arriving at Mui Wo I caught a 50 minute bus to Tai O as I had unfinished business with 2 fish to attend to.
I arrived and set off to the market to purchase 2 small live fish.
After some confusion and entertainment for the local fish seller (Imaging me telling her to add more water to the bag and her thinking I was saying to add more fish) I finally had my two fish in a ample bag of sea water.
I headed straight for the pier where I proceeded to free them back into the ocean. A tad odd you might think but all part of the plan, although I won't elaborate any further here.
Anyway, It felt good, more human than most I know (Because most I know wouldn't do it). But this is China and normal is different here.
After my little ritual I headed back to the bus for the trip back to Mui Wo, well eventually that is........
I jumped off the bus at Cheung Sha and walked the entire beach....totally alone!!!!....there was no-one else there....at all....imagine that in the UK....yeah the cafe owners were there, and the lifeguards...but I was the only person outside of that.....Very Unordinary if that is even a word!!. This is without a doubt one of the most breathtaking beaches I've ever been to!!.
Got pics with the now sorted camera which I have added to the Cheung Sha gallery by the way and then had a nice Thai lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach before finally heading for the bus back to Mui Wo for the 5.30 ferry back to HK Island.
I met Em at the IFC and then we went to the reclaimation diners on Stanley St for Sweet and sour chicken before coming home.
All in all a wonderful day....crammed in before the weather is due to turn.

Pics Here

Sunday at Cheung Sha Beach

After our Friday night in Lamma we had a chilled Saturday around the local area.
But today the weather was lovely again so we decided to go off to try to find a beach we'd been tipped off about by one of the girls at Em's work called Cheung Sha on Lantau Island.
We got a boat to Mui Wo and then a taxi cos we knew it wasn't far. Just as well, if you didn't know where to leave the main road you'd easily miss it.
Cheung Sha is a beautiful three bay beach. We spent a few glorious hours here, shirts off and all. The place didn't really have too many there either which was a bit of a suprise.
Now i know where it is it'll be a doddle by ferry and bus!!...So i'll be back to hopefully get some better shots than I did today!!!...been having a bit of trouble with the shots but think i've sorted out the problem now so onward and upward!!...I still put the pics up though. To give you a flavour.
Em cooked again tonight when we got back, Chicken Teriaki and rice (She found a sauce in one of the local supermarkets....YUM
Anyway.....I'm off for a bath!!!

Pics Here

11pm Arrival in HK after sunny day in Lamma.

Well....after being a bit downhearted yesterday after our first real major downpour, and the forecasts saying it was going to be rainy for over a week we awoke to beautiful sunshine today!!!
I headed straight for Lamma Island and spent a lovely day with a retired much travelled Hong Konger I met a couple of weeks ago in Wan Chai named Peter Ip. He just started chatting to me and we soon hit it off. He told me that when I was next in Lamma to give him a call as he lived there. So after taking a few shots I called him and we met up....After work Em joined us and we spent a lovely evening in Yung Shue Wan and got the 10.30 ferry back to Hong Kong Island. This is the video I took of our final approach and arrival at 11pm.
We're now looking forward to a lovely weekend....same again please!!

Sai Kung, New Territories

Today I went to Sai Kung in The New Territories. It was my first trip up this way and took around 1 and a half hours to get there involving MTR out of Central to Mong Kok, a change of line then up to Diamond Hill, then a bus to Sai Kung. This is where I will pick up further connections to other destinations in the territories by either ferry or bus on future longer visits so I wanted to make sure I knew where everything was and to check out how long it takes to get to other places from here.
After taking some photo's around the town and waterfront I had my first trip on a Saipan, just out of the harbour and around some of the nearer islands for an hour or so at a cost of 150HKD (around £13). I really enjoyed this and was glad to finally get a ride on one of these after seeing so many of them around the islands. The owner was a sweet old man and it was his wife who originally collared me on the promenade!!...I wanted to get a pic of him but he was a bit camera shy so i didn't push it!!. After my ride I had a coffee in one of the waterfront cafe's and then a walk round the town to check what was available in the shops and then the promenade for a while before making my way back to the bus terminus for my connection toward home. One thing of note was 2 ferries dedicated exclusively to taking rich or pseudo rich Hong Kongers over to an island with nothing other than a golf course!!!...how funny is THAT!!!!, I got some pics of one of the very golfy looking caddies walking down the promenade with what must have been 20 golf trollies in tow he must have collected from the nearby car park that i must say was one of the best camouflage jobs i've ever seen. I photo'd it before i even realised what it was.
After arriving back on Hong Kong Island i met Em at a very quaint coffee shop I found in the mid levels and we headed home together from there.
Em did the cooking tonight, Her first since arriving. Mash and hot dog sausages with wasabi!!!
Very nice indeed!!

Pics Here

Soho, Mid Levels & Central By Day & Night

After our Jaunt round the local neighborhood with the cameras yesterday I've put some of the day and night photo's up today. I have also updated the Peng Chau Gallery with some pics I took there yesterday afternoon. Today Were going shopping and just chilling, Em will probably attack a bit of her coursework later.

Pics Here

Love the weekends!!!

After what felt like a particularly long week, Rus and I started off the weekend in the best possible way - curry!

Saturday morning we woke up naturally (what a treat) and took a leisurely stroll armed with cameras and films down to central. Rather than go the most direct route, we opted for some back alleys where lots of the chinese set up their stalls, selling clothes, fish and tourist tat.

We had no real plans on where to go, so after stopping for lunch outside the IFC, we went to the ferry terminal and jumped on "the next" ferry, which happened to be to Peng Chau.

Although Rus had been there before, it was my first time so we stood lower deck overlooking the water and on arrival we were the only westerners in sight and we heard some locals referring to us as Gwailo's (google it). Anyway, jokes about our skin colour aside, we had a really lovely time, walking through the island and round its winding streets. Out by the water, the tide was in and we got some pics of the boats etc and then found a small street cafe (well, someones front room selling cans of drink) where we sat down and spoke to a Scottish couple, who have lived in HK for 12 years. They had just rescued a beautiful puppy that I wanted to keep!!

Back on the ferry we were surrounded by sleeping locals who have a marvellous talent of falling asleep on ferries, on the mtr - you name it - always sleeping! we stopped for a coffee on the way back to the apartment.

This evening we headed down to where the bright lights are and I took some long exposure shots with the box camera and Rus experimented with slow shutter speeds and twinkly lights. It was very chilled and very leisurely and we finished the day with some food at the reclamation street diners and a quick beer at the wheel on the way home. I wish every day was like today!

Emma x x

Rus's Favourite 120 Pics so far.

I've made up a gallery of my Favourite 120 pics of the trip so far (Well 117).

Hope you like em.

Pics Here
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Thursday

It's been raining all day here today and we've had a drop of about 10 degrees in temperature. But it's due to shoot back up to around 28 degrees again next week for a while.
I went to the wheel last night and played guitar which went down well, Em took the opportunity to get an early night. When the wheel shut at around 1.30 I ended up in Lan Kwai Fong with miles one of the barmen at the wheel. We ended up in some club and then in a bar that was showing the Tottenham - Arsenal game.
Tuesday night we went to quiz night and came fifth out of 6 teams, bottle of red wine!!. There were only 3 of us in our team and some of the others had 6 0r 7, and were bankers on blackberrys!!
This week has been mostly cloudy and drizzly during the day so i've not ventured far and have used the time to get other stuff done.

More pics have been added to Em's "Lomo" gallery.

Tottenham Blues & New Territories

We had a chilled Sunday yesterday, went for a walk but didn't stray too far. In the evening we stayed in till about 10.30pm when i went to the wheel to watch the semi final against Pompey which was on at 11.00pm local time. Emma stayed home to get on with some reading for her next uni assignment. As you probably already know we lost :( I ended up getting home after 3 and paid for my one beer too many most of the day today!!. Em couldn't sleep till i was home so she didn't get too much sleep and so went to bed early tonight.
Later this week i'm going to be taking my first proper foray into the New Territories. More than likely starting with a visit to Sai Kung and Sha Tin, Where the "Ten Thousand Buddha's Monastery" is. We've heard they're supposed to be pretty amazing places so i'll have to go take a look.
There is also a port serving the Tolo Harbour and Channel near Ma Lui Shui where I will be able to get connections to islands like Tap Mun and Chek Chau and my ultimate destination Tai Long Wan in the Sai Kung East Country Park.
The other place i'd like to visit is Plover Cove which will bring me pretty much as close as I can get to the Guangdong Province and therefore the Chinese border proper without entering it (As I would need a separate visa for that).
Some of the islands are frequented by the major ferries, the others by Kai-to's, some of which have pretty impressive rock formations and awesome views. I just got sent a mail with this link to give you an idea.

Islands

Updates

Emma has updated her Lomography album.
I have updated the "Cheung Chau Island" Gallery and have also added A gallery of pics taken on my recent trip to Lantau Island with Em's brother Andrew.

Pics here
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