Today I planned to go to Lamma Island. I did extensive research, mapped out public transportation, and created a self-itinerary. After discussion when Yvonne asked me if I wanted to get lunch with her, I shrugged off my plans and went along. She works almost every day so I don’t always get to spend as much time with her as with some of the other Lingnan students.
We got tom kha gai soup from the wet market underneath the Fu Tei mall that I didn’t know existed until today. Yvonne also helped me buy a pound of Argentine cherries and milk tea. All of these are some of my favorite foods but the versions that we had at lunch today were distinctly Hong Kong. The soup was spicy in a way that I haven’t had at authentic Thai restaurants but that tasted very familiar because of our last week in Hong Kong. The Argentine cherries were exactly as I remembered them but the haggling in Cantonese marked the experience as distinctly Hong Kong.
After lunch, reformulating my afternoon, I agreed to spend the day with RB going somewhere doing something that I did not fully understand but knew involved walking. We headed to the MTR station (which I am surprised to find I am now able to walk to without much thought) where we rode to Hong Kong Island then on to Ap Lei Chau. Ap Le Chau is a tiny island southwest of Hong Kong, northeast of Lamma Island. Because we adventurously switched our route in the middle of our journey, we ended up in the middle of Ap Lei Chau, unsure of how to get to the hike RB had found online. We walked along the water, marking large colorful, temple-esque docks, tiny junker boats, and yachts that had no doubt come from far away. We eventually ended up at the bus station where the hike was described as starting.
Just when we were questioning if we were in the right place, an old woman came out of Mcdonalds to guide us on our way with a firm finger and very obvious sweeping gestures towards a suspicious looking hill. Inside, her friends did the same. We followed her non-verbal directions, clambering up the steep hill using slope monitoring stairs. We became very lost, wandering through a playground and reservoir area. Tauntingly, on the other side of a barbwire fence we could see hikers. We were discouraged but did not give up. After much backtracking, we finally found the trail, or should I say rock face, that we hike-climbed.
At the top we were rewarded with amazing 360 views of the water and surrounding land. We were further rewarded by a continuation of trail. Both of us seemed surprised that the other still wanted to continue. Onward, onward, onward we went, down a hill to a beautiful white beach covered in whole seashells. From a distance, we admire a tiny island that RB described as an atoll. The island was connected to the land we were on by a thin strip of beach; obviously we continued, up and up again, through ferns, past burial sites, until all that was left was rock jutting out over the water and a dock. We scrambled about in complete awe then headed back to the beach to take a well-deserved rest (and possibly a quick dip in the South China Sea) before further scrambling over absolutely terrifying, exhilarating rock structures. We talked each other through the scary bits and joked about how safe we were in the presence of both a life guard and first responder.
Finally, I took the MTR back to school by myself for the first time without a hitch.
Today was a beautiful, absurd example of what can happen when you are flexible and have a buddy to encourage you to go a little further.