This weekend, we decided to continue our weekend tradition – island hopping! Except this weekend, we sailed over to Zhuhai, China (not really an island).

Zhuhai is well-known and loved for many many reasons. Other than the really bad ferry ride, Felicia loves this place very much. Zhuhai has everything we need – from food to shopping to massage! (Of course, this is like Batam to Singapore…except it is a lot cleaner and cheaper!) Women love the shopping. Men love the sexy and exciting night life. Can’t really say much on the blog as my mother, mother-in-law, father and auntie are reading my threads! Ha ha..

With Elkan around, we are making this weekend vacation a very educational one. We brought him to see the Giant Fruit & Vegetable Farm. Also, it is a great place for me to test out my new lens and camera! And for Auntie Bay Bay, she can hug all her favourite vegetables and fruits! Check out those great photos! I bet my mother and auntie are looking at these photos drooling now! (So, here is another good reason to come back and visit us in 2009!) Too bad, I am not a big pumpkin fan. I will certainly be thrilled if they have giantic durian or banana.

As it was such a sunny and cooling Sat, we decided to do some outdoor sports! We ended up cycling around the "Wild Fox" Island. Guess what we did in between our cycling? Tracy and I stopped by an air-rifle game store to play! All thanks to our shooting days in Shanghai, I won 2 soft toys for Elkan and Tracy! Francis, those air gun investments finally paid off! I was the best air-rifle shooter yesterday! (With an amazing 85% accuracy!) So wife, can I buy 2 more air-guns at Mong Kok? Ha ha ha…

Zhuhai is just 1-hour ferry away and it is as fun and affordable like our most-missed Shanghai! Will certainly go back very soon! Maybe when Serene comes end of March!

Guess what? Francis and family aren’t the only one this week! In fact, Cousin Leon and Kelvin were here too! And we have another couple old friends from Singapore too! Meet Sally and Jack (our 47th Visitors)!!! We did invited them to join our Sat program but they have been to those places we wanted to show Francis and gang. The great thing was Sally and Jack stayed in Mong Kok too! So, we decided to meet them for dinner on Sat night (at a really old-looking 大排檔 at Temple Street). The food was not cheap and as good as what Gareth said. And Jack even caught a "fly" on our fried noodle with his deadly super-fast fingers! Haaa…

The couple left for Macau today (as they are taking their flight via Macau Airport). They both sure came at the best time – Hong Kong’s temp went down to 12 this weekend! Nice cozy weather, despite the dizzle.

Opps.. Anyone see Elkan? He should be in the photo…

Yesterday, Mark 6 Jackpot hit HKD38 million! Someone in my department suggested to gather a pool of bets. Each of us paid a small bet of HKD75, hoping for a return of HKD2.8 million each (if we strike jackpot). David, my boss is regarded as the "luckiest man" in our office. Thus, we voted for him to be the one to place that "winning bet" for us. Worried that he may run away with the winning money, we decided our contingency plan 5 hours before the result. At 5pm, I started printing and pasting his poster over the office. (Guess what, he didn’t see that until much later! Haaaa….)

Did we win? No. We bought 10 numbers… only 2 came up. Sigh….Kaninah!

Spring is great season to roam around. Especially in the month of February, the weather is very cooling and comfortable. Over the past 2 weekends, we have explored the Discovery Bay and the Cheung Chow Island. Today, we decided to explore Hong Kong’s 3rd largest island – the Lamma Island.

Unlike Discovery Bay or Cheung Chow Island, there are 2 ferry stops (Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan) on Lamma Island – Yung Bay is situated on the northern part and Sok Bay is on the eastern side of the island. Lamma Island is located on the southern part of Hong Kong, shaped like the letter "Y" – that explains how it got its Chinese name "南丫島". More popular for its seafood and the hometown of Hong Kong’s superstar Chow Yun Fat. Today, his family still lives on the island.

As this is our first visit to the island, we have absolutely no idea which ferry to take. A little onsite observation (at the central pier) and my last-minute desperate internet research (via iPhone) helped us to plan our trip. Yung Bay is visually clearly the more popular stop – we noticed a lot more people waiting the Yung Bay ferry. There are also more shops at the departure jetty for Yung Bay. 

From the research I downloaded from the internet, many visitors will arrive Lamma Island at Yung Bay (the northern part of the island). It offers more shopping, dining and picnic sites than Sok Bay. There is also a beautiful 90-minute "family hiking track" over the hills of Yung to Sok Bay. It made more sense to have 2 ferry piers on the island. For many hikers, they will start their hiking at Yung and ending at Sok. From Sok Bay, they will rest, dine and then head back to Hong Kong. Mmm.. sound like a perfect plan for us too!

At Yung Pier, Lamma Island looks very much like Cheung Chow Island. Lots of old shop houses, floating boat-houses and sea-food restuarants. As we explored deeper into the island, we saw the distinctive difference between the two. Lamma is more arty-farty and hippy than Cheung Chow. We saw many young "angmoh" residents walking their dogs. The retails shops here retail more arty stuffs but mainly imported ones. (Same types of crafts and accessories you can find everywhere.). I feel that they should have produced and offered more of their local icons – like the Green Turtle or even Chow Yun Fat’s dolls!

The overall crowd are mainly locals – unlike Cheung Chow which has a wider mix of toursits and residents. The other main attraction of Lamma Island is the "green-turtle nesting beach" which was located at the southern part of the island. However, this spot was barred from the public during the nesting months (June-Aug). Overall, Lamma is a more peaceful and quiet place.

Lamma is a great place to hike for beginners like us. We took about 2 hours hiking across the 2 piers. Along the way, there are nice shops and food huts where you can rest your aching legs. Do try the HK6 "Granny Sweet Bean Curd" (you can’t miss the hut!). Toilet is located 20-minute walk away so it is advisable to use the toilet at Yung Pier before proceeding. The footpath are nicely paved except there are sections where there are not railings on its sides. There are a couple of steep slopes and I consider them "gentle". The ocean view on the hill slopes is beautiful. From the hill peak, you can see the Power Station at Yung Bay. There is a stretch of clean and quiet beach just 20 minute away from Yung Bay. There are a lot of good spots for picnic or BBQ. The trail also provides many "private side-walks" for lovers who want to spend an undisturbed and romantic time too!  

Throughout our 90-minute hike, Felicia and me were panting and aching all over. Elkan was surprisingly active and restless! He was jumping, hoping and running up and down on those steep slopes. It was very dangerous (as some of the tracks didn’t have any safety barriers at the sides). Felicia and I have to match his pace and hold him close to us throughout our hike.

As we are approaching to Sok Bay, we saw an "organic farm" and we bought a couple of freshly plucked vegetables. It was more like Tracy Bay’s haven! We also saw a couple of unimpressive man-made caves (it was mentioned that the Japs made them during the 2nd World War to park their assault boats.) Along the final stretch of our hike, we saw many big empty old houses along the way. If occupied by the right mix of people…this place can be transform into a "Bali-Aussie" hippy island.

Sok Bay is a little disappointing, shopping and seafood dinner were only so-so. There are about 7-8 seafood resturants at Sok Bay but the most prominent one is "Rainbow" – it offers its diners free ferry ride back to Central or Tsim Sha Tsui. Service staffs are friendly but we waited more than 30 minutes for our first dish!

It is another good island to explore and we will certainly come back for more. Time to rest my feet now ~ Enjoy our pixs!

(Photo Taken: Mong Kok, Orchid Bauhinia – Hong Kong National Flower)

Thanks Gareth for "leading" me back to Temple Street once more! Just 1 note – it is certainly more colourful and spicy than our favourite Geylang Lorongs.