Hong Kong - Day 2

Another very full, very sweaty day. 

Today we took a ferry from Hong Kong to Cheung Chau which is an outlying island. There are no personal motorized vehicles on the island, just a few little truck type things for ambulances and moving heavy objects used by workers. 

 It was a very, very hot day but we still wanted to hike all over. We quickly ditched the crowds and worked our way higher up some of the hills towards the center of the island. We were immediately rewarded with some beautiful views. 

As soon as we started to climb we left all the crowds behind which was very nice. The big draw was some beaches that we stopped at later but were not our main goal. The roads on the island were paved or stoned very nicely and it made for easy walking even with the hills. Before we knew it we came upon a long section of road that was bordered by cemeteries. 

Many of the graves had pictures of the deceased. It was difficult to tell the years but it seemed that some of them had been there for quite a long time!

We finally got to a very private beach with beautiful coarse sand that gave you a nice massage when you walked across it. We passed this little fellow on the way. He is actually about 6 inches in diameter. 

He was scary! 

Our beach was in a nice little cove and it was very refreshing to walk in the water for a while. 

After the beach we hiked up again and came to the Reclining Rock. At least we think this is what the signs were talking about. On top of the rock we had a nice view of the South China Sea and the little bay where we had just been. We saw many many huge ships. This is one of the largest shipping corridors in the world.  

After resting for a while and enjoying the cool ocean breeze we were on our way. The next part of our hike brought us through this little joy. 

Just through this channel and to the right we went up some really steep stairs curving through a huge boulder. Being the tall (and somewhat clumsy) person I am I smashed my head into the rock overhang. Thankfully, because it was dark, I had my sunglasses on my head and they took the majority of the blow. One lens has a huge scratch in it but better that than a huge scratch in my head, eh? 

Immediately after this photo is when the head crashing happened. None the less it was a very cool part of the hike. 

We saw very few people as we hiked but we did encounter this group of ladies who were picking up trash. It was hot. Very hot. The kind where sweat is running off of you when you aren't even moving. So naturally their outfits are totally understandable...

Could you have MORE clothes on?!  Also, that is no small hill they are walking up. I was a sweaty mess. As such

Yuck!! 

We finally came down out of the hills and were awash in groups of Asian teenagers learning how to ride bikes for the first time. Scary!!! Brakes seemed to be a concept they were not interested in exploring. 

We also saw this fellow. 

Quite the look. 

After walking around and looking in many shops we finally decided to head to the beach. I gave in and bought a much needed hat for $8. 

That stand behind me is the lifeguard tower. I have no idea how he was going to get down to the water and rescue someone in a timely fashion. He is a good 30 yards away from the actual water and his tower opened away from it. I'm glad I wasn't in need of saving. 

We spent a couple of hours laying on the beach amidst the screeches of children and floating in the salt water. I even caught a little cat nap which was really nice. Then we packed up and got on the ferry back to Hong Kong. While we sat waiting for the ferry I developed an admirer. 

He was incredibly interested in me and was very blatantly staring. I don't think his interest was anything inappropriate. He probably just hadn't seen a person quite as white as me before. 

That is my "Hey this guy is scaring me!" look. After a few minutes we boarded the ferry and guess who shows up in the seat directly in front of me? Yup. That guy. He spent the majority of the 30 minute trip alternating between snoozing and turning around and looking at me awkwardly through the gap in the seats. Finally just as we were about to get off I decided that I needed to try and catch a photo of him peering between the seats. I readied my phone, pretended like I was typing, my opportunity came and I took it. However, my flash was on. Guy got a flash to the eye ball and I was totally exposed in my plan. Thankfully we had just docked and I rushed out of there like a bat out of hell and I escaped his curious glances for good. Or so I hope. 

This is the resulting photo which is very blurry because of my reaction to the flash but you can get the idea of his peeping nature. 

It was a very fun but warm and sweaty day mixed with some salt water, so after some much needed showers we headed out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It is a Taiwanese chain but has excellent food and I thought it would hit some of my cravings. After having my share of yummy greens, soup dumplings, and egg rolls (all with copious amounts of chili oil of course), we meandered a few malls and called it a night. 

Tomorrow we should get our Chinese visas and then be onto Guilin, China. If everything goes according to plan. However the plan is incredibly complicated and has a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong, so we will see. 

That's all for today folks. It is well after midnight here and I'm a tired little girl. For those of you just picking up my journeys, welcome!! Please, as a reminder to everyone, feel free to comment or ask questions and pass the blog along if you know anyone else who might like what I have to say. 

I will leave you with this photo of Hong Kong from Kowloon that I took today just as it started to cloud over.