Summer time and the living's easy

What I've been up to the past few days:

Junk boat tour with Christy, her boyfriend Poi and his family.

There were 35 of us, mostly children, who went out on this triple decker boat. You cruise out for about an hour, dock outside a beach, then do fun speed boat things. I rode the banana boat, Paul did the flyer disc, and there was also tubing. So much fun jumping off the boat, eating sushi, and drinking wine. And this is what all Hong Kongians do in the summer (season ends in November- ha! take that winter). We docked at the beach and there were no less than 10 other junks out doing the same thing. I could get used to this. There was a 19 year old girl who was there who had just gotten back from 4 months in South East Asia, India and Nepal. We sat sharing and comparing our adventure stories and all came to the same conclusion; trip of a lifetime, but it will certainly be a long time before (if) we ever come back. She didn't have any pukey bus rides...lucky.

Then yesterday Paul and I ferry-ied over to Lamma Island. It's a quick 30 minute ferry and you're transported to another world. No cars, no crowds, just scenic strolls through the jungle from one beach to the next. We settled down at a restaurant on one end and enjoyed clams, squid, scallops, and shrimp. Yum! It's amazing how you can be in the hustle bustle of a huge city and then in this quiet deserted island in 30 minutes.

One funny thing about HK. There are approximately 3 billion million people everywhere you go trying to do the same thing you are. The subways have guards in the morning with big red STOP signs insisting you stop trying to push onto the train. For real!? But I can understand why. People are very pushy here in general. Waayy more than in Korea, which is hard to believe if you've ever been on the green line at 8pm. So this is one thing I am learning to deal with and accept. Well trying...

Today Paul and I are going on a picnic to a beach; location TBD. We bought avocados ($1.25!), 3 kinds of cheeses, turkey, salami, pate, crackers, and of course, wine. This is Paul's last Saturday off work until October, so we better make it a good one. Cheers!