This Chinese New Year’s vacation has been excellent. For the first few days I slept, ate, and went to the gym. I’m talking some serious down time and it was much needed and appreciated. After waking up at noon for about three days, I decided to do something with my life and headed out to the new territories with Becci and Elliot to hang out with some friends (Gavin and Rachel). Gavin just moved out into “the country” last week and wanted to show us around his digs. So we prepared for a day trip and MTRed it out to Long Ping which took the better part of an hour. Once there we tried to grab some lunch but the fact that most businesses are closed due to the holiday turned this plan into more of an odyssey. After much walking and searching a place was finally found. Luckily, Gavin speaks just enough Cantonese to bridge the language gap and lunch was served. Following that, we walked out to a hill trail and began our ascent up a “mountain” path. We walked over a series of trails and enjoyed a wonderfully hazy view of Shenzhen and the HK wetlands park. The weather was brilliant and fun was had by all. For dinner we enjoyed some al fresco dining and a particularly lovely fried squid dish.
This wonderful journey was, of course, followed by a day of rest. Then, on New Year’s Day Elliot and I went to have a lovely Chinese New Year dinner at my student’s house. We arrived and were bombarded by gifts of Lai See or lucky money which is given to single people by married couples. Since my student’s entire extended family was there we said thank you a lot. We shared a lovely family style dinner of stew and then proceeded to play gambling games. My student’s family taught us big 2 and we taught them Texas hold ‘em.
The next day, Elliot, Becci, and I attempted to go to Macau but we did not factor in the problem-causing New Year holiday so instead we spent the day in Cheung Chau one of Hong Kong’s outlying islands. We walked all over the barbell shaped piece of land and took in the breath-taking scenery and ate some delicious food. The highlight of the trip was hiking out to the “reclining rock” and spending some quality time napping. The nap was a necessity since on the hike out to some rocks I slipped on some algae and managed to get my shoes and socks wet. This was the real first taste of warm weather bliss for the three of us. Elliot and Becci browned a bit and I got sun sick! After returning home via ferry, I had to ask Elliot to go out for some Panadol and some water.
Today as I sit here writing this, I am on Lamma Island with Elliot in a condo-style, village hotelroom enjoying the breeze and the silence now sporting significantly more freckles. The weather is mild and clear holding steady at seventy degrees. On Tuesday Elliot, Becci, and I are going to Macau, and on Wednesday Becci’s friends from England are coming to visit.
Happy Birthday Dad!
