I’m not a shy guy to say the least. If there’s anything that travelling the world in my wheelchair has taught me it’s that you’ve got to throw down those inhibitions, ignore those glaring stares and just embrace life by the big fat testículos.
So after speeding off to Cheung Chau island on what happened to be the fastest ferry I’d ever been on in my life, I decided throw caution to the win and opted to take off all my clothes (bar my underpants) and jump in the sea in front of some rather surprised/shocked/bemused looking ladies. I couldn’t resist. We’d stumbled across a cute little beached opening on the coast line, the water looked inviting and the sun was baking hot. The perfect mix. It’s just a shame that I had to do it in my underpants, but I hadn’t thought to bring some swimming shorts.
Later that same day I found out that we’d messed up big time on the island by turning left instead of right when getting off the ferry. By going left, we did find some pretty quiet and relaxing spots (hence why I had an overwhelming desire to get naked) but we also missed out on the ‘true beauty’ of the island.Oh well, there’s always next time. From what we saw, it was an idyllic little place that had lots to offer in the way of street food and merchandise. You could actually say we got lucky, heading off the beaten track and finding places which were largely unpopulated. It seemed a million miles away from the chaotic mash of traffic and business that is Hong Kong central districts.
That little escapade into the sea is the sole reason for the following image:
That’s me, sitting on the floor of one of Hong Kong’s trams, making my way to watch the horse racing which I mentioned in the first of these round-ups. I think you’ll agree that my friend Cynthia has a look of “I’m not with him” on her face.
Below you will find a snap from the beach where we spent most of the afternoon when on Cheung Chau island. It felt a lot more like being back in either Vietnam or Thailand than actual Hong Kong.
Once back in the throng, Emilija and I met up with our friends Snow and Cynthia and as mentioned in the previous article, they took us to the Horse Racing event at the Happy Valley Racecourse. Link: HERE!
Prior to our night at Happy Valley, we descended upon a very local food house called the Lockhart Road Cooked Food Market which can be found in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. This place was a sensory overload, with smoke, beer and lots of commotion within this pokey food hall on the 2nd floor which seemed to have no end. It was like stepping into a different world, and a world where we were most definitely the only foreigners around.
We were shown to a small table and had our orders filled out on a piece of paper. A flustered waitress then brought our order to the table and we tucked in among the chaos and not only tasted some delicious, ‘real’, authentic Hong Kong food and got a real flavour for how many folk spend their Friday evenings in the city. There was also a lot of gambling taking place, with screens showing the horse racing all around and people getting more and more drunk as they ate, watched and gambled. Definitely a brilliant place to check out, especially on a race night – but be warned, the Lockhart Road Cooked Food Market is pretty tricky to find!
