Friday, December 27, 2013

Day 4: llama island

Not really sure why it’s called Llama island, it is one of the many islands that make up Honk Kong, the most central of which having the uninspired name “Hong Kong”. Llama island is a strange one though – it’s really small, like 6 miles top to bottom and the most advanced form of transportation there is a golf cart (of which I think they have two). Another oddity about this island is it’s inhabitats, it was settled in the sixties by westerners who wanted to form some kind of communal living environment (read commune).

We decided to do the tourist thing and walk the island from one end to the other (there are two settlements and a dirt road that connects them) so we woke up in the morning, had our regular east meets west breakfast and went on to take a ferry to the island.

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When we got off the ferry we saw A LOT of bicycles and pinups on a community wall (in English) selling a 1982 washing machine and similar stuff. Going a bit further in the town we saw some nice gift shops and Sivan got herself some earrings she liked and we drudged on, determined to get to the other side of the island where a supposedly amazing fish restaurant awaits us.

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The town itself was cute, and within the first 20 minutes of wandering through gift shops and buddihst temples, we were lost. Thankfully a nice lady with a thick British accent was kind enough to help us back on the track.

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The walk itself was very easy most of the time, although there were a few hills here and there. It took us through wooded areas, to a nice beach, up a few hills with some nice views and down to the other side where the “others” lived. And of course – ever closer to our reward!

Along the route we found something you could call a restaurant – it was a guy and his wife and a big pot selling some white goo. There were a lot of very excited asians there and having recently discovered that Israel is in Asia, we decided we should go for it! When we tried to communicate with the guy, he asked hot or cold. We said hot. He proceeded to give us a cold porridge like material which didn’t taste much of anything and had a slight aftertaste of dust. I didn’t like it, Sivan put some sweet sauce on it and was somewhat fond of it. It was bean curd by the way, we figured it out.

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Smog Kong
What’s grey and white and ruins every picture you take?
You guessed it, it’s smog – that hazy stuff you keep seeing on every photo from Hong Kong – Smog’s to blame. Every time you look towards a horizon in Hong Kong, it’s obscured by that annoying layer of smoke/fog coming from the many exhausts of Hong Kong cars
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They say it makes for some nice sunsets.
I didn’t see it.

We finally made it. The restaurant.

we arrived into a fishing village which was very picturesque and went to the restaurant Liad and Melissa recommended. It was strange – there were many aquariums with different varieities of fish – I guess to keep them fresh and to let you look your food in the eyes. I don’t like that. But the food was very good (albeit a bit expensive – I guess they know how to spot tourists there)

We ordered the tourist special, which is just a bunch of weird fish and shellfish, Sivan was very brave and tasted of everything, I freaked her out with the fish’s eyes. It was good fun Smile

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We headed back on a different ferry and went to good old Jimmy (remember him? the suit?) to try on my suit. We went to the mall, the suit needed some more fixing and Jimmy promised he’ll make all the necessary adjusments and send it to the US for me. While all this was happening – Sivan saw an optics store and went in to buy herself some eyeglasses she pretends she needs. I’ll try to find some pictures of her with them but for now, use your imagination.

After a long day, we took the subway to our hotel where Sivan took a short nap. By the way, this is our 4th day of the trip, and for some reason we though we should do laundry, so on the way back, we picked that up as well.

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While Sivan was taking her nap, I found a nice wine bar for us where we could celebrate one of our many anniversaries (December 4th, our first date). 10 years. Damn!

 

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