View more 35mm pictures at my Flickr album: December trip to Cheung Chau/HK
Cheung Chau was phenomenal. I visited Hong Kong during winter and I presumed the island would be chillier than the city (or probably it's just me and my unusual common sense) but the temperature was perfect than ever. The only pity would be the trip was only a 2-day sojourn since I was on a tight budget plus I had my city lodging booked, shorter trips are kind of always the better trips.
I'm not exactly obsessed but transportation cards get me high sometimes, especially when the ones you can buy things in convenience stores. I used to wear a card holder when I travel to: a) look like a student, b) look like a lost traveller, c) keep my purse in my bag, b) get food easily since my purse is in my bag. The Octopus card brings you to the island too, magically and amazingly.
Slightly culture shocked and ecstatic, the ferry terminal actually has the card barriers but I can't recall if there is a top up counter for it but there are counters for ticket collectors as mementoes as well. I wanted to visit Shenzhen to probably get a few Daniel Wellington watches for my friends as gifts, since it's still a trend on Instagram and no one would go close to your wrist and start identifying fake watches and genuine watches. Or Kate Spade bags, whatever. Malaysian passport is quite an agile document but not to China though, I'm not too fond of places that require VOA because I'm pretty lazy.
Island seafood dishes are the bomb because they are usually fresh and reasonably priced. Unless they are the ones near the ferry terminal, over the top expensive. The ones down the market lane along the seafood street on the left are cheaper and packed. The meal comes in a set and the prices are fixed with the chosen amount of the dishes in the menu. The amusing scene along the stretch is definitely the competition between the restaurants, sightly aggressive and it's sort of like Battle Royale - they have middle aged ladies offering free rice (!) with a side of fresh greens (!), totally a bargain. We chose a restaurant with blue checked table cloth on random and had a 3-dish combo, rice, and cider for lunch the next day before leaving the island.
We had a 3 dish combo: steamed scallops in shell topped with vermicelli in garlic and soy sauce, wok fried salt-and-pepper mantis prawn, and deep fried salt-and-pepper calamari. I really like the Yin/Yang salt and pepper as basic condiments with deep fried shellfish. The dishes left us speechless, just a thin coating batter enveloping the seafood, the insides remained tender despite deep fried. We also mixed the garlic soy sauce with our rice, an extremely satisfying seafood lunch with raw seafood flavours.
When in Cheung Chau, there's nothing much to do except having a Blue Girl beer and non-stop eating, the right side of the stretch sells snacks.
One of the island delicacies is mango mochi and it's no strange dessert to me since I grew up and still live with glutinous rice everything in our local desserts. I would say it's totally an Asian thing where we like our rice to be versatile - sweet, salty, sticky, definitely not in the form of rice, or basically everything mentioned and it would be in just one course. Especially glutinous rice - the varieties of the dishes in Malay, Chinese, and/or both (Peranakan) cuisines are endless and mighty, from turmeric infused yellow glutinous rice dish (nasi kunyit) to rice balls in a cold bowl of coconut milk soup with pandan jelly (cendol pulut).
One of the island delicacies is mango mochi and it's no strange dessert to me since I grew up and still live with glutinous rice everything in our local desserts. I would say it's totally an Asian thing where we like our rice to be versatile - sweet, salty, sticky, definitely not in the form of rice, or basically everything mentioned and it would be in just one course. Especially glutinous rice - the varieties of the dishes in Malay, Chinese, and/or both (Peranakan) cuisines are endless and mighty, from turmeric infused yellow glutinous rice dish (nasi kunyit) to rice balls in a cold bowl of coconut milk soup with pandan jelly (cendol pulut).
The island signature dessert is attainable anywhere in mainland too (I brought two back from the island, only to be teased by the hostel receptionist about the mango mochi stall down the road as well). It's quite an amazing dessert though, the huge and succulent mango slices wrapped in a soft flour coated glutinous rice paste. Solely depending on the stalls' preferences in business, some are wrapped with fresh mango slices and some would wrap the paste instead. A satisfying and refreshing sweet course for an island delicacy. There are also a few other options if mango is slightly disgusting for some (e.g. my other friends), some stalls offer fusions like strawberry mochi, and durian mochi. We weren't too fond of durian mochi, just the thought of it makes me shiver in fear though. Other than the mochi desserts, the island sells nibbles like extra large fishball stick, deep fried ice-cream, banana fritters with chocolate sauce, cheese baked shellfish. There's also a McDonald's right in front of the ferry terminal too.
The island is usually for day trips and my plan was supposed to be Lamma Island instead of Cheung Chau, but I've found a pleasant Airbnb house and I decided to give it a go since the house looked really Instagram worthy, which is kind of the only thing that matters. I've heard so many negative stories about this accommodation platform plus I didn't want to pay the extra service fees, the amount that I have to pay for the cleaning fees is like daylight robbery. Greeted by Robin, our Airbnb host, at the pier and then a stroll up to the house. The saunter reminds me of Penang, when my dad drove to Balik Pulau from the city, just a walking version. The island feels so much similar with my favourite state of my country, or it might be me having the similar mood when I was in Penang.
Cheung Chau is infamous for pirates invasion, and the famous bad-guy-turned-good Cheung Po Tsai has a cave on the island and it's for his treasures. The cave is slightly away from where we were along the island, our hosts said we didn't actually miss out from not visiting it so we were super cool with it. Another thing that the island is famous for is the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, pink 'safe-and-sound' Chinese words stamped on a pure white steamed bun, all decked up on the 'Bun Tower' made up of bamboo sticks with people climbing up snatching buns, what I learnt from TVB dramas since my younger days of binge watching with my mom. I didn't get to witness that, probably the drama I watched has a better view to it. The islanders have stalls selling the festival's merchandises, in between the seafood restaurant stretch of the road and pier. White-pink bun keychains, magnets, pouches, plush toy (!), and whatever accessories they could make buns out of it. I bought three fridge magnets of a plush bun, my aunt thought it was a real steamed bun and asked me what filling it was when I was really tired from my flight. My aunts and my mom crack either really tasteless jokes or, tasteless jokes, there's no in between, but I'm glad that they were all amused at the bun magnets. In the pink of health safely and soundly, these are all that matter the most for us.
We got a Cheung Chau map from our hosts for further exploration such as visiting the cave, but basically we didn’t really want to walk around the whole island. We spent our evening in sea breeze, looking at fishermen doing nothing with our mango mochi. Fortunately our temporary home is just 3 minutes walk away from Nam Tam Wan (the ‘Morning Beach’), the next morning we strolled down slope hills to the beach so we could dry our hair, which Yen gave us two bananas for our morning snack. Their veranda has a hammock hanging by the staircase down to their jungle like garden.
We were always having tea too over conversations - fresh lemongrass, longan, or ginger tea, perfect for our winter stay. They hosted another pair of mother/daughter during our stay, and we had a wonderful night watching an animated movie together using the projector in the living room - paired with tangerines, warm tea, and good company. They then continued with Spectre and we went back into our rooms to reply texts in the dark. Winter nights like these are the best winter nights, and it was definitely the optimal and the maximum (or minimum, heh) winter temperature that I actually like dwelling in. Parka weather is the best weather.
We were always having tea too over conversations - fresh lemongrass, longan, or ginger tea, perfect for our winter stay. They hosted another pair of mother/daughter during our stay, and we had a wonderful night watching an animated movie together using the projector in the living room - paired with tangerines, warm tea, and good company. They then continued with Spectre and we went back into our rooms to reply texts in the dark. Winter nights like these are the best winter nights, and it was definitely the optimal and the maximum (or minimum, heh) winter temperature that I actually like dwelling in. Parka weather is the best weather.
Robin and Yen, the hosts for my Airbnb. We were discussing about the master's degree my friend will pursue in the near future, and any of their friends where she should and could be in contact with, over warm ginger lemongrass tea. Then they spoke of their Christmas dinner, recommending some good restaurants in the city we should drop by before we leave the country, and about bringing down the tree by the veranda for a clearer sea view. This is definitely one of my favourite shots ever since I got my camera.
Airbnb listing - Sublime setting, room with a view
https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/9395383
