Music by Wallows - Scrawny.
This weekend the weather has been fantastic. Scorching hot temperatures of 28 degrees. Clear blue skies. What more could you ask for? The answer would be wind. The weather with the added humidity is hot hot hot, you just sweat standing outside. The great Wellington wind would have been amazing to balance the heat. But it's all good because it's the first time since I've been here that the weather has been great over the weekend!
On Friday it was the first day of the Rugby 7's. Living in Causeway Bay, just around the corner from the Hong Kong Stadium where the tournament was held, there were many festivities happening. They had set up a mini game where people had to play a game on a tv screen where they had to press a button to catch three specific patterned rugby balls. If you missed or caught the wrong ball, you lose a point. If you get all three balls, you get a soft mini rugby ball. The wait time was about 90mins in the heat. After, my scour around the festivities of a mini American ninja warrior course for both adults and kids, a big screen TV playing the rugby live and food trucks, I decided to give the mini game a go. I won the game. I won a ball. I was tired from the heat. I went back home had a rest. I ended up going out for dinner where masses of crowds were coming out from the Hong Kong 7's Stadium. I was with Frankie, and naturally since I was speaking in English, I conversed with the waitress in English saying that I wanted two portions of a certain dish. There was a misunderstanding between what I was saying to the waitress. My mind was still in English and I completely blanked out in what was happening and didn't know how to respond. Two blokes wearing South African rugby shirts were sitting next to us, and they started speaking cantonese for us explaining what we wanted. I felt super embarrassed that he needed to speak in cantonese for me when, I should be able to speak it myself since it's my culture. I was grateful that he was there, but I just felt really guilty that I never made the effort to learn cantonese properly.
On Saturday, we went on a hike to Tai Long Bay, a sweet escape from the concrete jungle that is Hong Kong. We took three different trains to Diamond Hill, then switched to a double decker bus in Sai Kung. From there we switched to another bus that took us to the start of our hiking trail. After about a 2 hour hike through the Hong Kong bush, struggling to breathe in the thick humid air, we made it to paradise. Not quite Tai Long Bay, but the beach next to it, Ham Tin Beach. As soon as we walked through civilisation and past the drumstick umbrella's we saw the sand and the beach. It was pure bliss. We made it after a treacherous hike. It didn't not seem like we were in Hong Kong. The sand was white and the ocean was blue. It was beautiful. We had our packed lunch, sunbathed and went for a dip. We then took a boat back to Sai Kung Pier as the sun was setting, the first sunset I've seen since being in Hong Kong for a month. It was beautiful. I loved the boat ride back and would definitely go there again and stay the night in a tent!
On Sunday, Frankie and I went to a Cha Chaan Teng, Cafe Matchbox, to have a traditional Hong Kong breakfast. This consisted of; eggs on toast, ham macaroni and a hot milk tea. The eggs on toast was amazing. The yolky eggs soaked up by the thick buttered toast was divine. The ham macaroni was something else. It's not your typical macaroni and cheese with ham. It was more of a soupy, macaroni wanting to be like noodles, with spam ham and not cheese. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's not terrible at the same time. I wasn't mad, it was a fun experience and would eat it again, since all of that was only $38 HKD ($7-8 NZD). I definitely want to go back and get: french toast, black and white toast and bolo bao with cold butter (and their sandwiches). So many things to try, and the clock is ticking by fast. I then made my own way to Stanley Market using the many public transports that Hong Kong offers, via the green minibus. It was definitely an experience. It was shaky. It was a bit reckless. But, it was fun. Going to Stanley Market brought back memories from 4 years ago, buying matching elephant pants with my college mates. It was weird coming back and being so familiar with the area. I had a look around and saw more than I did 4 years ago. I saw the pier, the famous yellow stanley market wall, some lion dancing and a temple. I found a basketball (finally), bought a necklace and headed back home on a green minibus. Went around Tsim Sha Tsui. Took the star ferry back to central. Went to 7/11 and bought dinner. Headed home and had a good rest.
It's been a good weekend exploring and looking around Hong Kong. Being in both the city and in the middle of nowhere. Another two weeks till the next long weekend!