We actually woke up at a decent time today and got breakfast down in the hotel restaurant.
We stopped for coffee on our way out to Hong Kong Central Pier where we grabbed a ferry to Lamma Island. As far as the island goes there's not really a whole lot to do there. They have a couple interesting sights of a giant wind turbine and huge
coal-powered fire station and they are best known for their excellent seafood restaurants but what we really wanted to do was hike through
it all. We started in Yung Shue Wan and right off weren't really impressed with the area. It was very apparent that the area was very poor and dirty. There were a bunch of stray dogs and nothing was very nice to look at but we found the
trail we wanted to take and were on our way. Once we got out of the populated area and into the nature side the views were stunning and we took a bunch of pictures. We stopped at Hung Shing Yeh Beach and got a
lot of cool shots before we headed up and over the mountain. With every step we went up we were rewarded with beautiful views of the ocean and rocks below and more mountains above. The first half of the walk was pretty much all uphill and it made our legs
tired but the sights were worth it. Today was actually a warm day with no rain. The first we have had of it's kind. When the wind blew it was chilly but once we started hiking we quickly warmed up. I had read that you don't want to do much bushwhacking here because the island has many poisonous snakes so we stayed on the trail. It was really cool to start on
one side of the island and see the views from that side then cross over the mountain and see the sights from the other side with Hong
Kong Island in the background. When we reached Sok Kwu Wan we were ready to go but we missed the ferry back to Central by seconds-this seems to be a trend for us. The next one didn't come back for over an hour so we took our time and went through all the restaurants
and looked at the menus and mostly the prices. We stopped at one at the end of the strip and enjoyed our lunch. It was nice to just sit on the balcony looking out at the boat houses, fishing
boats, and mountains without being rushed or hurried. I had fish and chips with a couple shrimp sticks and Peter had beef and curry but later said he should have gotten the same as me. He also tried a Chinese beer but said it was bitter. When we had finished our lunch we had about 20 minutes until the ferry was scheduled to
leave so we walked back to the pier to wait. Pretty soon we were back on Hong Kong Island. We walked down to Pier 9, where we had read that the AquaLuna Junk boat leaves from, to check on the times. They had a trip scheduled for 7:45 that took you out to the harbor and shut off the engines so you could see the Hong Kong Light show that
happens every night at 8:00. Peter called to reserve our spots on that tour but we had a couple hours to kill before then. Vandita had told me that I needed to go to The Mandarin Hotel and get a hot chocolate at Mo's Bar. We were trying to figure out what to do and Peter saw the Mandarin Oriental across the way so he suggested we get a drink. We found our way to the hotel but when we got in we were told that Mo's was at the Mandarin Landmark Hotel down the road so we took another walk. When we got there we found the bar without any problems and asked to be seated. I felt a little strange walking into this place with my jeans and tang top and baseball cap on. Everything was very sheik and everyone was dressed very nicely. Oh well, we are who we are and we only wanted a drink. I ordered the hot chocolate
and Peter got a glass of wine. When they brought the hot chocolate out I knew right away why Vandita thought I would like it. They brought me the hot chocolate, a cup of warm cream and then three plates of additives with it. There was cream, chocolate shavings and gourmet chocolate marshmallows. I was also given 3 tea cookies to dunk. That was definitely not like any hot chocolate I had before and it did taste amazing but I think the best I have ever had still goes to the hot chocolate I got every morning at the bar on
our trip in Rome. We still had to time to kill after that so we went to the IFC mall to walk around until it was closer to departure time. The malls are great and the size of them is enough to be impressive but I can't get over the fact that they have no where to sit. My feet were tired and I just wanted to rest for a moment but there is not a single chair that isn't in a restaurant and usually those are all filled up too. We still had time but we decided to head to the pier because we knew there were benches out there. On the water it was a bit more windy but I was prepared with my jacket and scarf. We could see the AquaLuna across the way with the red sails lit up in the darkness. I wanted to get a few shots of it while it was on it's way over but while we were waiting Peter realized that everyone
else had made a line to get on the boat. We would be the last to board and therefore got the seats leftover. I was a bit disappointed about that but I think in the end it actually worked to our advantage. The boat wasn't crowded but there really were only enough seats for the people onboard. If we had gotten good seats we wouldn't have wanted to move around at all in fear of losing our seat but since our seats weren't any good to begin with we got up and walked around to see the best view from any position in the harbor. We started the tour sitting on the top deck in the middle but ultimately went down to the very front of the bottom deck where we could
easily see both sides of the harbor, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon side. The light show was very unimpressive and boring but the sights of the all the buildings glowing their usual lights was very pretty. We took a bunch of photos and then managed to steal a seat for the last bit of the ride. Peter had said he wanted to go back to a Thai restaurant that we ate at last time we came to Hong Kong but neither of us were really hungry and we knew the servings at the Thai place would be large and pricey. Instead we went back into IFC Mall and found a little cafe that served salads, sandwiches and paninis. From there we caught the MTR and then walked back to our hotel.
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