BECKY WAS HERE (part 3)

So, on to Lamma Island.

I should start by explaining that I'd had some trouble trying to reserve our lodgings on Lamma.  The place we stayed was recommended by a coworker and she said it was the perfect spot.  Unfortunately, they don't have a website and I couldn't find a phone number, just an email address.  So I sent an email off into the void asking if they had a room on the night I wanted.  Sure enough, Eric wrote back and said that they did and that if I could just put down the deposit we'd be all set.  I wrote back and asked for a phone number so I could give them my cc info.  Eric responded, saying that they didn't take plastic, but if I could just transfer the money to their bank account they would be happy to reserve a room for me.  I was like - huh?  How am I supposed to do that when the only information I have for your business is a name and email address?  Seriously?  So I wrote back and told him I'd be happy to do that but had no idea how and asked if he could provide me with instructions - or a form - or their account number or bank name - anything.  He wrote back saying that due to the "unusual circumstances" they would reserve it for me with no money down, and by happy chance a balcony room had opened up and so I could have that one.  This sounded both easy and pleasant, but I was a little concerned that we'd arrive tired and hungry after a long day in HK, only to find that we had nothing reserved.  So I brought my little email printout just in case, but it wasn't needed.  Everything was as promised, I paid in cash and our room was great!  I still have no idea how anyone else books these rooms, but I'm very glad it worked out so well for us!

Sorry this is too dark to see.  I could see better while I was taping which is why I'm trying to describe things as though you can see them.  There were tourists coming in late into the night on the boats every half hour or so.  Becky and I watched them while we were having dinner - we went and got Indian food at a nice place on the water.  It was tasty but I forgot to take a picture.  Then we went back to our room and ate dessert and watched Castle - Nathan Fillion's new tv show.  (New, in this case, meaning post-Firefly.)  It was decent, but strange to be watching American tv again. 

Here's our hotel from the front.

And a video that is properly lit.

I figured I better include this one to be fair since I caught Becky in her glasses on the vid. 

Even the graffiti on Lamma is friendly!  Such a laid-back place!

We went back to the Indian place for breakfast too, because it had a nice atmosphere and we'd noticed they had an "English-style" breakfast menu, which I never get these days.  It was very good - we had eggs, ham, bacon, a grilled tomato, beans, toast, a sausage, and a crepe with fresh strawberries.  Yum!!!  We saw the tourists flooding in again every half hour while we ate.  They'd just walk down the pier and through the little town - I have no idea where they were going.   We expected at some point in our day we'd see a ton of people somewhere to account for them all, but we never did.  Weird...

I enjoyed watching these little boats crisscrossing back and forth across the harbor all morning.

Finally we got a move on and first stopped at this lovely beach, just off one of the trails.

Such a nice place to take a photo!

As long as you don't look to the right.  The downside of Lamma is this huge coal plant.  Not exactly what I'd call picturesque.  Maybe this is where all the people on the boats went...

Later we found another beach and this one had lovely warm sand.  It was 70 degrees when we wandered through, so we stopped and laid out for about 30 minutes.  Enough to make this white girl turn pink!  :)  It felt great.

But finally we drug ourselves away and got back on the trail to the other village/tourist spot on the opposite side of the island.

We came upon this funky organic herb garden on the edge of town.  It said no photo taking, so I got this one off the internet.  It was totally cute and had a nice place where you could sit outside and have tea.  They also had some big fat rabbits running around in a huge pen.  I bought some dried lemongrass for making chai when I have Indian leftovers at home.  :)

Nice view of the island.  Note how high up we are.  We had to climb to get there.  We did a lot of walking up and down hills during Becky's visit, so I tried to space them out so she wouldn't overexert her knee.  (She had ACL surgery last year.)  The downside of this area (Macau included) is that all the best views are at the tops of large hills.  If you need to work on your thighs, this is the place to visit!

On the other side, coming down to where the fishing village is.

Finally back at sea level and getting our first good look at the village.

Here's a detail so you can see their elaborate rafts.  It reminded me of Waterworld.

Some more lovely plant life...

Our reward.  The village on the far side was not much to see, but it had some good seafood restaurants.  We chose Rainbow, because it was recommended in my book and the menu looked good - plus the waiter out front was by far the most charming.  We ordered the two person set and got calamari, fried lobster tails...

 and scallops,

and snapper and some other good stuff I can't remember anymore.  But we liked it all.  Luckily our friend came and took apart this fish for us since it's a little intimidating for us wimpy Westerners.  Then, we had to get back on the trail and hoof it back to our hotel to get our bags.  We made much better time on the return trip and then in the end had to wait for like 20 minutes at the hotel anyway.  We'd left our overnight bags and had a little misunderstanding about when to pick them up.  Then we jumped back on the ferry and headed home.  Got back to the apartment late, and were tired and sore from our long walk, but felt that sense of contentment that only comes from a good day of adventuring.  Yay for Lamma!  I'll be back, you expat vacation paradise you!