Hi everyone,
It's been a busy first few weeks for us in HK... Jim has been busy at work, and I have been busy flat hunting, job hunting and orientating myself in my new hometown!I thought that the map above may be helpful for those who are not too familiar with Hong Kong (and may be planning a visit here!!). We are staying in an area called Sheung Wan which is very close to Central on the map. It's right in the thick of it, with lots of restaurants and shops and easy access to pretty much everywhere in HK.
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| Our ferry at Sok Kwu Wan - Check out the bamboo scaffolding! |
On our first weekend we took the ferry from Central to Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma Island and had a walk around the Island for a couple of hours. Lamma is about 40mins from Central by boat but seems to be a whole world away. It was really peaceful with beautiful scenery - the perfect place to come to escape the city for a bit. The weather was lovely, about 18 degrees and a nice breeze - just right for walking up hills!
We walked from Sok Kwu Wan (a fishing port famous for some great seafood restaurants) to Yung Shue Wan, a busier town on the north of the Island.
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| At Lo So Shing beach |
The trail took us through a few small villages, and a couple of beaches.. each with their own barbecue pits. Jim and I stopped for a bit at Lo So Shing beach - the small pier behind us is a little seating area with solar panels used to power the lights.
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| View from the top of the trail |
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Just over half way across the island we came across Herboland! An organic herb garden and cafe, selling all kinds of herbal tea for different ailments - stress, fatigue, cold, and other more randomly named ones.
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| Very cool little herbal tea cafe |
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| Jim with his 'stress-busting' herbal tea |
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| Herbo-land cafe |
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| The herbo-land crop! |
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| The boats at Sok Kwu Wan |
We finished the afternoon off with a late lunch in one of the seafood restaurants at Yung Shue Wan, watching people boarding the boats back to Central. One of the best things about Hong Kong seems to be that you can have city life when you want it (in abundance!), but there are many areas you can go to get away from the craziness and unwind a bit.
In other news, I have made some contacts in the Psychology department at The University of Hong Kong and have started going to their lab meetings on Fridays. I am going to start working with one of their post-doctoral students (who, strangely enough has EXACTLY the same birthday as me, and same year) on a project about the differences between expert and novice musicians in how they read and process music. Quite a departure from my usual topic of language development and deafness, but I have used the eye-tracking techniques that she wants to use many times before - and am really interested in the topic! It's actually quite nice to work in a different area for a while... and get back to my psychology roots!
It's quite likely that we will have found a flat by the end of the week (fingers crossed!) so I will keep you all updated on where we'll be.
Lots more to report, but I'll save it for my next post...
Speak to you all soon,
Katie x
