Wah Kee food porn

Sometimes I get a big craving for sweet-and-sour pork and only Wah Kee's will do. The chicken with cashew nuts is my concession to Buffalo Wilbur who doesn't like pork.

Typhoon Utor hits South Lantau

The bay looked quite calm so I thought the ferry folks were a bit wussy not starting up the ferries again until 3.30pm. Then I saw Cheung Sha beach from the top of the pass...

 It had all but disappeared. The waves coming in looked like something from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

I white-knuckled it on the ferry ride home. The big ferry was pitching and swaying so much I almost thought we would tip over, like the Trans Summer.

Then I looked across and all my ferrymates  were glued on their smartphones or asleep so I told myself I was being a wuss. But never have I stepped on the pier with such relief before.

My friend said that on the ride to Central the next day, the poor mainland tourists (unused to sea trips) were throwing up onboard. One nearly threw up on him as they walked through the gangplank to disembark.

Overheard in South Lantau

Guy A: So, you live here?
Guy B: Yup
Guy A: Lucky sod

Clams by the bushel

The first sunny day in the week and the clam diggers are out in full force in the beach.

I've always been curious as to what they're digging up. This one seems to grab anything, even barnacles.

But this person seems more selective.

Secret beach

I know it isn't peak tourist season yet but the Silvermine Bay beach is beginning to fill up already. So we decided to take a walk to the quiet "secret" beach along the road to Man Kok Tsui.

It takes a bit of walking to get there but it is so worth it. Even when the main beach is crowded, there are hardly more than two or three couples here.

I wanted to live in this building – until Buffalo Wilbur pointed out that it probably used to be a pig sty.

The beach is surprisingly clean, considering there are no armies of cleaners sweeping it every morning.

Can anyone tell me what fruit this is and whether it's edible?

What scum!

The delivery boats have come and gone. And this is what they appear to have delivered along with the usual groceries. Yuck!

Rough sea warning

Typhoon Signal 3 + small ferry = 1 very sick me staggering out at Central Pier No 6.

See how the spray comes up over the window?

FSV, PSV or NSV?

We and our part-time helper have a small tussle going on.

Every time she comes, she moves stuff in front of our living room window. When she leaves, we move it away.

We want the picture window unblocked so we can see the full sea view we paid for. She sees it as additional wall space.

Have you noticed this phenomena all round Hong Kong? The windows with the best view are always obscured by posters, clothes or, more often than not, a huge wardrobe.

I can understand if they live in somewhere like Mongkok, where the only view is of someone else's toilet. But in Mui Wo, where the sea is the best thing about the place?

It's a wonder real-estate agents even bother to tell you what kind of view a flat has. Maybe in addition to FSV (full seaview) or PSV (partial seaview), they should also add FHW (full hanging wall) or PSL (plenty of space for laundry).

Beach bumming

Finally had a dip in the beautiful crescent beach in Mui Wo. Yes, after all our visits there, I haven't even dipped so much as a toe in the water until now.

Mui Wo was always the end point of our Discovery Bay-Mui Wo walks so we'd always reach the beach all sweaty and shaky-kneed and just dying to get home -- not an optimum condition for admiring the soft sand and clear water.

And our later trips have been house-hunting/contractor-interviewing ones so we'd usually be either jumping from flat to flat or stuck in ours waiting for contractors to arrive.

But we finally took advantage of the good summer weather and a long weekend to hit the sands. The necessities were cheap and easy to find. I bought a HK$16 mat from one of the beach-themed stalls by the seafood centre and, from the Ah Por next to the public library, a HK$38 swimsuit and HK$16 beach towel. Hubby, always a wimp when it comes to cold and water, bought a book from The Bookshop to keep him occupied while I went for my inaugural swim.

I know people make fun of Hong Kong waters. After all, when they were filming Batman here, the rumour was that Batman was supposed to dive into Victoria Harbour but the presence of raw sewage made the idea unfeasible (not true, of course, said director Chris Nolan).

The Environmental ProtectionDepartment website, www.epd.gov.hk, is not encouraging. It warns: "Although about 80 percent of the population of Mui Wo and the surrounding villages are connected to sewerage, some houses still use septic tank and soakaway pit systems for sewage treatment and disposal. Many of these are at close proximity to streams. If treatment systems are not properly maintained, sewage may overflow to the nearby streams and rivers leading to the beach.

"Similarly, sullage from village houses would also be discharged via surface channels to watercourses in the vicinity. Hence the water quality of Silvermine Bay is particularly susceptible to the effect of heavy rain, which may flush pollutants from the hinterland into the beach water."

Euwwww...

The sea pleasantly surprised me, though. The water quality, according to the signboard at the lifeguard's post, was good. I could see my feet in the water. The only piece of rubbish I saw floating was a plastic bag some idiot had left behind after turning it into a makeshift bucket.

And the sand was clean. Cleaner even than in Singapore, where you'd think the law-abiding Singaporeans wouldn't dare to litter. I think it was because the beachgoers really appreciated the clean beach. A whole afternoon of public holiday crowds and there was hardly any litter to be seen anywhere at sunset. When a badly-placed styrofoam cup blew over, a stranger actually picked it up and put it in the bin.

We'd planned to stay there an hour. In the end, we stayed four, reading our books, slurping ice-cream and munching Pringles. Hubby said he hadn't felt this relaxed in ages. And to think we can do this every weekend when we finally move in.

But I think we're still staying out of the water after rainy days, though.