Pun choi feast in Shap Long

We met a lovely man on our walk today who said he was on his way to the pun choi (big basin) feast in Shap Long. So that explained the yards of tarpaulin stretched across the beach area.

When we got there, it was still early afternoon so we got a preview of the feast.

Outdoor cooking. Do you see how huge the woks are?

As we hung around, a half-hearted lion dance came along to bring in luck to the celebrations.

It was followed by quite a delicious looking suckling pig.

The atmosphere was great and if we'd stayed longer I've no doubt we'd have been invited to dinner. But it was still only lunch time so we proceeded onwards to our usual lunch at Pui O Delicious.

Those irritating announcements

A few months back, when Rainbow won the village elections, he got his minions to give out feedback forms about ferry services. One of the questions was: Are the announcements too much, just enough, too little. I circled "too much".

I might as well have thrown my form into the bin because soon after that First Ferry upped the number of announcements. There are additional ones about wearing seatbelts and coughing into tissue papers. In fact, there are so many announcements now that they are still droning on even after we have left the bay in the morning.

The worst one is the new welcome announcement. The English announcer alternates between drawling and over-enunciation and emphasises all the wrong syllables: "WeeALcome to the FIRST feARRY..."

Argh! As if putting up with cockroaches, the smell of stale food and chewing gum is not enough. Was the fare hike just so they could pay someone to make more unwelcome announcements?

DB Farmers' Market

The new Farmers' Market in DB North is really, as Buffalo Wilbur noted: "More of a farmer's market as imagined by John Lewis or Waitrose." Everything was so posh and well-packaged... where were the farmers, where was the dirt?

The only organic raw produce we could see came in the form of leaflets by Homegrown Foods advertising their vegetable boxes.

But it was a pleasant day out, nonetheless. After all, we hadn't been to DB North before so this gave us an excuse to explore and make use of the free shuttle bus.

The food on sale included chocolates, homemade sauces, Iberico ham and truffles... so you can see how upmarket it was.

The cupcake stand did a roaring business.

They were sold out and packed up by 1pm, before most of the other stall owners.

Hill fire

Can't be someone burning offerings on the graves, it's the wrong time of the year for that. Maybe a farmer creating a big bonfire?

The house in the woods

We were getting a bit bored with our usual Mui Wo-Pui O route so we decided to try another one that went a little over the mountain.

And we were glad we did because we came across this charming village house tucked among an overgrown orchard.

The old couple who lived there were as charming as their house. When we asked them the path to Shap Long, they came out and showed us the way... speaking in English.

Tour groups galore

I've been watching the ferries coming in and have seen quite a few unfamiliar ones these past few months. They looked like the kind of kaidos we get to Discovery Bay so at first I thought we had a new ferry service (direct to Lamma, perhaps?).

But today I realised they were actually chartered ferries for tour groups. One stopped at the pier and disgorged an inordinate number of people.

Just one ferry load was enough for three coaches.

Pity the people just got on their tour buses and left. They could have done so much for the Mui Wo economy if each just bought a bottle or water and some snacks.

Mui Wo's God of Fortune

This little prosperity god made an appearance at the Dynasty Finance for Chinese New Year.

Hope he gets a permanent spot to improve the wealth feng shui around the area.