Hong Kong Day 38: "Si Si"

So yesterday was the best hong kong day so far (and probably for the whole trip). A friend of dr. fairweather’s planned a boat tour of some of the remote beaches in hong kong. This was an outing for his research and graduate students and he invited dr. fairweather and the rest of our group to join them. Since my parents are around during this trip, I half joking/half seriously emailed dr. fairweather and asked if my parents and sister could go with. He asked and dr. moon said yes =D So during this whole trip I kept thinking how lucky I was that my family could join me on this wonderful trip. Our trip first started with us meeting my parents and dr. moon at the Chinese university kcr (train) exit. Then we walked to Holo Harbour and boarded a boat there that took us out through the tolo channel and out to a magnificent beach. I think the name of it was Nam Shea Bay. There seemed to be no way to get there except by boat. Even our boat was too big (it held about 40 people including 3 crew members) to go up to the beach. We either had to swim to the beach or there was a small little boat attached to our boat that would take people to the beach. I and most of the reu kids and my sister all jumped in to the water and swam to the beach –which was long, but a lot of fun. The water is the perfect temperature here and the water is so clear that even before I could touch the bottom of the beach, I could see the sand on the floor =) there was no one on this beach except for our group. It was amazing. It was like we were in the movies. There were tiny fish in the water and man…words cannot describe it. It was so blue and green and gorgeous. The only thing I wished for were bigger waves to body surf on. =) I had my mom take my camera over in the boat so I took pictures there. I was the official photographer of the group. Most of the pictures were fantastic –although I tried this beach setting that made some of the pictures look strange. We stayed and played some volleyball and just frolicked around the beach. Then we came back and traveled back to a small fishing village called grass island. There we ate a local restaurant. It was pretty good –especially the fish and vegetables. The Chinese/hong kong students were so courteous of the women on the trip. They helped serve us in the restaurant and helped us get on and off the boat. It was very nice of them. I have found that often male hk people are very nice to the women here. We walked to the village nearby after dinner and there was not much to see other than an old woman and some doors with little temples outside to keep away bad spirits I think. Mike bought a funny fishing hat here to wear for the rest of the trip.

After leaving grass island we traveled to Sai Wan (or a beach near there –maybe Sai Wan is the name of the beach). Anyways I think I was told that supposedly this was the best beach in Hong Kong. There were only 2 other people there (and as we were leaving some army people came by with a dog. They were climbing a nearby mountain it seemed, but I was very confused. Anyways this beach was even prettier than the other –well they were very comparable and this was breathtaking! Again it was amazing that no one was there ---I think partly because they are hard to get to, and partly because it was on a Wednesday. Dr. Moon told my dad that he has been to these beaches 3 times. The first time he came, he had to walk 6 hours to get there. Isn’t that amazing? Anyways this was a lot of fun. Courtney dad and I were able to do a little bit of pathetic body surfing. The waves just were not big enough.

I met a new friend on the trip. His name is Louis and he is from mainland china…somewhere in the center of china. He is here getting his PhD in computer science at Chinese University. He was very friendly to my parents and my sister and me and very talkative. He told me things about china and hong kong. He also taught me some mandarin and Cantonese. He gave me his cell phone number and offered to take me (and my parents but they are leaving so not really) to china one day. He also said I could come to Chinese university and visit and he would show me around hk a bit. I don’t know if I will be able to do this though because I am only here for another 2 weeks…and I have so much I want to do!! He told me that my family seemed so nice and happy together. He said he only sees his family around new year, and that his dad is very strict. His girlfriend works in Beijing and he only sees her every few months too. I asked him if it was hard to keep such a long distance relationship, but he said no. that is good I think and shows that they have a good relationship. Anyways we taught louis how to body surf –somewhat. He said in china they do not swim much and that he likes to play basketball in his free time. And of course he likes soccer. I liked him, he was very nice and it was fun to make a new friend.

Dad, courts, and I went along this rocky path because we wanted to explore it and also dad wanted to see if he could dive off the edge. The rocks were so painful to walk on!! And at the end, the water was too shallow to dive from and instead had sharp rocks on the bottom too. Oh well! Anyways after this beach we went along the Pacific Ocean –I think—and came back and ended up in Sai Kung. Here my parents and I stayed and ate at a seafood restaurant here. There were many of them along the dock, but we chose one because the woman who came up to us about the restaurant told us that we could eat the 2-person set dinner because the 4-person would be too much. All the other people kept trying to get us to spend the extra money for the 4 person sets. The lady was right, we had no problem finishing the food. It was delish! We had lobstar, crab, scallops, and yummy fish. After this we were very full and we got on a bus and traveled back to the train and then I went to my hotel. Oh yes at some point in our trip the water was so clear that we could see lots of white jellyfish in the water from our boat as we went along. it was very cool! =)

And thus ended a wonderful day.
Today, Chelsea and I worked and met kinnex, pui, and I new boy I had not met before named German (although at first I thought they were saying Jammin). German plays soccer and is a soccer friend of kinnex although they have different groups of friends. I liked him he was very fun to talk to. We ate some yummy tai food and they ordered me a pretty good coconut drink with strange jellies in it. We were talking about how Chelsea and I know Spanish…at least somewhat. And they asked, “really, you know Spanish?” and I said, “yes…although I guess I should say, si si (pronounced “see see”).” Well german and kinnex looked behind them confusedly. I didn’t really understand what they were doing but luckily Chelsea came to the rescue. She said they think you are telling them to look behind them. It was true they thought I was trying to tell them to “see see” behind them and see a pretty girl. =) they didn’t know that “si si” means “yes yes” in Spanish. I think almost everyone in the usa knows that si means yes in Spanish. it is very strange that people here do not know hola or si. =) anyways after work I went with my parents back to the revolving restaurant which again was so delicious and gorgeous. They liked it and so it was good. We were too tired to go to temple street and I did not complain. We just hung out at the hotel for a bit and they told me their funny stories from the day. Maybe I will talk about that later, but now I must go to bed. tomorrow I will play soccer and my parents will meet some of my hk friends =) wooo!