Lamma Island

Below is a map of Hong Kong. All the yellow is Hong Kong and plenty of people live in all parts of it, including the various islands. You can see on the left side of the picture that the airport is sort of it's own (reclaimed land) island. The island south of Hong Kong Island is Lamma Island. (If you click on the map, it will enlarge.) Lamma is where Nathan's dad lives and where we are staying for the month of May. It is also one of the places we are considering living. At the end of this post, I'll tell you the other places we're considering, in case you're interested.

So I thought I would give you a tour of Lamma. It is very UNtraditional Hong Kong and people like to go there for holidays and weekends, mostly to eat seafood and go to the beach. Here the inside of the ferry that takes us to and from Lamma.

It's about a 30 minute ride to Central.

(Central is on Hong Kong Island and where the SALT office is located.)

Through the ferry window, you get a glimpse of some of the housing on Lamma. Down on the waterfront are some little shanty-type places.

A nice pagoda to welcome you.

And the Lamma Welcome Sign, near the pier,

and right next to the Lamma Public Library.

You won't find any cars on Lamma, only these small truck things

that are used to move stuff (but not people) around.

Some people ride bikes, but most everyone just walks.

Here's a look down Main Street, early in the morning when it isn't busy yet.

There is about half a mile of various stores and shops.

Smaller streets branch off into the residential areas.

This is a shot of the same corner, but later in the day when people are about.

This is one of the seafood restaurants people come to Lamma for. You can choose your own live critter and have a seat overlooking the harbor.

You've already seen pictures of the playground and the beach on Lamma. So we'll head up to the village we're staying in and I'll show you around. This is our front "yard." Nathan is raking the leaves away in order to keep the bugs away, so the frogs stay away, so the snakes stay away. Lamma is mostly jungle.

Those some bananas next door.

We're on the ground floor and have a nice little porch.

This is a look at the whole building. This is called a village house.

In HK, you either have high rises or village houses. High rises can be any number of stories into the air, but a village house can only be 3 floors and only 700 sq. feet per floor. Locals in Hong Kong generally prefer high rises... there is more security, management takes care of certain things, and the higher you are the further you are from mosquitos! If a Chinese were to live in a village house, they would want the 1st floor (2nd floor in America). The ground floor is too close to bugs and such, and the 2nd floor is too hot because of the roof above. However, the person on the 2nd floor generally has the only access to the entire roof. For example, Nathan's dad is on the 2nd floor and has a staircase in his apartment going to the roof. He has his washer and dryer on the roof, along with extra storage, a grill, and patio furniture. Part of his roof is covered to keep his apartment cooler and provide shade when hanging out on the roof. For many Westerners, the top floor with roof is ideal. Westerners also tend to like village houses because you can get more square footage for cheaper, since locals tend to prefer high rises. Sometimes the ground floor comes with a patio/garden area, which is also nice.

I'm sure that was way more info than you ever wanted!

So now that you've seen the outside of our place, we'll head to our little village and back down to the ferry. Did I mention that Lamma only has village houses? No high rises on Lamma!

There's always new construction in Hong Kong!

Did I also mention that Lamma has a lot of foreigners? Look closely at the picture below... why do you think I think this house belongs to a foreigner?

Because seriously, who besides a foreigner would have this statue in their yard??!?? Nathan says it's an elk, I like to call it a moose, and Josiah calls it an antelope. I'm sure Nathan's correct, but moose is more fun to say.

Anyway, this is Tai Peng Village.

And this is the only store in our little village. It's got some essentials, so that's nice.

And now we're headed back down to Main Street and the ferry pier. See that hill? It's a brutal walk up, especially pushing a stroller and carrying groceries. Imagine carrying a moose up the hill!

But the walk down is nice and green.

And we pass a few little farms.

So now we're through Main Street and walking out to the ferry.

Here's a look back at the main village on Lamma.

And another look. There's always lots of fishing boats about!

Here's a rather traditional fishing boat.

And the ferry!

Back on Hong Kong Island, we trade the village houses for the sky scrapers.

And the jungle for concrete.

So what do you think? Would you like to live on Lamma? A more foreign community with lots of bars, beaches, hippies, and hiking in the middle of one of the busiest, most modern cities in the world.

Some of the other places we're considering... Mui Wo or Tung Chung on Lantau Island. Yuen Long, Tai Po, or Shatin in the New Territories. Right now the front runner is Mui Wo and we'll go look at places there tomorrow. Hopefully we can find something this week before Nathan goes to Vietnam next week!