Expatriate Games

The Derriere Affair – Drama on the MTR

Day 4 (continued):  Hong Kong to Tai O to Hong Kong

Our Hong Kong adventure continued on Sunday afternoon with an unplanned and subsequently not very well thought out trip to Tai O. Tai O is a small fishing village popular with tourists and photographers on the far western side of Lanatu Island. It’s an easy day trip from the city but we still needed to be back in time to grab our bags, clear immigration and catch the last ferry (8PM) back to Shenzhen. Pei reaffirmed that she needed to be back by 7 to meet some other friends, so off we went!

The trip involved a short trek to the HK Central MTR station where we boarded the train for Lanatu Island. Along with Pei, we were traveling with Angelo and Zach, two young expatriates living and working in Hong Kong and they are also talented photographers. I figure walking to and through the station and then getting the tickets, took about 20 minutes or so. We boarded a waiting train and that’s when the real fun began. Now for those of you who don’t know Pei, she has a penchant… for jumping. She likes to jump. She likes to take picutres of others who like to jump. I think it makes for some great photographs and shows her free spirit. You can see a collection of jump shots here… it’s fun, go take a look. Of course Pei wanted to take the requisite jump shots of the boys on the train, a tradition that began last winter with this photograph of Angelo in Taipei. The guys were using the hand rails to propel themselves to each side of the aisle, getting progressively more air with each attempt. I was observing the other passengers take in the frivolity when all of a sudden there was a loud shriek, followed quickly by some shrill Cantonese cursing. Angelo, had literally kicked a middle-aged woman’s ass! After staring daggers at Angelo for what seemed like an eternity, the woman eventually moved on to the next car. A minor stumbling block. After Angelo’s sit of shame, we changed trains a bit later and I was relegated to security duty so Pei could get this shot.

Here’s Angleo moments before nearly causing an international incident…

Pei getting the shot. One of my long-time Flickr friends, Pei was in town visiting Angelo at the same time we were there so it gave us an opportunity to get out and shoot together for the first time. She is a gifted photographer and kind with a sweet way about her. She’s also a special education teacher. I think there must surely be a special place in heaven for special-ed teachers.

It was only after the jump shots were in the can (in the can… I crack myself up) that I first noticed how far our train ride was going to be.  We were headed all the way to Tung Chung station, the end of the line. It only took about 30 minutes actual train time but add on the walk to HK central, then moving through the station and the time spent sitting at Central before we left, we arrived in Tung Chung about 50 minutes after we started. I was beginning to feel some pressure, worried that we wouldn’t get back in time to catch the ferry. We hopped into a taxi and 30 minutes later, with still no fishing village in sight, we made a quick decision to stay in Hong Kong another night. Presto, pressure gone! This is Zach in the front seat of our taxi, after assuring me (again) that Tai O was just ahead…

When we did finally get to the village I was glad we went. It was hot as blazes and as humid as I’ve ever seen anywhere at anytime but the time spent with three young photographers was refreshing, uplifting even. They were having fun and it was contagious. It seems as I’ve gotten older I sometimes forget how to live life in the moment. Here’s a glimpse of Tai O…

These guys were friendly, the fella’ in front spoke fairly good English. They were watching a China – USA women’s volleyball match and were happy to let me take photos. I sat down on the front stoop and they went back to the TV as if I wasn’t there.

There were photo ops around every corner. What you can’t really see in these photos is just how hot it was but  look closely at Angelo’s back above and you can see he has sweated through his shirt. We all had… It was a good way to jump start my diet.

Of course there was more jumping… pretty impressive hops from Zach, especially when you take into consideration it was late afternoon and we’d been walking in the heat all day!

We left Tai O just as the sun was setting, that’s the last exposure of the day above. By the time we got back to pick up our bags it was after 8. We vainly negotiated with a Wharney front desk clerk to get a discounted room rate but he actually quoted a price $500 HKD more than we paid the night before. Of course I wasn’t going to pay that. We had a little scrambling to do to find a room but it all worked out in the end. It would also give Lily some shopping time on Monday.

If you found your way here looking for more information on how to win one of the prizes we’re giving away to celebrate the launch of the new website, all you have to do to register is subscribe to the feed and leave a comment on one of the pages so I can contact you later if you do win something. We are giving way some cool stuff this month, including an Apple iPad, a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 MACRO lens, autographed limited edition prints and copies of Saving Faces -A Portrait Collection.

Next time… Lily goes shopping in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Oy vey.

Peace!

UPDATE: The subway jumping series continues on the BART in San Francisco here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 3:24 PM. It is filed under Blog, Post Slider, Travel and tagged with 5d mark II, canon, china, culture, documentary, expat, expatriate, hong kong, laowai, liuzhou, photo of the day, photography, photos, street, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.