19 January 2008

Tai O And Other Tales




















It has been such a jam packed month, I am a little uncertain as to where to begin. I guess everything kind of kicked off with Christmas. I went to a lovely Christmas Eve party with colleagues from the kids school I work for. Then on Christmas Day I went to the orphanage and played with the kids. The week prior our group had an afternoon of packing goody bags for the kids and then handing them out. We are only allowed to take things to them on a few special occasions, so it was a wonderful opportunity to get them some much needed fruit and veg and sweet treats! Christmas night I was invited to a dinner party by my friend Sandie (an American ex-pat), we had turkey with all the trimmings! I thoroughly enjoyed the food and company! On the down side my laptop died on Christmas Eve. After a thorough investigation it was decided that a new computer was the best option. I made a hurried trip to Hong Kong on New Year's Eve with William, to purchase a new one. It had been a hectic week over Christmas/New Year as I was still working, even on Christmas morning! I went to a party for NYE with some colleagues from my old school. Too much champagne was consumed but it was fun never-the-less! I had two short trips back to Hong Kong and decided to go have a look around one of the sleepy fishing villages dotted around Hong Kong. I made for Tai O, which was a short metro and bus ride away. It was lovely and peaceful after the craziness of my life recently. You can see from the photos that the people there adhere to a more traditional way of life. Some of the houses are built on stilts over the water, the main income for the inhabitants is fishing and tourism. They make a shrimp paste which they sun-dry in large flat baskets. The smell was overpowering but it was intriguing to look at. As you would imagine in a fishing village there were many resident cats, all very well fed! I returned to Shenzhen with a visa to stay another 3 months, will go back to Hong Kong in April to extend my stay further. The school term has ended but my work continues with winter classes for the next week and half. After that it will be Chinese New Year, I'll have a few weeks to relax and possibly travel. Will update you again soon!