Summer in the Year of the Pig.
Back in
So we filled the days with projects.
There were the cleaning and maintenance projects. Same as ever.
All the bags (that they provide) are scrutinized for recyclable items.
There were the sewing jobs, which came with numerous trips in town to find needles, materials and eventually a new sewing machine.
Did we ever show you our new interior?
(with princess Wakame in the tray..)
The biggest project on Alishan was the haul-out.
With the clear-out of our storage in
Up, up and up we went.
The slip way is next to the Hebe Haven Yacht Club restaurant. Nice viewing deck on Work in Progress
As said, we had to do something about the waterline, so up, up, up another 5 cm!
Alishan is at least 15 ton, the slipway can have her.
Pfff, at the end of 4 days hard work (pestered by a few rain patches,) all looks well (in the dark) and ready for re-launch the next day.
As you know, HK goes with shopping, so we got new toys, like a 60 gb mp3 player, resulting in recording ALL our cd-s. Talking about time consuming!!!
The days in July and August were hot and humid and Marijkes skin wasnt too happy with this weather! The air conditioner that was once for sale was now keeping us cool in the hours before sleep and was quickly taken off the bulletin board.
Health and fitness projects: All the MacLehose hiking trails for Jaap and a 3 months ticket to the gym for Marijke.
Hiking
The joke is: At what shopping mall did you go hiking this weekend? Indeed there are zillions of shopping malls. And the truth is that there are also many real hiking trails in HK!
Looking to one side: Housing, more housing and of course shopping malls.
Bays, islands and more green.
This is the scenery in the MacLehose trail part 2.
Beaches, beaches and more beaches
No more overnighters to
Disney.
All those years of teaching English to kids in
The day was sunny and hot and we were prepared to get sunburned and all that BUT it turned out to be fun. Marijke had her first ever roller coaster ride and screamed her lungs out. Jaap did the same kind of thing laughing during a 3d movie with no story but lots of effects.
So, especially for the young ones:
Where does this train go to?
We had already planned to sail to
Macau, previously a Portuguese colony, is now a SAR (Special Administrative Region of China), just like
The ferry from Central takes only an hour and we thought that was fast enough, though a helicopter ride would have saved us at least 40 mins.
Upon arrival we took a bus to town and from there we walked and walked and walked. Saw little temples, narrow alleys and of course the famous sites as the ruins of the
Largo da Senado
The façade of the
The streets have Portuguese names, written on white and blue tiles.
4, 5
Those spirals are made of incense, burning slowly from the outside, filling the temples with a mystic smoke.
On the outskirts it was a very different place. Huge new buildings rose up, many still under construction, in the weirdest colors and shapes, with lots of that shiny Chinese gold. And most of them hotels with casinos. The biggest one, the Venetian, was just about to open and is supposed to have the worlds 2nd larges amount of floor space. This town makes more money then Las Vegas! The place swarmed with people, mostly mainland Chinese on gambling trips.
New casino under construction.
We made sure that we had a good meal of dumplings for lunch and some Portuguese food for dinner before we took the Turbojet ride back to HK and slept in our own beds again.
It was only 2 weeks later that the same issue came up, this time for Alishan. In order to keep foreign status the boat had to leave after six months. So there we went again, this time before any typhoon could bother us.
Onboard came Karin, a Dutch lady off another sailing boat, whos visa was also about to run out. Since Karin is deaf, in the means that she cannot hear ANYTHING, we were constantly aware of how much you depend on your hearing. Talking with her wasnt difficult, she lip reads perfectly in Dutch and English, but you need to look her straight in the face, so talking while doing something else was out. And we talked a lot
We left Hebe Haven about 8 in the morning and headed out towards
There we chose the passage between the island and
We enjoyed the views at leisure. Too bad the sun wasnt out and the wind didnt show up either; we motor sailed the whole day.
Its not only high rise on the shores of
Cheung Chau
The weather was not bad, but the winds were light and again we couldnt sail much. So the Yanmar worked overtime.
Close to the entrance to
Some huge bridges connect Macau with the islands of Taipa and Coloane (part of Macau SAR) and mainland
River scenes. Mainland
Upon entering the yacht harbor we had to negotiate a huge mass of floating plants, water hyacinths, which I think should be the flower in
Why doesnt anybody cleans this up?
Again we walked, walked and walked. Ate bacalhau (Portuguese dried fish) in various ways. Toured the 2 islands Taipa and Coloane by bus, visited the goddess of the sea at the A-Ma temple, and cleared out 2 days later.
Stokvis as we say in Dutch.
An old wall on Taipa.
Macau was originally built on 3 islands:
Dried fish and street scenes.
More temple stuff including a detail of a sacred wall hanging.
Ma Kok, a temple for A-Ma, a goddess of the sea is our favorite. Despite all the attention we paid her we never got any good winds on the way back
Our old anchorage of 15 years ago.
We anchored in the river in front of the temple and next to the
Karin took the ferry back to
Entering the harbor we felt how much Hebe Haven had become our home for the last six months. We loved Macau (Except the yacht harbor) but were happy to be back in
Lantau
One of our daytrips was to Lantau, the island to the west of HK, where the new airport resides. Apart from this airport and
We took a ferry from
In HK wherever you go youll find a market selling fish, even in this sleepy town.
On Lantau we saw bicycles again. Ohisashiburi!
Another small village harbors on a hill top the countries biggest Buddha statue. The hundred something steps were a good remedy for our lazy legs.
Now that weve been to Disneyland we could not skip
They really are quite cute.
Boats & Floats
Slow: What else to do on your day off. Go fishing right down town harbor, and yes there is fish, but we wouldnt eat it!
Fast: Smuggling business is BIG (from HK to mainland) Hence the officials have some floats to challenge the smugglers.
Parking , city style and more rural
Other & Shopping
We spent many hours walking through
Another Chinese opera, this time on our own yacht clubs car park! We could hear the music in the cockpit, all the way across the bay.
A performer getting ready for the nights show and paper roosters selling in front of the theater.
Dim Sum or Yam Cha for lunch.
Markets are everywhere. What can you buy there?
Fruit, like mangos, papayas, pineapple, lychees and .
Veggies of course and fermented tofu. Specially the smelly kind.
Marijkes favorite fish: Tomba!
Ladees peeling shreemps in
Sai Kung, our hometown here once more. I cant get enough of that place.
People
Karin from
And here is Janice.
Janice and her staff at Sing Kee sail and flag co. did a Super Job on the upholstery, cockpit cushions and blinds for Alishan.
Together with her and her friends we enjoyed one of the big fireworks displays in HK
Thanks Janice!
Meet Peter.
Peter Hansen, to be complete. Cruiser for many years!
Lives on board his catamaran LAMBADA here in in HK. We had met in 1992 during our first visit.
Okay, okay, Peter is a bit older now but still has the same spirit.
Hey Peter: Hope to share an anchorage with you and Lambada one day, away from the city!
(photo taken during a Hebe Haven Yacht Club outing)
Some
I think we set a new record in how many/hour.
With them we finally did our sampan tour around the islands of Sai Kung. Of course followed by a super meal at one of the Sai Kung fish restaurants.
Thanks Mena for the updates on our hometown.
This is friend Jaap.
On his way from
Good on you Jaap, to get Boris B. shipshape back to cruising.
Now the unbelievable: Mena (see above) and this Jaap had once met in 85, never since and now here in HK they miss each other on board of Alishan by a few days!
Funny
Are you still with us??
Hmmmm, he can probably only read Chinese
.
Where the hack is this? (answer: macau)
Road construction at the sidewalk to Sai Kung. The red sign asks the pedestrians kindly ! to use the opposite roadside
To safely cross this road youll have to use the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights
. once you successfully climbed the fence ;-))
Seen from the Big Buddha statue on
Now you know where (not) to go for some pork.
This very young office girl takes her notebook where its cool to do her work.
He must be cruising out there somewhere
.
Thats all for the moment, see you next time.
Salute.