10 March. Day 3.

A quiet day in Hong Kong planned with a short shuttle ride down to Tung Chung the ‘outlet center’ where we’d been told there were shops & cafes. But the timings were inconvenient and the concierge advised that the S1 bus would take us there for eight Hong Kong dollars so we decided to do that – D had some small change left over from a Defence trip about 15 years ago (of course). 

Soon enough we were on the bus, transiting via the airport terminals Cathay headquarters, the aviation fuel tank farm and a couple of other places, we arrived at Tung Chung  station, akin to bussing to Woden Interchange but on a very much larger scale.  Having avoided the horrendous costs of breakfast in the hotel, the next step was to look for a coffee and some breakfast, but that was not so easy and in the end we bought a beef bun, two bananas, two yogurts, and an apple in a supermarket which sold a vast range of packaged/prepared food (hot & cold). Yogurts weren’t really useful, at that stage, because we did not have a spoon. We ate our bun outside and got a coffee from one of the bakery cafes: David had a umami scroll, which tasted fishy (seaweed) and Trish had an apple and raisin scone. This is not a cafe culture but patrons & staff were young, well-heeled in Western style & appeared to be enjoying a ‘western processed food scene’. 

From there we decided to walk toward the water and follow a suggested historical trail, but  without any indication of distances – it was a ‘discovery thing’. 

We climbed stairs & followed paths through gardens, across footbridges and past housing estates (multiple tower blocks). We found ourselves in the old fishing part of Lantau, passing through a ‘suburb’ or area called Chung Hau, complete with alleyways/workers’ cafes, small businesses and very old waterfront housing (the stuff of a culture disappeared) in the old fishing zone (now it seems to be the construction workers’ lunch spot & maybe the eating zone for the older style housing blocks). 

The  day was surprisingly very warm so we paused in shade within an estate & used foraged  spoons to eat yogurt. Here we saw kids (middle eastern, perhaps Pakistani, definitely not Chinese)  playing cricket outside the apartment tower. This seemed a world apart from the Tung Chung scene. 

Suspect action – perhaps Sri Lankan?

Then we followed the trail toward the estate that claimed to be a public art space…it was an estate which had installed a variety of installations. The estate struck us as a ‘suburb’…an area of many skyscraper apartment blocks.

 The estates have schools & small shopping outlets, central playgrounds,  sitting areas and covered walkways. The demographic was far less well heeled than at Tung Chung & there were no Westerners. We found about 6 art installations all referring to the link between  past rural/ natural  settings & the current urban neighborhoods. Here there were all ages, kids in school uniforms, some women in middle-Eastern garb, ‘ordinary folk’ without the glamour of the Tung Chung set. The apartment block estates had washing lines outside the windows, old aircon units & there were rusty old bicycles abandoned and chained up, filling up the designated bike racks, signage for dog owners, ….but all was otherwise so clean & orderly.