We spent most of yesterday on Lantau Island, which is where the new airport is located. It is actually a pretty massive island, as we found out after we missed our bus and had to taxi across to the other side to join our tour. In the end we beat the bus there and the other tourists never showed up, so our tour guide David took us on a very private (and free!) tour around the fishing village of Tai O.
Tai O is a stilt village populated predominantly by fishing folk. The houses are built over the water on stilts, and they are pretty ramshackle. The people there were really friendly and tolerant of us stickin our noses in everywhere.
Our tour guide, David, was a local resident who had learned english many years ago and so was picked to lead the tours. He was informative and easygoing, but a bit pushy when it came to buying souvenirs and kinck-knacks to support the local economy. Tai O was nice enough that we didn't need the hard sell to make donations at the temples, but his insistence was a bit off-putting.
Nevertheless, Tai O was a fascinating look into a completely different way of life. Their fortunes are made or broken on the sea, so there are plenty of wishing trees and shrines to the relevant gods around the place. Like most of these places, they find it hard to keep the youngsters around and it looks like Tai O will eventually morph into a more tourist-focused enterprise. The government had recently built a high-rise nearby to give people an alternative to the squatting lifestyle, but it kind of misses the point (and ruins the view).
The parting memory I have of Tai O was using the local toilet before we left. It was a squat toilet, whch is no suprise, but it was just a hole in the floor that went into the harbour. The amount of trash floating in water was apalling and pissing into the harbour was a fitting finale.
After we left Tai O we had a 30 minute wait for the bus to leave. The bus had arrived early and the driver got out to have a smoke before we left, but a cleaning lady kept harassing him and getting him to move. They ended up having a massive argument that escalated into a shouting match and the driver was so pissed that he stormed onto the bus and told us to get on and we left 20 minutes early! Sweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment