Last night Brent and I were treated to a lovely evening on a 40' sailboat of friends of ours, the Orrin Blue. (Thanks, Catriona and Bob!) It turns out they hadn't sailed in Tai Tam Bay for 30 years, but they happened to be just off the pier which is literally a five-minute walk from where we live. A few weeks earlier Catriona had heard one of my bucket list wishes - to be on a boat at Tai Tam. The stars aligned! And so here I sit on the heels of the high of being delivered to their boat on a tiny dinghy, hanging out with good people on a lovely boat as the sun set over the mountains behind our home of another 79 days. What a lovely view of our school and apartment from the bay down there. We saw the local fishermen up close as after dark they cast their nets, pounded on a drum to scare fish, and pulled up the near-empty nets.
Catriona and Brenda
The view over the bow.
Night fishermen scaring the fish into the nets
All of this to say I am now reflecting on the many types of boats and boat rides we have encountered these past 11 years in Asia.
In Hong Kong you can't visit or live here without a trip on the Star Ferry which goes endlessly from Mainland Hong Kong at Kowloon Peninsula to Hong Kong Island and back again across Victoria Harbour. And it is cheap. About 33 cents for adults one way.
A ferry to Lamma Island (maybe)
On a Star Ferry with MaryEllen and friends
Also in Hong Kong there are junk boats you can hire for a day on the water with friends. According to the South China Morning Post, these wooden workhorse boats date back to the Han Dynasty and were commonly used for trade in China and other parts of Southeast Asia. As Brent isn't a huge fan of seasickness, our partying on junk boats has been limited to a few key birthday parties and such.
A very traditional junk (Aqua Luna) in Victoria Harbour
Lovely ladies (Teresa, Teresa, Lauren) enjoying the junk cruise.
Celebrating Dana's birthday on a junk boat.
I even jumped off to swim!
Another Hong Kong tradition is dragonboat racing. Generally teams train for months before competing in May and June. Brent even tried being on a team for a season and can tell you all about it. Of course dragonboat racing happens in the US too but I never heard of it until living in Hong Kong. Fortunately for us, Tai Tam village holds its own annual dragon boat races right below our window! We certainly missed them last year during Covid cancellations.
Dragonboat races near Lunar New Year in Tai Tam Bay
Statuary of a dragonboat in Aberdeen (the original Hong Kong)
The locals in Aberdeen and Sai Kung still use their sampan boats with the oar at the stern to ferry people out to islands. I have yet to get on one.
small craft and sampans at Sai Kung
And then there are the more unusual kinds of boats we have run across, such as the "this boat disguises as a gigantic rice bowl" boat in Vietnam. Brent and the kids navigated just fine, but I couldn't make the boat do what I wanted and ended up needing the very old owner of the boat (80-something) to come and rescue me!
To avoid boat taxation by the French during the Colonial Era the indigenous
Vietnamese devised basket boats that doubled as rice containers.
Brent in a basket boat in Vietnam
My earliest memory of any boat in Asia was of a catamaran on our trip to Boracay, Phillipines at Christmas in 2010. It was our first Christmas abroad and we decided on a week-long trip to beautiful Boracay (the place with the whitest, softest sand). It took a lot of courage to book a vacation that called for first a plane ride from Korea to Cebu, then a local plane (everyone and everything on the plane had to be weighed individually!), then a catamaran, then a van to arrive at our destination. Enjoy the video here which begins with the catamaran ride.
Highlight video from Boracay, Phillipines 2010
Catamarans arriving in Boracay
Photo Credit Susan Taylor
We have been on so many boats for various reasons these past eleven years, perhaps that is one of the reasons we now love water so much. We look forward to the sailing, boating, and pontoon boating that awaits us.
In six months Alec will return to the school system from which he began his career in kindergarten. It is possible, even likely, that he will re-meet students who were in his class twelve years prior. How has his road diverged from theirs?
Alec and Adam are now third culture kids (TCK). That is, their lives have been shaped by living outside of their passport country. In other words, they have lived away from home. What is the impact of this on those of similar stories? I invite you to read Third Culture Kids by David C. Pollack to learn more. I first read the book our first year abroad in 2010-11. At that point I was simply becoming informed of what my children might experience in life. In short, TCKs are on the whole more worldly, more flexible, adaptable, and able to make friends easily. They also tend to have more difficulties staying in relationships for the long haul or staying in one place for long. Army kids have a similar profile.
Alec with school friends from KIS.
First, living in Korea and Hong Kong has afforded our students access to very different cultures than that of their parents who grew up in the Midwestern States of the US. For example, the ever-present Christian culture of Wisconsin has not been present for them. Instead, our children have been exposed to Buddhism, Hinduism, and local culture of sea gods and goddesses. They have passed by multitudes of temples or even individual alters burning incense and offering fruits.
Thailand Monastery
Alec at AMIS (Association in Music for International Schools) in middle school.
They have encountered classmates and their families hailing from SE Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. They have walked down streets hearing Korean or Cantonese or Mandarin or French or English. They have been afforded American-style educations, but from teachers hailing from Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Spain.
Alec concluding 8th grade.
We are incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity of living and traveling abroad. (More about the travels later.) Yes, our kids have experienced life far differently than we did at their age. They are now TCKs. Thank you, Asia, for bringing richness and experiences to their lives that are beyond measure.
It is a phrase I have used for seven years. I never cease to be amazed at the abundance of butterflies in Hong Kong. I love walking on the trails near our home and seeing so many butterflies, at least one every day.
At one point I counted twelve different butterfly neighborhoods while on my walk. That is to say, while on the walk I passed through a section with one species of butterfly only to walk a bit farther and pass through an area with another species. Over the course of my 40 minute walk I encountered twelve different "neighborhoods." See the video here for a glimpse of one such place. I simply sat under a tree and filmed.
We even have butterflies on our campus. Mostly big black ones with some brilliant white and blue on their wings. Unfortunately, they often die there too, so that students and teachers alike must step over them on the steps and walkways.
While on a trip to Thailand, my friend Helen and I came across a butterfly garden with some of the largest species in the world! Amazing.
My favorite memory is walking with the family along the catchment to Stanley accompanied by a butterfly who seemed to want to show us the way. Thank you, Asia, for the beautiful butterflies each day.
And just for good measure, here is a moth! Photo credit: Adam Mitchel
The restaurant that Brent and I have returned to the most in Hong Kong is the Red Pepper. This is a restaurant in Causeway Bay, near Times Square, which has served Sichuan Chinese food since the 1960's. They are known for their sizzling prawns (the diameter of an egg!) The prawns in chilli pepper and garlic sauce are poured onto a sizzling platter and kick up quite the strong aroma. Hold your napkin over your clothes and mouth! We also always order the dried fried string beans with minced pork. Brent also loves the dish of kimchi that they serve prior to the meal, often asking for two or three refills.
Sizzling shrimp on the table as we reunite with Dave Wood.
What I always love is the service. The wait staff are always there and always the same. They are clearly long-time professional waiters and waitresses (like you might see in France).
Peking Duck being served by a pro
The orange and red Chinese decor with big round tables made for sharing many dishes with your family or friends is also iconic.
We love this place so much that we celebrated my 50 birthday party there. We have also brought visitors and new employees here.
50th birthday party pics (What is that?)
So, we were greatly saddened when Red Pepper announced they were closing "until further notice" due to Covid-19's economic impact on their business about three months ago. We can only hope they may reopen within the next 81 days for one final farewell dinner. Thank you, Red Pepper, for the memories.
Before we left Wisconsin, Brent and I owned a hottub for most of our married life. When we landed in Korea we learned about the jjimjilbangs - public baths. It took a bit of adjusting, but once we were used to them we loved it.
There was a jjimjilbang only a five minute walk away, so once or twice a week we could wander over with our toiletries to hang out in the public baths and relax. In case you are unaware, these baths are organized by gender. Males go to one area and females to another. There you strip down naked, shower off or scrub really well and then can enter any number of hot to cold tubs. There are also saunas, manicures, pedicures, and a scrubbing station where you can hire someone else to scrub your whole body - and I mean whole body in view of everyone else. I never got brave enough to do it, but it was entertaining to watch a woman in her panties and bra scrub another woman until she shone and then slide off the table like a fish flopping off of a counter.
The path to the jjimjilbang
The public baths have another floor too. This one is more social and family oriented. Here both genders can reunite in the "gym clothes" issued by the establishment. You can get snacks or bring your own picnic for the open area or head off to side rooms of various temperatures from very cold to very hot, some with stones to lay on.
For less that $10 you can hang out as long as you like, even all day or all night. For us this was money well-spent for the relaxation and stress-reduction it afforded. Thank you, Korea, for all the great baths.
I grew up with a family dog. Through the years we had three dogs as the Brayko family, prior to coming to Hong Kong. Here, we found our fourth! Rigby, formerly known as Bill.
The following are excerpts from a post originally posted Nov. 20, 2016. Rigby was re-homed in December 2020 in anticipation of our move. He is doing great, although we still miss him.
"We adopted him a year ago [2015] from Hong Kong dog rescue where he had been a resident for three years. We could tell he was a sweetheart with a gentle disposition, so that and a high recommendation for him as an adoptee who could easily adjust to a cat were enough for us.
"He doesn't bark. He doesn't enter rooms that he shouldn't enter. He doesn't jump up on beds or couches. He doesn't steal food off the counter. He doesn't snap at anyone or get upset when you are near his dish. He doesn't wake you up in the middle of the night needing to go out. (Although he does snore.) He also doesn't lick you, though that part I wish he would do. He's just an all around great companion.
"It took him quite awhile to play with Jigs our cat, but now he chases or bats playfully at Jigs almost every day. At first he didn't know what to do with a kong, but he has now figured out it is fun to try to get the treat out. He still doesn't have a clue about what to do with a ball.
"Somehow - and I still have not witnessed this in person - he manages to pull the handle down and in just enough to wiggle the door open and escape. From there he pushes a second door and takes the flight of steps leading to either outside or more flights of stairs which take him to the apartment of a dog-friend of his."
Thank you, Hong Kong Dog rescue, for our fluffy companion of five+ years, Rigby.
"Taxi!" By now we have hailed more taxis than I can count. And we have taken public buses and subway rides too. Both Korea and Hong Kong have incredible public transportation systems. And cheap!
In Seoul our closest way to get around without a car was by first getting on a bus (the No. 11) and then going to Migeum Station where we would use the subway system. Seoul has one of the best subway systems in the world. It is quick, cheap, always on time, not overcrowded and clean. See link for video. For buses, subway system, and taxis we used the T-money card (see link). We could also use the prepaid card for purchases at convenience stores. Aside from weird things like subway entrances with an escalator going down and a long staircase going up, it was awesome.
There were always plenty of taxis, but the taxi system was a bit strange. There were not necessarily organized lines to stand in and certain taxis would only go to certain areas. So there were times when we simply wanted to hop in a taxi and go a few kilometers to get home, but no taxi would take us.
In Hong Kong there are also taxis, buses and subways (called MTR) a-plenty. Here the taxi system is more organized than Korea. At taxi stands everyone gets into a line. You must take the taxi at the front of the line. Believe it or not, a taxi driver farther back in a line won't take you. Here too we have a prepaid card system for paying for buses and MTR called an Octopus Card. Most taxis don't accept them, however, but convenience stores do.
The MTR system is cheap, clean, on time, and frequent. People are reminded over the intercom system to "mind your step", "wear your mask: together we fight the virus", and "don't look only at your phone when approaching escalators" or "do not eat or drink in paid areas of the station".
On the MTR in Hong Kong
Thank you, Asia, for the cheap and convenient public transportation.
