More than 24 Hours: Lamma Island

On Saturday I spent the day exploring Lamma Island with Anna, Kat and Lex. Just off the coast of Hong Kong Island, Lamma Island is a small island famous for its open-air seafood restaurants and quiet lifestyle. Lamma Island reminded a lot me of Fire Island (in NY) because there are no cars allowed; there were a lot of bikes at the pier when we first arrived but didn’t see too many people riding them on the island. Despite the lack of cars, we were still dodging people wherever we walked.

We took a boat from Central to Yung Shue Wan, Lamma’s main town. It’s a small little town with tiny streets and shops that sell the usual souvenirs and small restaurants. Arrivng in Yung Shue Wan, we wandered around the streets for a little while before settling into the Bookworm Café for lunch.

Bookworm Café is a little organic/vegetarian/vegan restaurant that Kat and I had read about in our respective guidebooks. It seemed rather interesting so we decided to check it out. The food ended up being delicious and the restaurant itself was great; it was in rather tight quarters but the walls were lined with bookshelves and quotes. It had that café feel to it.

After lunch we started the hour and a half hike to the other end of the island, Sok Kwu Wan. The hike showed us the different highlights of Lamma Island, including Hung Shing Yeh Beach and a few small villages and a jungle/forest. The hike was very hilly and I wish I wore sneakers instead of flip flops- I still don’t know what I was thinking when I got dressed that morning.

Kat, Anna, Myself and Lex at the top of the mountain

When we finally reached Sok Kwu Wan, a small temple greeted us, Tin Hau temple, and then we proceeded to walk along the open-air seafood restaurants boardwalk. There were a bunch of different restaurants, all offering the same thing for different prices while proudly showing off their selection of fresh fish.

First sights of Sok Kwu Wan

I was able to capture this one lady getting some fish right out of the tank for a meal.

She had a little trouble getting the fish out of the tank but once she did it put it in the bucket

and proceeded to weight it.

We hung out for a little while before settling into The Lamma Mandarin Seafood Restaurnt. We split a 4-person meal and feasted on prawn (shrimp), lobster, scallops, squid, fried rice and veggies. This was probably the most seafood I’ve ever eaten and will be the last for a little while. To eat the shrimp you had to crack the shell (?) because they still had their heads/bodies on; it took a little getting used to. And the lobster, well we thought it was crab at first, barely had any meat on it, but it was rather good. And the squid, well, I’ll just say I’m not a squid fan. I don’t think I ever was.