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KATE: Oh, Hong Kong! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways … At 6am, I stir to the sound of a lawnmower bird starting up. The background stillness, however, reigns. A couple of cats wow and a few more birds screech. But these staccato punctuations just emphasize the quiet in Lo Uk Village on Lantau Island. For sheer contrast, how can you beat Hong Kong? Our lovely friends have feral water buffalo right outside the front gate yet within an hour and one ferry ride of almost stepping in a steaming pie, we’re among the exhilarating craziness of Nathan Road’s electronics shops, which are full to bursting with product and salespeople brandishing calculators. Another fast ferry ride away, Cheung Chau has retained its charm. Boats lie upturned along the sloping sea wall, umbrellas line the path along the shore, shading the vendors of fruit, greens, handbags, TV sets, hardware and monument tiles. The water licks and slurps at the myriad fishing vessels, houseboats, water taxis and dinghys, there’s the ever-present slight pong of rotten egg, and bicycles coast by slowly, the gears clicking and the bell dinging to warn of their passage. I feel completely and utterly at home.




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