Another episode in the popular (?) Lamma-zine series of me Stumbling Randomly^TM through Lamma's little explored, remote areas where only the truly intrepid (or inept) hikers dare to venture. Today, I tried to explore the hills beyond Mo Tat Was, the furthest SE corner of Lamma, an area I've never been in ten years on Lamma. Yes, we just didn't celebrate our ten-year anniversary of living on Lamma, so can we finally call ourselves Senior Lammaites now, or does it take 20 years?

But as they say, it's the journey that counts, not the destination. Unusual for this random & careless hiker, I prepared really well for this hike, even had my GPS smartphone to pinpoint my location on the Google maps all the time, plus detailed maps of the hills printed out with all the (supposed) paths highlighted. But despite all the preparation, I got really lost up there in the wild hills and just couldn't find the paths to the Southeast hills, Ngai Tau and Chuk Kok hills, overlooking the bay of the proposed marina. The detailed maps are almost useless as the paths on the officla govt. maps are mostly totally overgrown and don't really exist anymore. The GPS recorded my random stumblings, back and forth and sideways, making it even more embarrassing not to be able to reach those distant peaks:

To make matters worst, I got covered by seeds with pesky hooks hitchhiking on my clothes, When trying to remove them they break off and leave the hooked seeds behind, so you need a pincer to remove each one individually, hundreds of them. I tried for quite some time, with the pincer from my trusty Swiss army knife. But in the end, on the ferry, I had to give up and discard my favourite, cozy, comfy, brand-new UNI QLO flannel hiking shirt ($150), spiky & scratchy now. I had to continue the rest of the day, including fancy dinner in Causeway Bay, in my cold T-shirt. These seedy hitchhikers made me lose my shirt, the first time ever I lost an item of clothing during a hike!

Another great lunch in my favourite South Lamma restaurant The Bay (a Lamma-zine advertiser) with a glass of wine made me feel not too bad about my dismal failure to ascend Ngai Tau. There'll be another attempt soon, as soon as I'll have replaced my favourite hiking shirt!

Along the way, hiking from Sok Kwu Wan past the sewage works in progress, I got some interesting snapshots that made the adventure worthwhile. Check it out:

Click for another "Stumbling Randomly" photo gallery

The "Lamma Island 2011" wall calendar (sponsored by Lamma.com.hk and featuring Lammaite photographers) is soon turning to its last page, Dec 2011. As the main distribution channel, the Lamma Fun Day, didn't happen this year and the calendar maker/organiser/distributor, Debbie, is busy with work, there won't be a printed calendar from her this year, unfortunately.

Click for photo gallery

Jo Wilson - Chairwoman of Living Lamma:

"Many thanks to everyone who took part in the protest at the weekend.
It couldn't have been better. I was overwhelmed by the turn out. To have such a diverse group - young / old, local / expat, from all over Hong Kong - coming together to object to the Baroque's planning application was fantastic."

Town Planning Board meeting to decide on the rezoning this Friday, Dec 2.

Have you ever had the misfortune of hearing a faint clack-clack sound originating from your computer's hard disk; every two seconds, like clockwork and slowly getting louder over the weeks? It means that it's going to crash pretty soon and will wipe out most or even all of your data into the hardware hell of utter oblivion. Hard disks are getting faster, bigger in capacity, smaller in size and much cheaper over the years, but also much less reliable with a shorter lifespan (average around 3 years these days, same for PCs and Macs!), according to my local computer/satellite guru. You can get an incredible 2TB (2,000 Gigabytes or 2,000,000 Megabytes) for less than HK$1,000, at least till the Thailand floods closed down many of the major, global hard disk factories there, pushing up the prizes massively right when I needed a new disk!

Experiences like these (not the first time) teach you the absolute importance of multiple full backups of all your data, ideally automatically and at least once a week!

Well, after picking up my custom-built, low-cost PC for a full brain transplant, I got it back a few days later with a much bigger brain. All my programs and data had been cloned and transplanted as-is - a really difficult and technical feat on a defect hard disk - and it worked beautifully again. Thank you, Mr Lamma PC Guru! As an ex-Regional IT & Telecom Manager myself, I bow down to thee and would hire you anytime, if I'd still command a high-flying Asian-wide team of IT experts, instead of being just a raggedy one-man band in my home office during these days of penniless semi-retirement. I used to love hardware and tinkering with it, but these days I'm much more interested in people, events, photography, stories,...

Pavilion above Lamma Winds windturbine, Tue, Nov 15, 6:45am

A while back, I was interviewed as one of the many "stakeholders" of HK Electric, err, Power Assets Holdings Ltd., by one of the consultants creating their yearly Sustainability Report (a new name for the former Corporate Social Responsibility reports so popular nowadays with major corporations).

The report is full of information about HK Electric's wide range of activities, focusing on their impact on Environment, Health & Safety, Society and related issues, easily accessible via a specially designed website. This section talks specifically about their social activities on Lamma: Society - Community - Charities & Volunteering Work, highlighting the $1 million Activity Centre to be built very soon close to the YSW Gaido pier, Lamma Fun Day sponsorship, their long-running Green Lamma Green campaign with tree planting/caring and eco-tours, the "No Hill Fire in Lamma" campaign. They're modest enough not to even mention all their many other Lamma events, activities, sports clubs, charities and good causes (for example this website) they support financially.

They commissioned some pretty wallpapers for this special website. I've formatted some of them into a sustainability-themed, tiled eco-wallpaper with birds, flowers, trees, solar power and Lamma Winds, but no chimneys? Wouldn't these make cute tiles to decorate new "Eco-Village Houses", see below?

By the way, I took this sunset picture of Lamma Winds above a few weeks ago from the Mo Tat Wan ferry: solar and wind power, united.

P.S. Nov 17: Renewable Energy update from HK Electric:

"In addition to promoting RE in schools, HK Electric continues to increase the use of RE in power generation. The largest solar power system in Hong Kong, located at Lamma Power Station, has generated over 730,000 units of electricity so far. The Company is expanding the capacity of the system to 1MW by early next year.
Progress has also been made at its offshore wind farm project with wind monitoring work to start by the end of this year. The wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2015."

P.S. Dec 8: Power Assets Wins Gold Award for CSR Commitment
My congratulations for all these awards for our long-time main sponsor!

Beach Cleaning @ Pebbles Beach, Pak Kok Tsui, Sun, Nov 13:

Cable Road #1, still the prettiest "road" on Lamma?

Birdo Breakfast @ Zep's Rooftop, Tai Peng Village:

Basketball League @ Basketball Court,
where some of Lamma's best photographers can be found on Sundays.
(Dina the Basketball Photographer & Banny the GPS Mountainbiker)

Nov 12:  L-GPS
                Lamma-Gung the GPS Mountainbiker?

Following in Banny the GPS Mountainbiker's tracks, following his expert advice, I've started to map my "Stumbling Randomly" hikes and bike rides with the Global Positioning System built into my shiny Android smartphone. I just received it for free as a hand-me-down from one of my Chin. stepdaughters who likes to "upgrade" her mobile phone frequently, fortunately for Lamma-Por and myself. Thank you, Angie! With my cheap, 2nd-hand bike, free Wifi access in many Lamma locations and the free App iMapMyRide, I'm all set to go!

Today, Sat morning, after ascending to the windturbine via the 2nd Cable Road, I've tackled the Snake Trail, from Lamma Winds to the Youth Hostel. It's a tough and dangerous ride for a mountainbiking novice like myself, especially after recent downpours have washed large potholes into the very narrow footpath. I was pushing my bike much of the way and might not repeat this tough experience on my favourite HIKING path on Lamma anytime soon. A group of Mainland Chin. hikers was surprised and took pictures of me meandering dangerously along the very steep slopes. But they were the ONLY people I met on the entire Snake Trail on this sunny Sat morning (when the Family Trail, running almost parallel just down the hill, suffers occasional hiker traffic jams on weekends, making it a real pain to use for bikers. Also, the "cobblestone" paving on some of the Family Trail makes bikers' teeth rattle and pieces fall off bikes at any speed faster than walking. Avoid biking on the Family Trail (YSW-Sok Kwu Wan) on weekends, that's my recommendation.

After reaching the Youth Hostel, I continued down to Luk Chau Village, exploring the Lamma Quarry which has been leased to the YMCA since April, for an initial 3 years, while the Govt.'s consultants study the feasibility to build public/private housing in there. A provisional plan for public housing, clubhouse and ferry pier inside the Lamma Quarry already exist. Half-way down to Luk Chau Village, I found the gate to the Quarry wide open, no "Keep out!" sign or any indication whatsoever that this is now supposedly a "private" area for the exclusive use of the YMCA (who hasn't replied to any enquiries from many people about their secretive but temporary plans for the entire area).

I just love biking inside the Quarry, gliding through flat seas of grass, riding on beautifully lush forest paths, circling the calm sweet water lake with an island and large flocks of several egret species and Black Kites. I didn't encounter a single person or any of the infamously aggressive dogs in this absolutely huge area which is larger than all of Yung Shue Wan or the Power Station. Explore it now before massive development will start in there in probably just a few years' time.

But there are way too many words in this article, let's see more pictures, soon...!

 

Nov 11:  Loy Krathong - Thai Lantern Festival

Wed, Nov 10, 2011, 10:45pm, Yung Shue Wan Ferry Pier

The Lamma Thai community, including their international relatives and friends, gets together every year for the traditional Loy Krathong lantern festival. The highlight of the festival features releasing home-made floats (created inside Lamma Gourmet this year) into the outgoing tide. The non-biodegradable styro- foam floats carry folded banana leaves, flowers, food, joss sticks and candles.

"Apart from venerating the Buddha with light (the candle on the raft), the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People will also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Many Thai believe that floating a raft will bring good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water." - Wikipedia

See photo galleries: 2004 - 2003.

Nov 10:  More YSW Restaurants Closing Down

The current Lamma property boom is killing off more and more restaurants on YSW Main Street.

Last day of Mr Kebab: Nov 20, '11.

The landlord will redevelop the building and wants them out well before they'll actually tear down the entire building. Just one year and ten months since they opened for business, they were on a 2-year contract, knowing about the redevelopment but hoping they could stay much longer after investing a huge sum into the place.

We'll miss their fish grill, kebabs and chicken shish rolls, see pictures.

The quite new Mr Kebab Cafe in TST, Hart Avenue, seems to be doing well under gregarious Dogan and his Chin. wife's management:
See Lamma-zine story Mr. & Mrs. Kebab.

Next future victim of redevelopment:

LaLa mama. The 14-day notice is up on the bulletin board opposite HSBC right now. Jackson will be redeveloping both adjoining buildings on Main Street, his own property agency and the building LaLa mama is in now.

They're also on a 2-year contract and knew about the pending redevelopment. That's why Green Cottage moved from there to a new location 2 years ago. I've enjoyed people-watching and many great chats with fascinating people in LaLa mama. I've just greatly enjoyed one of their wonderfully yummy fish pies as a set lunch today. They tell me that it'll be at least a year till the building will come down. Great news as this will hopefully give them time to find a new location.

For your R.I.P. messages for Mr Kebab, plus more updates on other closed or closing-soon restaurants & bars - Emily's, former Pizza Milano, Deli Lamma, Diesel's - see our Restaurants & Bars forum.

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On the other hand, let's spread some good news:

The Waterfront Rest. & Bar has started to offer a brand-new, extensive, authentic Indian menu, in addition to maintaining their customers' favourite dishes. Initial feedback has been enthusiastic. Pictures and review will be happening soon. Anybody would like to do an independent review?

Finally, The Bay Rest. in Mo Tat Wan has just signed up as a new Lamma-zine advertiser. It's my regular and favourite stopover when hiking, biking, beach- cleaning or photo- shooting in South Lamma, so I'm pretty happy about that.
It's in a beautiful location on a weekly cleaned beach and the food is far beyond of what you'd expect in such a remote location, a real surprise. Afterwards, the ferry back to Sok Kwu Wan/Central or Aberdeen is just 1 minute from the rest.
Check out The Bay's photo gallery.

The Living Room seaside terrace of the recently relocated Just Green Organic Store has opened and might become a great place for afternoon tea/coffee and baked goods, kind of like LaLa mama now.

In the meantime, Pizza Milano seems to be doing fantastic in their new location, adding breakfast and set lunch options, truly reviving this great prime location.

Disclaimer: The Waterfront and The Bay are Lamma-zine advertisers, but none of the other restaurants yet mentioned in this story, unfortunately.

Nov 9:  Whatever Happened to ... The Stick Insect Hunter?

Looking back over the last 9.5 years of this website - almost 3,000 Lamma-zine stories, 10,000+ forum topics and 68,000+ forum messages - there have been many colourful, fascinating and often eccentric personalities featured on this community website. But we haven't heard from many of them in quite a while, even though most of them are still around and active. Let me track down some of them occasionally, wherever they may be hiding nowadays, and update you on their recent adventures and shenanigans.

First Person Of Interest:

The Stick Insect Hunter, one of the most featured personalities in the early, wild'n'wooly childhood days of this website, generating 49 unique page hits when searching for "Stick Insect Hunter" in the Search box at the top of this site.

This German Artist is hiding in plain sight these days, on Facebook, lamenting the loss of his formerly high-flying reputation, together with a recent self-portrait:

The Stick Insect Hunter - Before and After  (click to enlarge)

Quite a fall from grace, it seems, from enjoying "absolute devotion and limitless admiration" just a few years ago to the pure opposite of his former big-headedness and limitless ego: a shrunken head and a modest, puzzled expression nowadays. What happened? Ex-Hon. Andee Maluche writes:

"Famous Asia based artist lost his reputation

Even after a prolonged yet unsuccessful search Andee M. is still hopeful to find his reputation again.

"It wasn't very big, just about like this (he is holding his hands about 10 inches apart) but it had this beautiful little protuberances and a killer paint job. It isn't your everyday kind of reputation. I worked hard for this one. It was a good reputation. I am afraid somebody might have destroyed it.

Now I am a little worried what people might say about me. "Hey look at him, he lost his reputation." or "This guy has no reputation at all." People don't realize how important a reputation is for an artist. I need to get it back. I don't mind if isn't that good anymore or slightly tarnished, well, what the heck, I would even settle for a bad one. Without any reputation my art would be worthless.

It took many years to build that one I had, doing the same thing over and over again. Now, without it, people wouldn't know anymore what to expect from me."

Will he ever be able to find or restore his former reputation or even build a brand- new one? Friend him on Facebook and help him to regain his lost reputation. He's only got a measly 1,046 Friends collected so far and really needs at least a few hundreds of thousands more to build a new virtual reputation! Email:

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P.S. Looking at Andee's website redesign-in-progress, see below, he seems to be well on his way to expand his head and ego back to its former impressive size. Note ARTIST and PHILANTROPIST in the very center of his new home page:

Nov 8:  Weekday Afternoon in YSW Main Street

Want to see more of this type of Lamma photos or even post your very own?

We're always looking for photos describing the SPIRIT of Lamma, that encapsulate the relaxed, free-wheeling, live-and-let-live attitude, or anything else that is TYPICAL of living here, Lamma-specific and DIFFERENT from living elsewhere, especially different from the rest of Hong Kong, good or bad.

Why do we love (and/or hate) living here?

"Typically Lamma!" photos

Nov 7:  Belly-Pleasing Lawmen?

John Cairns - Official Court Basketball Correspondent: (Text & captions by John, photos by John & Chun Yin Wah)
Long-Running Lawmen: Refs Keep the Peace November 7, 2011 YUNG SHUE WAN, Lamma Island, Hong Kong - Standards of play in the five-team Lamma Island Pinoy Basketball League (LIPBL) stay impressive, but the caliber of refereeing ranks higher. The men with whistles maintain on-court peace, allow the games to unfold smoothly and lend an air of authority to every decision along the way. Each Sunday, two watchful referees with tweeting whistles, constant hand-signals and surprised-by-nothing calmness stave off potential chaos at the Yung Shue Wan basketball court. Whenever a player shakes his head, rolls his eyes or moans in disbelief, insisting that he didn't "travel" or couldn't have missed an easy shot without being fouled, the spectators should realize one thing – that without the referees to enforce the rules, turmoil would erupt then and there. From a Hong Kong-based Filipino Basketball Association with about 12 members, the referees travel to Lamma on game-days and then officiate at two LIPBL games. The players run, leap, grunt and groan, mostly looking fit, but also substitute in-and-out at four-minute intervals. Like Energizer bunnies, the referees keep running for two entire games, more than four hours. No matter how fast the players go, the referees must match them. So are referees the best-conditioned LIPBL participants? The suggestion made one referee smile. "We try to pace ourselves," he said. "But we get tired too. Luckily, the player substitutions arrive quickly and sometimes may take a little longer than they should" (so that the referees can rest a little too). Read more ...	A chuckle never hurts. Some players' antics may be amusing. What's the verdict? Which way does the ball go next? More pictures ...
Belly-Pleasing Ball: What a Tasty Sport! October 31, 2011 When players shimmy, shake, fake or flutter to deceive opponents, those aren't even the best moves in the Lamma Island Pinoy Basketball League (LIPBL). The most exceptional (and delicious) skills aren't seen on the local basketball court, but rather in nearby kitchens. Tasty food for players, and sometimes for fans too, is one of the league's best features. Invariably, food materializes after the games. Sometimes players or league officials also snack before, or even during, games. "Often it looks more like an eating party than a sports event," said one spectator. Prepared by team supporters or sponsors keen to encourage and nourish league participants, the food turns the post-game sidelines into a mini-party, akin to a community picnic. Winning players celebrate victory, and those who lost devour comfort food. Even the referees indulge. Spaghetti, roast chicken, sandwiches and cookies appeared at the games on October 30. As players warmed up just before a key contest between the Lamma Archers (blue uniforms) and the Awesome Tigers (green), a Tigers player lingered near the scorers' table. With a plate in hand, he ate heartily, munching on chicken (surely not the best way to prepare for running and jumping, but Tigers are fierce carnivores). Finally, a teammate approached, saying, "Hey, man. This is no time to eat more chicken." Read more ...	Post-game spaghetti tastes great. After a tough defeat, the Archers need platefuls of comfort food. More pictures ...

Nov 6:  Village Democracy in Action

District Council Election Day - Lamma & Po Toi Islands, Sunday, Nov 6, 2011:

Voting in progress at the Lamma Island (North) Rural Committee

Pictures of the campaign volunteers seem to tell a lot about the candidates, their platforms and their voters (sorted by candidate no.):

Yu Lai Fan - Damon Wong Chun-Pong - Paul Lau - 3 non-voters

Plus an SCMP story published today, just about Lamma & Po Toi's DC election,
including a phone interview with the "Editor of Lamma-zine".

(C) 2011, Nov 6, SCM Post

Read more and post your own comments in our DC election discussion forum,
which includes a few of my own election comments and observations from today.

Nov 5:  Extended Dogumentary @ Island Bar
              "Maybe Lamma Isn't Such an Ideal Paradise After All."

Alba & Ice - the winning team of film makers

See reviews of this film (trailer) by Nick the Bookman and Jay Scott Kanes.

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Last but not least, Alba's poster (click below to read, it's worth the time!)

P.S. Next stop of this film making the rounds of international film festivals:
Puerto Rico, Dec 1-4 (after screenings in the UK, Spain and Switzerland so far.)

Nov 4:  A Time Out For Time Out

P.S. Here's the Time Out HK magazine story that initiated the signature campaign, plus 44 reader comments in their now-closed comments section:
Lynch the Lamma mutt murderer.

Leave your feedback in our still open forum.

Nov 3:  R.I.P. GoGo

R.I.P. GoGo

For much more info on this terrible outbreak: Dog Protection meeting

Another update from KWOK Chi-keung, Philip -
Senior Inspector Police, Lamma Island & Peng Chau:

"Between 1030 hrs and 1230 hrs on 2011-10-20, Police of Lamma local and Crime officers of Marine Region, together with AFCD, SPCA and FEHD staff conducted a joint operation at Yung Shue Wan, particularly in Yung Shue Long area for preventing dog poisoning incidents.

During the operation, alertness and awareness of dog owners or people were reminded for existence of suspected poison or toxic food on the Island. Police received two pieces of suspected poison bait so far. The first one is a piece of chicken meat and the second one is a piece of roasted pig's leg.

Initially, there is no toxic found in the chicken meat whilst the examination result of the roasted pig's leg is still pending. Up to now, no toxic was detected, no poison bait was found and nobody was arrested.

The case is currently being investigated by Regional Crime Unit 3 of Marine Region."