Lamma Fun Day Tomorrow! Nov 17 - Poster for more info, 22 bands, Lamma8 races, plus donated charity aution prizes.

AI Writing My Bio Nov 16 - Merlin AI (powered by GPT 4) seems to know me well, maybe too well?

Photogenic Nick Nov 6 - Nick the Bookman seems pretty comfortable in his newish spot.

Happy!!! Nov 1 - Just a few weeks ago, Internet fibre finally arrived on Lamma.

3-Camera Sunset Oct 26 - Tonight's stunning sunset, shot for the very first time with 3 cameras.

Ex-Lamma Quarry Plans Revived Oct 25 - "Development planning for Ex-Lamma Quarry Area"

"HK Electric Enhances Power System Resilience" Oct 16 - "The AI-based Cable Health Condition..."

Low-Cost Tours for Lammaites Oct 9 - "...sponsored by Govt. and organised by the YSW Rural Committee."

Snake Warning! Sep 30 - Alarm!! Big Danger!! Beware!!!! Put up a warning sign!

Lamma's Spine Sep 29 - "...various landscapes—coastlines, historical Japanese war tunnels, and hidden beaches."

Open Space Events Sep 28 - "Looking for a unique venue for your next event?"

FREE DRINKS! Sep 27 - "...community welcome day to celebrate the opening of Terracotta Lamma."

Zero Bills for 17% of HK Electric Residential Customers Sep 26 - "...the outlook for further reduction..."

Quirky Characters Galore Sep 25 - ...the guy living in the "worst" Lamma village!

Reconstruction of YSW Pier Gangway Sep 17 - Targeted for completion in 2026, cost $157.4 millions!

Free Mooncakes! Sep 16 - Thank you to the sponsor, HK and China Gas co.!

Black Rainstorm! Sep 9 - Highest-rainfall rainstorm with worst flooding in 100+ years.

Super-Expensive Water? Sep 8 - It's usually around HK$50 for the regular 4-month billing period.

Catching Flying Fish Aug 25 - "A frenzy of flying fish is not uncommon at these piers."

Close Encounter Aug 1 - Close encounters of our island ferry with container ships.

T3 Sunrise Jul 16 - "Tropical Cyclone Talim will intensify gradually today and tomorrow,"

Daily Sky Shows Jul 14 - Tonight's sky show, well worth setting up my tripod on the rooftop.

No Water! Jun 30 - Domestic disaster struck all of North Lamma today.

Welcome to Lamma Island Jun 29 - Sampan Rest. seawall painting has just been completed.

Spot the Sunrise Contrail Jun 28 - Pak Kok Shan often looks a bit like a volcano about to erupt at sunrise.

FINALLY! Jun 19 - Fiber-to-the-home has arrived on Lamma!

Wow! Jun 12 - Dusting off my tripod tonight, setting it up on the rooftop...

Happy Buggy Sunday Jun 11 - Photos by Peter Kline, master wildlife (especially birds) photographer.

Sok Kwu Wan Tin Hau Festival Jun 4 - My photo album of visiting Sok Kwu Wan today.

Getting CABLE, Finally! Jun 3 - The brand-new landing point of the undersea fiberoptic Internet cable.

Abandoned Visions in an Abandoned House Jun 2 - "We held an art show in an abandoned house..."

Lightning Storm Jun 1 - "Number of lightning strokes detected between 05:30 and 06:29"

Nov 17:  Lamma Fun Day Tomorrow!

After 4 long years of no more yearly Lamma Fun Day, the biggest Lamma event of the year is finally restarting tomorrow!

Click on the posters for more info, 22 bands, Lamma8 races and the multitude of donated charity aution prizes. My favourite prize, a Harry Harrison original:

Nov 16:  AI Writing My Bio

Merlin AI (powered by GPT 4) seems to know me well, maybe too well? Kind of worryingly accurate...

Tell me about Lamma-Gung on Lamma Island in Hong Kong.

"Lamma-Gung, also known as 'Uncle Lamma,' is the founder and editor of the web publication Lamma-zine (Lamma.com.hk).

He is considered the resident expert on Lamma Island. Sporting a heavy Swiss accent, thick-rimmed glasses, and a long ponytail that he trims annually.

Lamma-Gung has been a resident of the island since 2001. He moved to Lamma Island to start over after facing the aftermath of the dot-com bubble burst, and has since established himself as a notable figure on the island."  Read more...

Nov 6:  Photogenic Nick

Nick the Bookman seems pretty comfortable in his newish spot up on YSW Back Street, just before the bike shop.
Some tourists and locals passing by love taking pictures.
Some of them submit the photos to him by email.

Photos by Katrin Kutayfan & Moray Wedderburn (Nick walking).

Nov 1:  Happy!!!

Just a few weeks ago, Internet fibre finally arrived on Lamma, after my 22-year wait! So happy now, as illustrated by my new exuberant Photoshop AI Generative Fill pictures.

The speed jumped from 3Mbps via telephone wire to almost 1,000 Mbps (up to 10Gbps are available) at just $34 more than I've paid before! Internet Nirvana!

My newly hatched, err, created AI assistants above are happy as well. But so are the malevolent forces of the Dark Web, generating new, repeating attacks. All failing so far, fortunately:

Oct 26:  3-Camera Sunset

Tonight's stunning sunset, shot for the very first time with 3 cameras (mobile phone & pocket zoom camera on tripod on our rooftop; public YSW ferry pier webcam).

Oct 25:  Ex-Lamma Quarry Plans Revived

The latest news, pushing the Govt. to revive and modify the former plans, announced for 2024:

Here are the former, very detailed, but abandoned 10 years ago plans for a new town of 5,000 residents:

Oct 16:  "HK Electric Enhances Power System Resilience Against Abnormalities with Innovative Technologies"

"The AI-based Cable Health Condition Monitoring System conducts cable health diagnosis by analysing operational data of underground cables, helping engineers to formulate a repair solution."

A detailed technical press release from HK Electric, great for geeks like me, even mentioning their AI-based systems.

"A Smart Circuit Breaker Monitoring and Analytic System is invented to analyse the waveform of the trip coil current of the circuit breakers which help identify abnormalities and early symptoms of circuit breaker failure."

Oct 9:  Low-Cost Tours for Lammaites

Low-cost tours are starting up again after the summer season, sponsored by Govt. and organised by the YSW Rural Committee.

This is the first one I've seen advertised on YSW walls. As it's in Chinese only, I've Google-Lens-translated my photo of the poster. Let's hope the next tour will be announced soon.

Lamma-Por and I have joined a few of these fun bus tours (incl. lunch!) in previous years (when they cost well below $100) and can warmly recommend them.

But you'll need a Chinese speaker/translator to come along if you're not fluent, as these tours are guided in Cantonese only.

Sep 30:  Snake Warning!

Snake warning sign at Aberdeen Promenade. Somebody saw a half-metre, little snake 5 months ago:

Alarm! Big Danger!! Beware!!! Put up a warning sign!

Some Lammaites saw a snake today: no big deal, take a close-up picture, maybe post it to Lamma Snake Sightings, then carry on normally, all ready for the next snake sighting.

Sep 29:  Lamma's Spine

Drone and Phone writes:

"Starting with lunch at Sok Kwu Wan, the duo traverses various landscapes—coastlines, historical Japanese war tunnels, and hidden beaches—before making their way to Yung Shue Wan by sunset..."

Sep 28:  Open Space Events

Sep 27:  FREE DRINKS!

Meet you there next Monday afternoon, a holiday?

Formerly Blue Goose Tavern. Opening in late October!

Sep 26:  Zero Bills for 17% of HK Electric Residential Customers

(Photo by Martin Chan in SCMP)

Good news from HK Electric:

"A spokesman for HK Electric said that the company's Fuel Clause Charge (FCC) for October will decrease further to 54.8 cents per unit of electricity, representing a 12.2% reduction when compared to 62.4 cents per unit in September...

As a result of the FCC reduction and various subsidies, more than 630,000 zero-monthly bills have been recorded for HK Electric's residential customers in the first eight months of this year, representing about 17% of HK Electric's total residential customer bills...

The spokesman noted that with the stabilisation of international fuel prices, the outlook for further reduction in the FCC in the remainder of the year continues to be positive."

Read the entire Press Release...

Sep 25:  Quirky Characters Galore

Conde Nast Traveller:

"Lamma Island is a natural wonderland, not to mention one of the city's coolest outlying islands. You've got the best of everything: excellent seafood, nature trails, chill cafes, waterfront bars, local markets, and quirky characters galore."

Intrigued by this remark, I've asked ChatGPT to tell me more about these quirky Lamma characters. The first one it listed was me! I felt kind of honored, kind of.

Somebody on FB suggested asking ChatGPT to name and rank all Lamma villages. I did and a lively FB discussion ensued, naturally, especially from the guy living in the "worst" Lamma village!

Sep 17:  Reconstruction of YSW Pier Gangway

Reconstruction of the YSW Public Pier gangway (not the already renovated pier building) has finally started, see attached plan.
Targeted for completion in 2026, cost $157.4 millions!

The piles for the temporary pier gangway are being driven into the seabed these days, starting from close to the pier building:

Sep 16:  Free Mooncakes!

Picking up the pair of free big mooncakes:

Thank you to the sponsor, HK and China Gas co.!

Sep 9:  Black Rainstorm!

Photo collection by our District Councilor, Ting Ting of this highest-rainfall rainstorm with worst flooding in 100+ years.

Pak Kok New Village, just downhill from our home
(HK Standard story).

P.S. Sep 25: Repairs have started, many VVs full of liquid cement have been converging on this landslip above.

Sep 8:  Super-Expensive Water?

We've received this astounding water bill a few months ago. It's usually around $50 for the regular 4-month billing period, so this was quite a shock!

Checking the water pipes - all running on the OUTSIDE of our village house - no leakage detected. Taking a photo of our water meter to show the Water Dept. that the recorded reading on the bill was wrong, then emailing it to them to get the bill corrected, hopefully.

No reply at all for several weeks, no comment or apology for the wrong meter reading, just a revised bill, after probably getting their meter reader to have another look at our meter and correct the former, erroneous reading. Revised bill: $53.10!

After all the recent troubles with no water supply for N. Lamma for an entire day and the resulting toilet flushing in our house not working properly for an entire week afterwards, we're a bit disappointed.

3 water-related problems in just a few weeks from a usually problem-free, dependable, invisible Govt.-run utility, supplying clean, safe-to-drink, extremely cheap, subsidised water for all of HK and especially our little island with just 6,000+ widely dispersed residents.

Living in the middle of a banana forest, up a hill on our little, traffic-free, clean-air, peaceful, fantastic-views, almost crime-free island, we're spoilt with highly reliable services like power, aircon, water, mail, terrestrial TV reception and, best of all, fiber Internet since a few months ago, finally! We're very grateful!

Aug 25:  Catching Flying Fish

Amazing, rare video by Robert Hope-Jones, shot at night around our new Lamma ferry pier. He writes:

"A frenzy of flying fish is not uncommon at these piers during different times of the year, but the haul of fish taken home by passengers and ferry staff was a first, thanks to the new Pak Kok pier design.
Lamma Island, August, 22, 2023."

Aug 1:  Close Encounter

Just the other day, one of our frequent close encounters of our island ferry with container ships in the Lamma East Channel, one of the busiest shipping channels worldwide.

These massive container ships are loaded to the maximum height when arriving or leaving HK harbour, crossing the path of our tiny commuter ferry to HK Island, our only way off our island to get to work, shopping or eating out (no shops, restaurants or any public/private traffic in our local village, far from busy Yung Shue Wan).

Occasionally, we're getting the exciting experience of 2 container ships crossing each other just in front of our tiny ferry (photo by Alamy). It's an extra-exciting adventure when you're on an expensive private sampan boat, used just for moving and as a "water taxi" if you miss the last ferry home at 10pm:

Missing the ferry in Aberdeen back to Lamma the other day by half a minute, I had to wait 2.5 HOURS for the next one, sitting on a harbourside bench with my heavy shopping in the mid-day heat, too far from any restaurant or cool area to reach with my very heavy shopping bags.

There are 2 of these 2.5-hour gaps in the ferry schedule to/from Aberdeen to Lamma, 1 gap even on Sundays and holidays, all during times of day when there'd be too few passengers to make this adventurous sea crossing worthwhile even for our small ferries:

July 16:  T3 Sunrise

"Tropical Cyclone Warning.

The Strong Wind Signal, No. 3 is in force. This means that winds with mean speeds of 41 to 62 kilometres per hour are expected. At noon, Severe Tropical Storm Talim was estimated to be about 390 kilometres south-southeast of Hong Kong.

The outer rainbands of Talim are affecting the coast of Guangdong. Locally, winds are generally strong offshore and on high ground. The Strong Wind Signal, No. 3 will remain in force today. According to the present forecast track, Talim will be closest to Hong Kong tomorrow morning (17 July), skirting within about 300 kilometres to the south of Hong Kong.

Tropical Cyclone Talim will intensify gradually today and tomorrow, and move in the general direction of western Guangdong and Hainan Island. It will bring squally showers and thunderstorms to the coast of Guangdong. Talim is expected to depart from the coast of Guangdong midweek this week.

An anticyclone aloft will strengthen towards the weekend, the weather will improve slightly over Guangdong."

July 14:  Daily Sky Shows

Tonight's sky show, well worth setting up my tripod on the rooftop and getting my ancient dead-battery pocket zoom plugged into a powerbank and Wifi-connected to my smartphone. We're admiring the almost daily amazing sunsets these weeks and we love sharing our best photos on social media.

Map of today's sunset, overlooking Lantau Island:

Jun 30:  No Water!

Domestic disaster struck all of North Lamma yesterday, announced by message in our village's WhatsApp group at 10:30am:
"The guys digging in new drains in Yung Shue Wan have just broken our main water pipe. No water for at least 5-8 hours."

The updates on the repairs during the waking hours of the day - without any water for cooking, washing, showering, toilet flushing, etc. - kept on coming throughout the day.
In typical Lamma fashion, some people had good advice:

Photo of the actual damaged water pipes -
Water tanks set up at the ferry pier for residents

Free bottled water available at our only village shop, including free deliveries by VV to walking-impaired residents -
Our rooftop flush water tank still didn't work after the water supply came back on, 8.5 hours later!

It took almost a week for the repair guy to diagnose the problem causing no toilet flush water in our entire village house and get the stuck valve ordered and replaced!

June 29:  Welcome to Lamma Island

Sampan Rest. seawall painting has just been completed. But who's the artist of this "official" graffiti, we wonder?
Lamma-zine interview, we hope!

June 28:  Spot the Sunrise Contrail

Today, before 6am, the early birds (greeting the sunrise by singing loudly all around me) catch the worms, err, the jet plane contrail.

Top picture, Pak Kok Shan, our local hill and hiking/mountain biking playground in the foreground, Aberdeen on HK Island in the background, across the East Lamma Channel, one of the busiest container shipping channels worldwide.

Lower picture, Pak Kok Shan often looks a bit like a volcano about to erupt at sunrise.

June 19:  FINALLY!

June 12:  Wow!

Dusting off my tripod tonight, setting it up on the smouldering, buggy rooftop, plugging a power bank into the portable 20x mini optical zoom...

It was worth the small trouble as for the first time in many days, the sun wasn't hiding behind clouds at the exact time, less than 1 minute long, of setting behind the Lantau Island peaks.

June 11:  Happy Buggy Sunday

Photos by Peter Kline, master wildlife (especially birds) photographer.

June 4:  Sok Kwu Wan Tin Hau Festival

My photo album of visiting South Lamma's Tin Hau Festival today

Time lapse of building the Sok Kwu Wan Canto Opera tent

Dragonboat races today! (both videos by Mike Chau)

June 3:  Getting CABLE, Finally!

I took a little stroll yesterday to Northern-most Lamma, to the brand-new landing point of the undersea fiberoptic Internet cable, just connected and encased in concrete. 20+ years of waiting for Faster Broadband For Lamma.

While waiting, the Internet broadband speeds dropped by half to HK's slowest speed (below 3Mbps) and doubled in price by the sole provider.

Looking forward to 1000+Mbps fiber-to-the home later this month, they promise, but initially only for those lucky enough to live not too far from this landing point above, like myself. Hurrah!
We can now finally retire these locally-popular Lamma Brand baseball caps:

P.S. Jun 2: Sunday, June 11, installation of 1000M fiber to our home.

P.S. Jun 9: Installation postponed to June 25. Keeping my cheap, fast and reliable 5G Wifi router as a backup; just to be safe to always have a vital, working Internet connection in future.

P.S. Jun 10: As usual, I couldn't resist playing with the iconic (at least locally) photo above, via the brand-new Photoshop's AI Generative Fills:

June 2:  Abandoned Visions in an Abandoned House

Dickie wrote: "We held an art show in an abandoned house featuring 14 talented artists last weekend.
Guests were brought in from Central and blindfolded to maintain the location's secrecy.
Attendees enjoyed Champagne and canapés and were given tours of the breathtaking artworks on display by the artists themselves."

June 1:  Lightning Storm