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I Live on a Tropical
Island
Jul
23 -
"I live on a tropical island, covered in a
fervent fertile jungle settled by concrete villages..."
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17 Years!
Jul 19
- Whoaah! 17 years already, longest-lasting job,
err, lowest-income "Labour of Love" of my life!
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Lamma Marinade
Jul
18
- A new Chin. chef introducing a completely new
menu of Chin. specialties.
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Riot...
Jul
16
- This will be your only chance to witness a
"riot" in our (almost) always peaceful island community.
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New Home Sweet Home
Jul 9
- We've moved from one village house to another
one in this same village.
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Full Moon Sunrise
Jul
8
- Full Moon Sunrise, shot in the opposite
direction of the actual sunrise. June 18.
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Moving
Jun 20 - Jul 7
- My PC and the Lamma-zine are taking a break
for most of the duration of our mega move.
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July 23: 'I
Live on a Tropical Island.'
Huw Andrews:
"I live on a
tropical island,
covered in a fervent fertile
jungle settled by concrete
villages with restaurants, bars,
shops, schools and churches
though, thankfully O Lord, no
cars.
Our jungle is a
green harlequin, dense,
dark and bright, with creepers,
crawlers and waxy broad-leafed
flora, fruity or colourful. It
is immortal, immune in aggregate
to the frequent fires, the
chopping of our busy caretakers
and the monstrous winds of our
typhoon season.
In its damp, matted,
rooty shaded undergrowth
frogs low, croak and multiply
whilst serpents silently stalk,
ambush and multiply. Where there
be frogs, there be snakes a
plenty and where there be
adventurous cats, there be
ambitious growing pythons. Ying
and yang.
Late at night,
snakes steal into the villages,
then when dawn dawns they climb
to hide above head height in
housings for roll-down metal
shop-front shutters or in hidy
holes or under equipment at toe
level. Mostly they traverse
camouflaged invisible our leafy
steps and pathways to shock
themselves and others with
inadvertent encounter.
The whole island is
latticed clumsily with
walk-ways irregular in material,
height and safety so dogs,
villagers, and on nocturnal
occasion wild boar, can amble
easily between villages, houses,
utility installations and
hill-top viewing pagodas.
My modern medieval
village Yung Shue Wan,
has one main street, no system
or symmetry to its topography or
to the placement of new houses
as it booms. It has no
pavements, poor drainage and
pedestrian WIFI, a curse and
blessing. Rubbish is collected
in bins at street ends and
scattered over night by
rummaging rooting boar or hill
dogs.
Its shops are family
operated, rudimentary
but loved and tended. They are
not the branded, foot-fall
managed show-case outlets of the
main island staffed by
minimum-wage attendants with no
skin in the shame. Trusted
locals short of lucre, can pay
later, occasionally.
Here over millennia
us humans here have gently
evolved, the locals
from fishermen to fishermen
still, store keepers and wealthy
landlords and the ex-pats from
pure-bred pedigree hippies to
teachers whose incandescence
attracts now a sprinkling of
other professionals.
Lamma is relaxed.
Whilst others return from work
and dress up to go out, with
creased shirts, dresses and
skirts, handbags and man bags,
our lot come home and dress
down.
All villagers live
as much outside as in,
so the place imparts an untidy
but colourful feel as
goods,
rusting equipment and drying
clothes are stored or discarded
outside under corrugated roofs,
sun bleached tarpaulins and
awnings.
Lamma's seven
thousand souls are a 30
mins cruise by catamaran ferry
from Hong Kong, world city of
seven million souls, of human
bio-diversity, entertainment,
employment, stress, tempo, noise
and distraction.
'Washed up in Yung Shu Wan'.
Acrylics on Fast Food Box. $500.
By Roz Keep.
The ferries ferry
passengers and chattel
to the pier at the end of Main
Street and wash their cargo
ashore, flotsam and jetsam
arriving in waves every 20, 30
or 60 mins depending on time and
tide. All best observed with a
gin and tonic and tapas from a
seat outside Carlos's.
Hong Kong is the
best part of China, Lamma is the
best part of Hong Kong.
Whilst Hong Kong makes Lamma,
also Lamma makes Hong Kong. And
fair exchange is no robbery, I
am content in my tropical sweaty
home."
High praise has
been pouring in from Huw's many
friends and Lammaites:
"Goodness Huw, poet laureate
in the making, a truly stunning
piece of creative writing!"
The Lamma-zine heartily agrees
and will be very happy to
publish more of Huw's writings,
all with his permission, of
course.
July 21:
Sauntering Around YSW
A few random photos and captions
taken while strolling around
YSW, smartphone camera always
ready:
July 20: YSW
Ferry Pier Improvement Works
Alan Sargent:
"Islands District Council
will discuss the Improvement
Works at Yung Shue Wan Public
Pier and Yi O Pier in coming
Traffic and Transport Committee
on July 22. Please have a look
on the design and give your
opinion to CEDD.
Note that it includes the
previously ridiculed idea to
roof over the entire pier. Also
appears the walkway will be
widened, so I assume that means
effectively replacing the whole
thing.
This would be an ideal
opportunity to put bike racks
along the pier, to rationalise
what people have to do anyway
since the $25 million CPA was
never adequate.
One new and possibly good
feature is a new floating
platform for smaller boats."
Agenda for the
Traffic and Transport Committee
Meeting of the Islands District
Council, 22 July 2019 (Monday)
where they will discuss:
Preliminary, Proposed Layout
Plans & Photomontages
Community discussion
July 19: 17
Years!
Whoaah! 17 years already,
longest-lasting job, err,
lowest-income "Labour of Love"
of my life!
July 18: Lamma
Marinade
What is a Lamma Marinade? Well,
it's simply the new name of the
longtime YSW stalwart Beer
Garden, refering to marinated
meats, for example goose. Same
management and service, but a
new Chin. chef introducing a
completely new menu of Chin.
specialties, they're shown on a
huge poster outside this
open-air-only restaurant on the
way to Tai Peng/Yung Shue Long,
after Lung Wah rest.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Choosing from the comprehensive
menu, we taste-tested these two
really delicious dishes. Pricey,
but real top-quality!
 
July 17:
Feeling Safe in the Lamma Jungle
 
We're feeling really, really
safe in our brand-new Pak Kok
home:
7 locks on the new flat
door that our new, great
landlord got installed
yesterday. Another intriguing
marvel of Mainland "My home is
my castle" design/engineering. 6 of the door locks close/open
all together by simply pushing the door handles
up/down.
We're the first tenants in this
brand-new village house and the
landlord's very nice family is
spoiling us with all kinds of
flat-improvements and free
add-ons to our existing
furniture. "What else would
you like?"
Such a very welcome and
refreshing change from our
last no-aircons, no-improvements,
no-repairs-ever landlord. 4
brand-new GREE split aircons
with digital, illuminated
displays and a high energy
efficiency rating of 2.
There're also a record (?) of
8 doors inside our living room,
leading to all the rooms,
balcony and staircase of our
700sqft. Plus 1 more door inside
the bedroom leading to 1 of the 2
bathrooms.
Plus they just installed
mosquito screens on ALL our
windows, even the ones we'll
never open. We live now at the
very edge of a
mosquito/bug-ridden
forest, but we love the lush,
verdant environment and the
reasonable rent.
P.S. The pretty,
open-plan G/F flat downstairs
(see above) has just been completely
furnished with custom-made
furniture. Inside pictures coming soon.
Contact me if you
want to have a look, we've got
keys!
P.S. July 22:
An
ex-Pak Kokian family has visited
our new home from Shanghai
yesterday. What they considered
to be the most impressive
feature of our brand-new flat
seems to be this entrance door!
They pointed out to me two
more lock locations on the same
door: close to the floor and on
TOP of the door, so we've got 11
(!) locks in total in the
entrance door!
Safest flat on Lamma?
;~}
But nothing worth
stealing inside...
July 16:
Riot...
Another topical and timely
cartoon by Lamma's Master
Cartoonist. This will be your
only chance to witness a "riot"
in our (almost) always peaceful
island community.
July 15:
Still Enchanted by Sunsets
All pictures taken in the last
few days from our village
house's rooftop. June and July are
the best months for HK
sunset/sunrise photos.
July 14:
Hyperlocal and Proud of It!
I seem to have been the only
media representative at the
YSW Library
Opening Ceremony as
it wasn't announced at all to
any media beforehand. I was
there to cover just the opening
ceremony, uninvited, Carrie Lam
appearing took me also by
surprise.
Calls and emails from major HK
newspapers requesting my
photos arrived to the
"owner of the hyperlocal website
Lamma-zine" even
before I returned home.
Quite
a few of my photos & phone
interviews have been published
in various local newspaper like
Apple Daily and HK01, see top of
this site's
What's New?
Coconuts
HK writes:
 "Facebook user 'Lamma
Gung,' the owner of the
hyperlocal website
Lamma-zine,
attended yesterday's event, and
pointed out on Facebook that he
saw a noticeably large police
presence on the island that
day."
July 13: No
More Broadband, Watch Sunset
Instead
July 12: Lamma
Democracy Wall Resurrected
Wow, the long-extinct Lamma
Democracy Wall has been
resurrected, on the opposite
side of the path to the YSW
ferry pier.
New name:
Lamma Lennon Wall.
History of Lamma's Democracy
Wall...
Lennon Walls are multiplying all
over HK these days, from YSW to
this one at the Aberdeen main
bus terminal:
July 11: Carrie
Caption Contest
This photo of mine from
yesterday has also appeared in
Apple Daily and was
widely distributed on Facebook.
There was even a competition by
the administrator to caption my
photo in
Lamma Island Uncensored
(closed FB group, apply to join)
with 69 comments & captions so
far.
Winner of a free round for two
at Lamma Grill:
"Carrie was relieved to find
that it was roast pig on the
menu today, rather than roast
Lam that has been a fixture of
recent weeks."
July 10: Carrie
Lam Opens YSW Library
My comments in my pictures
above.
Stories and interviews:
HK01 -
Apple Daily
Inside photos and media
release...
July 9: New
Home Sweet Home
We've moved from one village
house to another one in this
same village which is
overlooking South HK Island.
Photos by neighbour
David Ogg Photography.
There are lots of increasingly
pricey flats available, even
brand-new ones at rents similar
to YSW. Flat-hunting was an
adventure as almost no property
agents cover this remote part of
Lamma. So no 1-month commission!
But there are no restaurants, no
shops (just a little
snack/drinks shop at the pier),
very limited services, no local
motorised people transport of
any kind, abundant wildlife plus
the
ferry schedule all
keep most people away: 2.5-hour
gaps twice a day, last ferry
from YSW at 9:10pm, 10pm from
Aberdeen.
But we love it anyway, no
stifling crowds like in YSW or
SKW!
July 8: Full
Moon Sunrise
Full Moon Sunrise, shot in the
opposite direction of the actual
sunrise. June 18. — at
Pak Kok Pier Lamma Island..
Zooming in on the moon...
June 20 - July 7:
Moving!
My PC and the Lamma-zine are
taking a summer heat break for
most of the duration of our mega
move.
6 happy years in this great
village, till we got hit by a
future 65% rent increase! We're
currently moving inside the
village to a brand-new village
house where we're the very first
house occupants. 4 split
aircons, 2 bathrooms, rooftop
access, at almost the same price
as our former old flat with
severe defects.
A few first
photos:
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View of
our old rooftop flat from our
new home, mid-move ~
Flat-blessing ceremony ~ Our new
pets, came with the flat; we're
happy to let them hunt creepy
crawlies and flying pests.
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