As it was a bank holiday (Buddha's birthday) loads of people were also heading to our chosen destination: Cheung Chau, a small island which was hosting an annual bun festival. After about an hour on a ferry we arrived to massive crowds, slowly moving up and down the pier, checking out market stalls as they passed. We joined the army of people and headed to where the festival was taking place. There wasn't much to see as only people involved in the festival were allowed to enter the caged off area which was dedicated to the buns. There were big cone shaped figures, covered in these buns though. I'm not sure whether they were edible ones but if you picture the soft bread like ones, usually with a filling that you get at good Chinese restaurants, they're the same thing.
Processions were also moving up and down some streets, bands creating the music for people in dragon costumes to dance to. But the amount of people (and the intense heat as the sun had appeared) put us off seeing any more. We quickly viewed a sweet little temple just beside the festival before heading to a beach to cool down.
We hit the beach quite quickly (the island is only small) and began paddling along it. Unfortunately, a large proportion of the sand was covered in litter, making it unattractive, but further up it had obviously been cleared so that people could lay down their towels or sunbeds.
The paddling made me a little less sweaty before we headed up off the beach to see the mini Great Wall. By the time we got there I was dripping so badly with sweat that I didn't really care what the wall looked like. It didn't help that I was still feeling quite ill either. We quickly headed back down to the beach, and after purchasing some cold water I went straight in the sea, not caring that I would be rather damp for the rest of the day. It was lovely. I instantly felt cooler. Matt also swam so we kept creating nice wet patches wherever we sat for the rest of the day. At least it was sea water and not sweat this time.
After a delightful swim, we headed back into the main town and grabbed some food. I chose noodles with barbecued chicken from a stall. I've become a massive fan of anything barbecued. We all also bought a bun, it was the bun festival after all! I went for a custard filled one, thinking the custard would be a little runny. It wasn't runny. It was like a paste which tasted nice but nothing on my homemade custard.
By that time it had cooled down and the sky was turning a little darker. I thought it was going to storm but I think it was just getting late. We waited in line for a ferry back which didn't take too long considering the length of the queue. Back on Hong Kong Island we said our farewells to Alice (hopefully she doesn't despise us too much as we weren't the liveliest due to lack of sleep and heat) and headed back to the direction of our hostel. It was lovely to see Alice again though.
I'd read on some review site about a restuarant just round the corner from our hostel so we headed there, thinking longingly of our beds. The people working at the place greeted us and told us to take our time (everyone in Hong Kong eats far too fast, they're in and out of a restaurant far too quickly); they were probably the nicest people I've seen in Hong Kong. We chose a particular menu where you were given a noodle soup each then 9 varieties of dim sum as well as a drink. Probably the most depressing part of the trip so far as my taste had suddenly disappeared. This illness is mean. For me, losing my taste is like when a singer loses their voice. I still tried all the food, occasionally getting the tiniest flavour for a mere second. Matt had to describe what they tasted like, his favourite being one that was a little similar to scampi but was crispier and had some kind of sweet sauce in the middle of it. Stupid cold.
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