One of my oldest and best gal pals, Des, came to visit a couple of weeks ago over the weekend. It’s so nice to see a familiar face and great to be able to indulge in girly chat. One of the places we went to was Tai O, a fishing town in an obscure part of Lantau Island. The town is known as the ‘Venice of Hong Kong’ but trust me, it’s a rather poor cousin of the Italian city.
Nonetheless, Tai O is not without its charm and tourists flock there despite the journey being quite a trudge from either Tung Chung MTR station or the Mui Wo ferry terminal. Here are some snapshots from Hong Kong’s version of Venice.


Stilt houses all cramped next to each other.


Fish being dried and preserved


More dried fish, cuttlefish, prawn paste etc. Stuff I’m not very fond of!


Eeeks! Look at this stingray!


Vendors selling cuttlefish grilled over charcoal. Love that smoky charcoal flavour, but I’m not a fan of cuttlefish so I didn’t buy any to munch on.


For some reason, every other eatery and street vendor was selling soya beancurd. I like the ones stored in wooden buckets like these. I love that traditional look.


A type of tea called 紫背天葵茶 that’s produced in Tai O. Its English name is Matthiola incana R.Br, and I gather it’s a type of herb. It’s supposed to be good for quenching thirst, dispelling ‘heat’ from one’s body, preventing high blood pressure and aiding digestion. The tea is a reddish-purplish colour and you can find the tea being sold in bottles all around the town centre.


Tangerine peel – used a lot in Cantonese soups and desserts (糖水)


Despite the not-so-pretty stilt houses, the backdrop of the hills makes the place look rather scenic.


I thought this was hilarious – “Snow White Spouse Wanted”.


Cute round salted egg yolks


We were walking around the stilt houses and came across one that had old-fashioned stoves like these, still heated by charcoal and wood. Don’t see much of this these days.


A calligraphy shop’s grill has classical Chinese poems written on every panel of the grill. A common theme ran through the different poems – they all had to do with how time flies by so fast without us realising it and thus we have to treasure the little time we have in this life. How true.