Mui Wo, Hong Kong: Nirvana!

Kir and I travelled to Mui Wo on Lantau Island, Hong Kong yesterday. I brought Kir here because Carol and I really enjoyed it when I was there for a race a few months ago.

Carol...it's too bad you are not here with us. We could have re-lived race memories, and enjoyed Lantau again!

We walked a bit past the ferry terminal, and found a place to rent bikes. We paid 25 HK dollars for the day, which is about $3.75 CAD.

Mui Wo is my idea of the perfect place to live. There is one main street where buses and cars can drive, but other than that, it is all small concrete sidewalks and thin alleys between rugged looking houses.

Since there is no room for cars, everyone rides their bikes! Bikes were parked outide all the houses, and none were locked up. People had rickshaw bikes to ferry their kids around, instead of station wagons. The whole town had a sleepy feel, and I loved all of it.

The area just outside the ferry terminal was pretty rural. There were small farms scattered about, punctuated by the odd cluster of houses. And small streets and bikes everywhere!







Carol and I went to Discovery Bay for my last race, which is another no-car community on Lantau. It's populated by expat bankers and other wealthy individuals, and reminds me of Whistler. But it's all fabricated and fake, while Mui Wo is old, authentic, and just plain awesome. If I ever become really wealthy, I will buy a small house, learn Cantonese, and hang out with the bike-riding locals all day.

There's a beach there, and some old foreign looking hippie types biking about. I get the feeling Mui Wo hasn't changed too much over the last fifty years, other than the bikes now have hand brakes. It has a laid-back, rustic feel that I loved. These hippies probably loved it twenty years ago for the same reason, and haven't left.

The elderly Cantonese locals played Ma Jong, and young kittens sat on roofs, yawning lazily as I biked by. Birds chirped, people waved to us, and I loved all of it. There must be a tourist season here, but Kir and I missed it. We had the sleepy villages all to ourselves.

What a great day. It may have been the time I was there, Kir's familiar company, the fact I was happily finished teaching...whatever the reason, Mui Wo is one of my favourite places anywhere. The clouds cling to the mountainside, bikes are everywhere, and people are friendly. It is the embodyment of a perfect town for me.

I must move there!