We had one more full day left in Hong Kong and spent the afternoon on Lamma island. The weather was warm and the water looked fairly inviting, so I stripped down to my boxers and went for a dip - wonderful cooling off. It's a pretty hot time of year and the water was so inviting - although you had to be careful to get a good view. In one direction were green rolling hills - in the other, a power station! More contrasts. We finished our little trip with some very tasty seafood down at the little harbour before setting sail for Hong Kong Island.
Eve's highlight of Wednesday was the trip to Marks & Spencer to fill up on picnic food for our overnight train to Guilin. We also spent a couple of hours in the Hong Kong History Museum. There are two sides to every story as ever, but it was a fascinating insight into the Chinese view on Hong Kong's history. Not for the first time, it sounds like we did not entirely cover ourselves in glory.
The record of the Japanese occupation reminded me of my trip to the Japanese Imperial War Museum in Tokyo a few years back. That really did show that there are two extreme sides to every story. Most strikingly the Japanese sought to take credit for most of the post world war two colonial independence movements - apparently because their occupation of places like Singapore showed the locals just how good life could be without the British. Oddly, the locals in Singapore don't seem so convinced of this version of events and it sounds like Hongkongers did not massively enjoy the Japanese occupation either.
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