Discovering Disco Bay

We'd received two flyers for Discovery Bay, or Disco Bay, as it's called by locals for short, on special weekend activities. So we decided we'd head over on Sunday to check it out. Steven, who was leaving for a business trip to Europe, could leave from there.

We checked Steven's luggage in at the Airport Express downtown. Then hopped on a ferry out to DB on Lantau island. It was a quick 30 minute ride. As soon as we got off the ferry, a large ominious cloud appeared overhead. Before we could even walk to the open air market that was just before us, the rain poured down. Rain in Hong Kong is not like rain back home. Here it's as if the whole sky opens up and buckets full of water fall. It's more the feeling of being sprayed by a hose than of individual drops. We ducked under a table that had a large market umbrella with another local dad and his son and surveyed the plaza. Everyone stood in their protected posts staring at another, as if the rain would pass any second. Well it didn't. But we did learn from the dad that the fountain near us was full of tiny, black frogs, perfect for 5 years to catch. After catching a few and putting them in our sand bucket, we decided to head to the restaurant early for lunch, figuring we'd have to jockey for a table inside, since our reservations were for outside. We actually got a fantatic table in a room full of families with young kids. Which if you have young kids is truely a delight. We felt so proud when our kids actually sat at the table, while other kids jumped on the cushions, cried and made large messes. Watching other families is like watching Jerry Springer, you delight in others' devious ways, just so you can feel normal.

The restuarant was setting was fantastic, unfortunately the food and service were the pits. But at least it consumed two hours of our time while it poured buckets. We decided the best part of the day was catching frogs, but it was still pouring. So we needed to find a place to buy umbrellas and resume the hunt. We found not only umbrellas, but better yet, ponchos. We kissed dad goodbye, so he could catch a bus to the airport. After donning our new outfits, we proceeded to catch a ton of helpless, unsuspecting frogs.

We were quite successful until the police arrived. We were busted. They stopped the kids and gave me a long look, explaining that walking on the foot wide ledge could be dangerous. (I thought it was safer than the slick tiles in front of the stores where I could barely walk on without wiping out). The police suggested we head to the beach for the water festival and that we wash our hands on the way. We were delighted to hear that the beach games were still on despite the rain, which was actually starting to let up at this point.

At the beach, we paid a $20 HKD donation each for a wristband to play all the beach games. The festival definitely had a chinese feel to it. Tons of employees to help at each site, but still things seem a little bit, well not, modern.... The kids pumped water bottle rockets, played beach soccer, built a sandcastle, made a raft out of popsicle sticks at the airplane making table. The most hilarious thing was the Belly Buster, our name for ramming together belly first, but here you wore headgear and innertubes. The kids favorite was a large inflatible ball that you could climb up and slide down.

We played till 4 pm. Then I forced the two reluctant kids back towards the ferry. Don't worry, we'll be back to DB.