#loudless

Between my day at Lamma and my trek through the country park yesterday, I am currently the wearer of a remarkably apparent farmer's sunburn. So, planning to go to the beach with a friend later, I went out in search of sunscreen this morning to help avoid further inevitability of skin cancer. 

From there I met my fellow beachgoers at The Pawn in Wan Chai, a multiple-story restaurant where they were having an event of four restaurants competing for the best burger, with a different burger being made on each floor, and music and drinks available throughout. My favorite bit was probably the rooftop terrace, where a giant flamingo balloon hovered overhead of the bumping DJ booth. While there, one of the cooks tried his very best to convince us that his burger was the best one, giving us the entire "journey" that the meat, buns and vegetables took on their way to our plate. It was amusing, to say the least.

Having met a bunch of very interesting new people, we returned momentarily to my apartment because I forgot to bring my beach attire, which is, you know, not at all necessary when going to the beach, then travelled all the way over to the southeast side of the island to Shek O, our destination.

Shek O--around half an hour away from Central--is a truly beautiful, secluded area of Hong Kong, with several beaches, a country club, and a very large country park surrounding a small town. Arriving there, the beach was crowded but not overly so, and the afternoon sun was occasionally interrupted by a hang glider or two floating above us, coming down off the mountains behind the beach.

In the surprisingly warm water, we had to avoid the occasional Q-tip, which was not a particular pleasant game, and almost got ambushed by a small surfacing submarine of a Chinese man, but it really was great time. To one side of the beach were people standing on boats and paddling around; I admire their sense of balance. When the sun set behind the mountains, we got out of the water and sat around for a bit; I had to pee at one point but forgot my shoes after getting almost all the way to the bathroom so it was quite the ordeal of going back and all that, but you know, some risks are just not worth taking.

With the night fully upon us, we ventured into an adjacent cove of the beach to find a Loudless party, which was the most unabashedly awkward event I have ever participated in. It consisted of many people wandering around wearing large, flashing headphones that played one of a number of channels of head bumping music, but the air around this was all entirely silent. I suppose if you want to have a loud party in a library, it would be a good option, but I think, otherwise, that it just make it difficult to talk to people. Some guy kept running around telling everybody to raise their hands above their heads, and I wasn't sure if he was trying to rob us, prepare for a pat-down or encourage celebration--clearly, he should work on his delivery.