The relentless pushy commercialism of Hong Kong gets irritating after a while. (How many luxury watches can people really want?).  An Irish friend who used to live there recommended I head to Lamma Island, so on a sunny, very humid Saturday morning, I found myself stepping onto the dock at Yung Shue Wan, thirty minutes but a world away from Kowloon craziness.

Lamma is a quiet, intensely green place.  A place to walk, to sit on a pretty, sandy beach, to eat excellent seafood in one of the restaurants by the harbor, and most of all to separate yourself for a while from the uglier sides of Hong Kong life.  I walked to Lo So Shing beach, meeting no one except a few workmen repairing the trail.  The only sounds?  Chirping tree frogs and someone practicing scales and chords on a piano.