Aberdeen The Fishing Village

When I heard that Aberdeen is a fishing village, I memang teringin nak pergi juga visit. Sebabnya, it doesn't sound right - Hong Kong and a fishing village? How does a fishing village looks like in a 'city country' like Hong Kong? I am always a fan of the fishing village the style we have in Malaysia, yg tenang je, aman je.. alah the style yang kita tengok kat kampung nelayan belah-belah pantai timur sana. So macam terfikir, kalau kat Hong Kong, how will it looks like? Mr D dah pernah pergi Aberdeen in the 90s, so he warned me that Aberdeen is not a fishing village the way I imagined it to be.

So tengok-tengok, cenggini ha fishing village dia. Village? I rasa macam dok tengah KL je ni kan, with the exception that it is near to laut lah hihihi. There are a lot of high rise building around, and the fishermen's sampan is as many as the sailboats.

So macam ni lah pemandangannya di Aberdeen, bot nelayan bercampur-baur dengan yachts and sailboats, and surrounded by the high rise building on the shore. I was told that in the past, it used to be only the fishermen's boat, where they run their activities, and also live there in the boat. Nowadays, though there are still people living in the boats, most of them already move to live in the residential towers around.

As I took a boat ride around the harbor, I saw some families living in the boat. Rasa macam nak imagine, how's life is like with the whole family in the boat, day in and day out? Space dalam boat tu as you can see takde lah besar kan, but they managed to function as a family unit in there, and I thought that's amazing. And that's life.

Nowadays ni Aberdeen dah jadi one of tourists attractions, so it is no longer purely a fishing village. Ada commercial boats yg they use to bring tourist around with some fee. Tak silap I dalam HKD100 gitu, dalam RM50 per ride. So tourists can see what's Aberdeen is like from that point of view. I thought that's an eye opener, especially looking at the people who live in the boat. I was told that in the past, it used to be the case where the children will not go to school and just live in the boat and inherit their parents' job as fishermen generation after generation. But now with the regulation Hong Kong government imposed on the fishermen with regards to minimum education level, it is no longer the case.

There are also floating seafood restaurants there, catering mainly for tourists. It serves fresh seafood and the cook pun cook the food using traditional fishermen method. Tapi biasalah kan, bila the seafood restaurants are catering mainly for tourists, jadinya pricing pun melambung-lambung lah. Overpriced kaedahnya.

And there's one cute thing I want to share, ni masa my boat ride tu. Masa boat ride tu the owner memang ada the dog kat dalam boat tu, so at the end of the boat ride, she asked the dog to drive the boat. It was so cute and the boat moves so slowly to the shore. Pandai dia cari attraction, using her dog kan.