Contemplating Island Life

I’m living the island life right now. No, not Hong Kong Island. An outer island!

I’m staying for a few weeks on Cheung Chau (doing a form of housesitting)! Cheung Chau, the popular pirate island! CC was named after Cheung Po Tsai, an actual historical pirate, and has a cave where Cheung Po Tsai used to store his treasure. 

The first time I visited with my family, we had to wait in a long line that stretched around the  nearby rocks for our chance to enter the pirate cave. We were impressed by the vendors selling flashlights to those in line. The cave must be deep and dark. 

It was….for about two minutes, which was the time it took to get through the entire cave. A bit anticlimactic, but at least we can say we tread ground that once housed treasure. 

I come to Cheung Chau a few times a year. Sometimes I visit with a friend or just wander around the island and other times it’s for my annual retreat. Retreats tend to be the most restful when you can escape the city. 

I’ve always thought about living on an island. When I take ferries, I imagine how nice it would be to ride a boat every day. When I’m searching for flats, I’m tempted by the island rent prices. Maybe a more chill life would do me good. 

But there are two things holding me back. 

First, I don’t know if I could handle the commute. MAYBE if I lived right next to the pier then I could do it, but the chance of finding a place really close to the pier is not high. By time you trek over to the pier, make sure you’re early, ride the ferry, get off the ferry, get on some other form of transport/walk, and arrive at work, it could be an hour and a half to two hours! That necessitates a lot of commitment, and I’m not sure I have it in me. Not to mention that if you’re ever running late, taxis are not an option. 

The other reason is that I like to stay out late. One of my friends was living the island life before, and several times she stayed over at my place when she missed the last boat. Or if she knew she had a particularly early day, she might plan to spend the night at someone else’s house to make sure she would make it. 

I admire her flexibility, but I like my bed. I really like it. I don’t especially like sleeping other places, especially if I don’t have my pjs and toothbrush and all that. I know I would either be grumpy that I have to leave something early or grumpy that I have to sleep away from home. 

So every time I start entertaining thoughts of moving to an island, I coldly remind myself why it wouldn’t work out. But I have to say, yesterday while staring out at the beautiful waves and drinking an ice cold milk tea purchased near the pier, my faith was shaken. Maybe blue waves every day would be worth it. Maybe.