A Day at the Races

Last Thursday was Buddha's Birthday, so with the day off, we headed over to Stanley for the dragon boat races. Dragon boats are relatively narrow boats -- they sit two across at the widest part -- adorned with colorful dragon heads and tails. There's a big drum where one of the crew keeps rhythm so the rest of the crew rows together. In this picture, four teams are getting ready to race across to the judges platform to pay respect to the judges.


We were fortunate enough to be standing next to an Australian who had overslept and therefore missed his chance to race for his team that day. He was able to fill us in on a few of the finer points of the races.

Each boat -- there were close to 30 -- was supported by its own junk, where racers hung out between heats and friends and family cheered.


It was an incredibly hot day -- have I mentioned it's summer here? -- so we watched all the warm ups and then took off after one heat. The Hong Kong Maritime Museum was just across the way, after all, and it was air conditioned.