Lamma Herboland

On Saturday, my family, Dad’s three co-workers and I went to Lamma Island by ferries in the morning.  We were going to visit a herb garden, Herboland.  Lamma Island is an island near Hong Kong Island.  This was the second time I went there this year.  However, it was the first time for me to visit Herboland.  While we were waiting at the pier for the ferry to arrive, I read a few books about Kung Fu Panda 2, which will be screened in cinemas this summer holiday, at the newspaper kiosk.  My favourite character was master Tigress, one of the furious five.  She was a tiger.

When we got there, some Lamma villagers walked us to Herboland through a long path.  At the entrance of Herboland, I saw the word ‘Herboland’ carved on a small rock instead of a usual welcome mat at the doorstep.  Then, I walked to a shack covered with plants on the roof, with some bees buzzing around which had a waxy blue abdomen.  Inside the shack, there were many tables ornamented with herbs and tiny fishes in the clear water in several long rectangular glass vases, and seats which were actually logs.  We met our guide and his partner there.  After that, my brother and I went to a big cage where lived an amenable and amicable pink parrot, Bo Bo.  It belonged to a tourist before, but the tourist forgot to bring it home unfortunately.  There were some rabbits in the cage too.  Bo Bo always stuck its head out because it wanted people to tap its head.  How cute!

After the meeting, we started to make herb cookies.  To make the cookies, we needed cinnamon powder, flour and two pockets of Earl Grey tea leaves.  An egg, brown sugar, dry raisins and half butter were also the ingredients for the dough which we used to make the cookies.  Lastly, we went outside and each people cut a twig of rosemary.  Rosemary is a kind of herbs which can make the cookies taste good.  We put a basil leave on each of the coolies for decoration before baking them.  Just after making the cookies, a small wild ant climbed to my chest and bit me.  I cried in pain and knelt down at once.  Mum helped sprinkle water on the bite for me.

When the cookies were baking in an oven, we went to the herb garden and listened to our guide who introduced the herbs to us.  All the herbs were very fragrant.  My favourite herbs were rue that smelled like Chinese red bean soup, stevia which has leaves that can stick on clothes powerfully like velcro, and passion fruit that has leaves like springs.  Next, we went back to the shack and it was time to have some tea and the savoury herb cookies.  I found that although there was only one kind of cookies, they have two different colours.  One was rather brown and the other one was brownish.  The rather brown ones were crispier and the brownish were softer.  I like the crispy cookies better.  There were two kinds of herbal tea to serve us too.  They were the lemongrass and stevia tea and peppermint tea!!  Guess what?  Yuck.

Before we left, Mum, my brother and I bought a thing each.  Mine was a pot of rosemary and my brother’s was a pot of basil.  Both of ours were the herbs we used to make the cookies today.  In addition, rosemary can do for the chicken wings, and basil can make the tomato sauce taste better.  Mum’s was not a herb but it made from herbs.  Hers was a teabag that we can use to make drinks when catching a cold or having a flu.  Lastly, we took a photo in the shack with our two guides.

After visiting Herboland, we went to the home of Dad's co-worker on Lamma Island.  She has two chameleons which had eyes with black rings around like those of the pandas.  She also has a frisky pet dog on the roof floor.  Soon afterwards, we had a late lunch in a restaurant called Beer Garden.  We could eat Indian and western food there.  I ate a lot of spicy food but my favourite was the spaghetti which was not spicy.  At last, my family and I went to a mini public library which was no larger than two buses.

I always say that I really, really hate insects very much. However, I love Herboland and longed to go there again.                  

              Rosemary                                     basil    

       

lemongrass and stevia tea                  peppermint tea