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Published: September 2nd 2014
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Hi Everyone,
Today was one of my favorite days since I have been to Hong Kong. It started off with an early morning phone call cancelling the work I had to get done for the day. It was a true full day off and it was 6am. What to do? I opened my curtains and was greeted with yet another sunny day and a "very hot weather" warning coming through on my phone. I decided to take a trip out to Sai Kung which is an area of HK known as the "New Territories" To get there takes about 2 1/2 hours via public transportation. I took the DB03R to Sunny Bay MTR station where I hopped on to the Tung Chung line towards Central Station. I transferred to the Tsuen Wan line in Tsing Yi and took that to Prince Edward Station where I transferred to the Kwun Tong Line to Choi Hung Station. From here I got on the 1A local bus and rode that for about an hour to the Sai Kung Pier and finally minibus 16 to the end of the road and the entrance to Sai Kung East Country Park. A cab took me down
Sai Kung road until we get to the end of the road and where I was finally at the MacLehose trail. My pack was loaded with 3L of water in the bladder, my camera, a package of beef jerkey, some almonds, and my Chacos for swimming. I can't hike in them, but I wasn't sure what the beaches were going to be like so I brought them just in case. I had 25km planned for an out and back hike that took me on section 2 of the MacLehose trail and then the Sharp Peak Spur and back. The hike follows a concrete path much like a sidewalk. The trail is either going up or down, there is really very little level walking until you get down to the beach. The walk was beautiful and I was in a great mood as I had just seen my first banana spider. I had heard about them being common in Hong Kong but I had yet to see one. They are about the size of my hand and poisonous. Had the weather been a bit cooler, it would have made it an absolutely perfect day. 45 minutes into the walk, you enter
the village of Sai Wan Tsuen. It is a very small village that survives 100% on tourism. There are four small places to eat, two of them on the beach, the other two are just as you come into town, places to rent surf boards, and a couple small markets. The houses are shacks, there is one public bathroom. In all, I would say the village takes up less than 10 acres of land and only takes about 10 minutes to walk through. I notice a few more of the enormous banana spiders. I am fascinated by them as they are by far the largest spiders I have ever been this close to! The beach was stunning! Beautiful white sand, blue water, jagged islands just off the coast. It is nothing I expected to see so close to Hong Kong, and the place was deserted! I came upon a few other people hiking down to the beach, but not many at all. I soaked it all in for a few minutes and then continued along the trail to "Big Wave Beach" which was only about a 30 minute walk up and over a hill. This second beach was just as
beautiful as the first as you can see by the pictures. I walked across the beach and into another small village, much the same as Sai Wan Tsuen only perhaps a bit bigger with more to offer. The bridge to get into this second beach was very locally engineered. Notice the picture. There is a very basic surf school here. I use the term lightly as it is a shack with some surf boards and a sign telling about lessons. I got a 1L bottle of Pocari Sweat (similar to gatorade) for 15HKD and sat at a table overlooking the beach. At this point I was completely drenched and the temperature had climbed to about 97 with a heat index of 108. The breeze on the beach mixed with the views were intoxicating and I thought about spending the rest of the day here and taking the 4:45 boat back to Sai Kung. I decided against it and started off on the Sharp Peak Path. OMG that was a lot of up! The trail was finally not cement anymore but the steps were still present when needed and it was very hot. The hike follows a ridge line up to
Sharp Peak which, fortunately has an amazing view from the top. Unfortunately it is all up hill. The breeze was nice, but it did little. When I had my head down, every step, two drops of water fell off the brim of my hat. I hike for about an hour and then stopped in a shady area for some jerky and tried to take a few minutes to focus on drinking water.
The top was amazing, the views were fantastic and it was about noon. I spent about 10 minutes up there, drank the last of my water and started back down towards the beaches. The hike down was no easier than the hike up. If you have hiked even a little, you know that going down is not necessarily the easy part! It was just as difficult, but much faster as I didn't need to stop to catch my breath every 10 minutes or so. I was back down at the beach, bought three liters of Pocari Sweat and filled my back pack bladder back up as well as drank about half of one. I headed back to Sai Wan Tsuen and found a table at the Island
Cafe. A large water and an ice cold Tsingtao were ordered instantly. The water was a great idea, the beer.....not so much. The beach was much more crowded at this point and there was a steady flow of people coming down the trail. Also about 10 extremely nice yachts had anchored out in the water with people swimming and using jetskis etc. In all, the beach was getting crowded, but not so much that a game of soccer couldn't be had! Two cute little puppies came and had lunch with me. The beer made me want more and made me want to never leave this little slice of paradise. There was a boat coming in three hours that could take me to Sai Kung which would eliminate the need for a 45 minute hike up the hill, a cab, and two busses. I convinced myself that I shouldn't change my plans, paid about 20 USD for the beer, water, and lunch and headed out. Before I could leave, I had to take a quick swim. I didn't want to come all this way and not even swim in the South China Sea. I think I actually got dryer by hopping
in the water! Literally, my shorts already felt like I had just gotten out of the water before I even got in!
When I got up to the end of this section of the trail my phone sprung into life with about 7 hours of email and text messages from the flight crew. They were leaving in two hours to catch the ferry from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo to meet a friend for dinner. Wanting to go with them, I just bit the bullet and took a cab all the way home. It only cost $30 US and shaved about 1 1/2 hours off my journey home. A quick shower and a change of clothes I was ready to go 18 minutes after I got in. I met the crew in the lobby and we headed down to the DB Pier where we hopped on a rickety old slow ferry for the 30 or so minute ride over to Mui Wo which is also on Lantau Island. The China Bear pub is right at the ferry pier which was nice because I was in no mood to walk any more. I ordered a beer, while Russ and James
ordered alcoholic milk shakes. The China Bear is known for having some of the best burgers in HK so that is what I ordered and I was very pleased. It was a delicious hand made greasy burger that goes oh so well with a beer and the scenery. We met a friend of Russ' named John (Spider) Webb. He is an Aussie who has been operating here in the general area for years. He is based in Singapore but was here for a few days and had to get his China Bear burger! We were back in DB by 8pm and I was passed out in my bed a short time later. A very fantastic day for sure!
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I enjoyed the blog until I read about...
Spiders!!! That's when I'd turn around and get back on the cab. :) Looks like an awesome adventure man. The lunch pic looks good but I'm not sure that was chicken in there. Might have been the missing 3rd German Sister... Sorry I couldn't help myself. CLappi was in town this weekend. Hung out with him a bunch. Football is starting back up. The Pats are going down against my Fins baby. :) Have a safe trip back to the states.