Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2011
Edit Blog Post
I just arrived from
Lamma Island today, and I still have no idea what it's title should be. Lamma Island honestly looked like Cheung Chau and Po Toi island combined. Add some foliage & land consolidation, and there you have it - Lamma Island.
I left Tung Chung today at 7:30, as I was already pretty confident on how to access the Central Piers from the Hong Kong MTR. There are two main piers in Lamma Island where the ferries from Central go to - Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan. The ideal itinerary in Lamma Island is to hike from Yung Shue Wan and all the way to Sok Kwu Wan, so going to any of the two piers makes no difference if you're going to do the hike. I decided to take the ferry to Yung Shue Wan, since the price to Sok Kwu Wan is slightly higher than Yung Shue Wan. I have also planned that after I go around Sok Kwu Wan, I will go back to Yung Shue Wan - just for the sake of trying to save money.
The ferry ride only took 35 minutes as it reached
Yung Shue Wan. Yung
Shue Wan looked nothing more but an ordinary fishing village just like Cheung Chau, except with colorful graffiti on some walls. Before I started my hike, I referred to the tourist map first, and I found out that the trail to Sok Kwu Wan takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes, and there is a loop trail on the Sok Kwu Wan side which takes about 2 hours to complete. I still wasn't sure if I can make it back to Yung Shue Wan when the ferry comes, so I'll just have to make my final decision once I reach Sok Kwu Wan.
I started trekking through a lush forest, and to my surprise, I noticed some white people & other people who don't look Chinese along the way. I thought they were tourists at first, but they weren't, as some of them were jogging, lounging on the beach, and running shops. It was definitely surprising to see non-Chinese people doing what the locals do, so I guess some expats & foreigners live in Lamma Island as well. I passed by
Hung Shing Yeh Beach along the way, though I'm not even sure if I want to swim on
that beach or not, since a huge factory is just a few meters away from the beach. Who knows what kind of radioactive waste goes into the water...
While on the trail to Sok Kwu Wan, I noticed alot of different birds along the way. I guess Lamma Island could also be a bird watcher's paradise, though it was hard for me to capture any of them since they all fled quickly. While walking, I also noticed a mini crane & mini trucks passing by on the path itself. Those were pretty interesting vehicles, I thought.
After minutes of trekking, I've finally reached
Sok Kwu Wan with a little visit to
Lo So Shing Beach, a quiet & clean beach. It was at that point that I've decided to take the ferry to Central from Sok Kwu Wan instead. Even though the trail wasn't really THAT challenging, I still have to do the loop trail, plus I might run out of time if I decided to go back to Yung Shue Wan. The loop trail around the Sok Kwu Wan area takes about 2 hours, and it was already 11:30 before I started walking - perfect timing since
the ferry to Central leaves at 14:35 from Sok Kwu Wan.
The loop trail starts at the eastern side of Sok Kwu Wan, but since I was already near on the other way, I decided to do the trek backwards. The first part of the trek was already grueling, with alot of stairs to climb & very steep slopes. Good thing I was wearing baggy pants that can be converted into shorts (which I exactly did). I finally got out of the forest minutes after, and came across a path to
Mt. Stenhouse. As I looked around, I noticed that the whole area was pretty much a reminiscent of Po Toi Island - rocky hills and whatnot. I've also learned that the rocks on the hills were actually granite rocks, and they were formed by volcanic activities that happened millions of years ago during the Jurassic Period. Wow, this trek is a learning experience too!
As I made my way to the village of
Tung O, I noticed some unique-looking abandoned houses along the way. One the houses have tree roots wrapped around on one side of the house, giving it a Ta Prohm-esque look.
I felt like I was in Cambodia again all of a sudden. Tung O was a very quiet village with nothing much to offer, except for the beach. The only people I saw who reside there were three old people, and it was a soothing feeling when I realized that. On my way back to Sok Kwu Wan, I also passed by a swamp-like area with a small settlement on the other side. There were a variety of birds on that area as well, but still no luck trying to capture one (though I posted one here but it's blurry).
After 2 hours (seriously) of trekking the loop trail, I've finally reached Sok Kwu Wan in one piece with an hour to spare. There was nothing left for me to do there, except to gaze at the seafood restaurants mindlessly. Well, I'm not really a foodie; I just care about traveling everywhere on a budget while still making it worthwhile. 😉
-----
Now that I've visited 3 out of the 4 islands that I'm supposed to visit, I'm still deciding whether I should visit the last one or not, because it seems that there's nothing much to see on that
island (it does have good landscapes). The ferry to that island is only available on weekends, so for now,
I'm ending my Outlying Islands tour temporarily; I'll just have to think about it for now. I do hope that my posts about Hong Kong's Outlying Islands gave you inspiration to visit those islands when you're planning to go to Hong Kong. Till next time readers! 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0575s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ricky
non-member comment
Nice!
Ha ha! I love the signs that you took! It looks very beautiful there too, and your right about it looking like Cheung Chau & Potoi!. Thanks for sharing again, and I hope you visit the last island too!~ ^ ^