As I had so much time to play with in Hong Kong I decided I would attempt one of the long distance hiking trails. With 4 to choose from I decided to do the Lantau Trail over on Lantau Island, which is the largest island in Hong Kong. Lantau Island is linked to the mainland by several road and public transport links though and is home to some of Hong Kong main attractions including the Disneyland Resort and the Ngong Ping Cable Car. The hike itself was split in 12 stages officially starting and finishing in the small village of Mui Wo, although I decided to start in Tung Chung and walk to the village of Tai O at stage 7, and finish in Tung Chung by leaving the trail at Ngong Ping at the end of stage 4. This effectively meant I was missing out on stages 5 and 6.
I didn't start hiking until after lunch, catching the metro from Tsim Sha Tsui to Tung Chung, before following this path called the Tung O Ancient Trail to Tai O. It took a while to negotiate my way out of Tung Chung which was full of bridges and subways, but when I reached this old fort it wasn't long until I left the high rise behind and started following the coastline. I passed several small temples and little villages, and on the adjacent island was the airport so I often got great views of the planes taking off. I also got some great views of this bridge they're constructing to link Macau to Hong Kong by road. It's actually quite a feat of engineering, whereby they've created two artifical islands in the sea linked by bridges to Macau and Hong Kong, and then tunnelled between the two artifical islands! When you think the two places are over 40 miles apart it's actually quite impressive what they're doing.
Eventually I reached the village of Tai O, the path into the village a particularly picturesque stretch of coastline as I'd well and truly left behind the city and airport by then. Tai O was a sleepy fishing village which the locals affectionately compared to Venice as many of the houses were built on stilts by the river. It was a lot poorer than the city, with many of the locals selling things like dried fish. I explored for a couple of hours before finally joining the Lantau Trail, soon reaching my campsite for the night which was actually a really well maintained site. There was even this small stream with a waterfall where there was a pool just deep enough to cool myself off in.
The following day I left early bright and early, soon arriving in the small farming village of Yi O. Upon arrival it said the path ahead was closed but I just went with the flow and I got through no problems, heading through this valley to the village of Fan Lau. Apparently there was a short detour to an old fort there although I couldn't find the path to get there, and after coming across a snake I thought I better just stick to the main path! The next section followed the coastline on an undulating path way above the water before eventually heading inland to the Shek Pik reservoir. I got my first glimpse of the cloud covered Lantau Peak and the Tian Tan Buddha Statue from there which I hoped to reach later in the hike.
I then headed back towards the coastline getting some more great views, before dropping down to Lo Kei Wan which was this really nice secluded beach and campsite, accessible only by foot. I stopped there for lunch and a swim to cool down as it was an incredibly humid day. After lunch I headed back up again via the village of Shui Hau before eventually reaching this concrete path adjacent to this water catchment system. The subsequent section was nice and flat, following the concrete path which had views of the beaches and villages below one side, and the mountains, all be it cloud covered mountains, on the other. After a good couple of hours following the water catchment I dropped down into the village of Pui O which seemed very popular with locals visiting the beach for the day. I had a rest there before continuing on a short way to my campsite which was another streamside campsite in the woods, just the right size to go for a nice and refreshing dip!
The next morning I set off bright and early again with the aim of the day to get to Ngong Ping via the mountains. I decided the previous night that I would take a shortcut which essentially saved me from decending to the village of Mui Wo just to climb back up again. When arriving at Nam Shan I began to start climbing more seriously towards the 869m summit of Sunset Peak. The path reminded me of the Inca Trail a bit with it being long stone staircase which seemed to go on forever. When I got out of the treeline I got my first views of the Southern Lantau Coastline, although they didn't last long as I soon went above the cloudline and there wasn't really much to see at all from there. When reaching the summit I didn't stay long, although I did enjoy the breeze up top on what was another very humid day. I had a somewhat steep and gruelling descent from the summit to Pak Kung Au nestled in this valley, which is where I stopped for lunch.
After lunch there was a massive thunderstorm, although I luckily found shelter before pressing on up to the 934m summit of Lantau Peak. It was a lot steeper climb than Sunset Peak, initially getting views of the surrounding area before heading back into the cloudline again. When reaching the summit there really wasn't much to see although there was a small stone shelter where I was able to shelter from the rain. The descent into Ngong Ping was again steep and also slippery, and when arriving in the village I found a nice cafe to shelter in. The rain eventually did clear and I had a look round the visitor centre, although I decided to save exploring Ngong Ping properly until the following day as it was still very overcast, heading the short distance to my campsite.
On Tuesday I had a more relaxing start to day as I wanted to visit the main attractions in Ngong Ping and they didn't open until 10am. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Hong Kong is the Ngong Ping Cable Car which goes from Tung Chung where I started hiking from up over the mountains into Ngong Ping which sits about 500m above sea level. On a clear day the views from Ngong Ping are meant to be stunning, although as with the previous day is was a very overcast day so there wasn't really much to see. I firstly checked out the Wisdom Path which was these 38 wooden poles laid out like an infinity sign symbolising something to do with Buddhism; I didn't really understand what though. I then went up to the Tian Tan Buddha Statue, which was literally only visible from within a few metres! It's meant to be the largest sitting Buddha Statue in the world and you were able to go inside which was cool.
Shortly after decending from the Buddha Statue there was a thunderstorm, although luckily I managed to get shelter whilst it passed over. I then visited the Po Lin Monastery. The complex had a series of temples and some of the interiors were very ornate, you weren't allowed to take pictures though. I then had a look round Ngong Ping Village which they described a cultural village experience but it was incredibly tourist orientated. Some of the shops were quite interesting to look round though. I then finally made it to the cable car, although I followed this path called the Ngong Ping Rescue Trail back down to Tung Chung. It was actually a really undulating path but the further I descended the less cloud cover there was and there were actually some really nice views as I went down. It was very slippery going down though!
When making it back to Tung Chung I had lunch, before catching the metro back to Tsim Sha Tsui where I planned to base myself again for the following few days. I had a chilled out rest of the day, although I did go out and watch the England game where I managed to find a pub with a really lively atmosphere. I didn't get to sleep until about 6am though, and I didn't really get much sleep as some idiot in my dorm kept snoozing his alarm clock from about 9am for ages which is always something which really frustrates me. I didn't do much during the day, heading out to West Kowloon to check out the views of the harbour from there, as well as stumbling across this really interesting museum about South East Asian architecture and culture which I was really able to relate to as I recognised several of the places. Come evening I crashed out pretty early as I was absolutely exhausted.
On Thursday I went and checked out a few of the temples, catching the metro to Diamond Hill and then walking back to Tsim Sha Tsui via some temples which seemed worth seeing. First stop was the Chai Lin Nunnery which housed these beautiful gardens full of rockeries and Chinese pavilions. I then went to to the Wong Tai Sin Temple which was apparently the most visited complex by locals in Hong Kong. It was certainly very busy and the complex had some fascinating statues and more nice gardens to explore. After that I grabbed some lunch before heading to the Kowloon Walled City Park which historically was an old fort but nowadays a Chinese Garden full of these pavilions. There was still evidence of the old fort though. I then headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui via Mongkok and relaxed for the rest of the day. The following day was a horrendous day in terms of weather so I couldn't really do much other than look round the shops which was frustrating.
On Saturday it was still a little overcast but I decided I would go to the town of Sha Tin for the day which was home to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum which was very interesting. The town itself was situated by a river and I followed that for a bit, visiting the Che Kung Temple. What I mainly came to visit though was the 10000 Buddha's Monastery which was probably the best temple I visited so far in Hong Kong. A long staircase flanked with these golden statues lead you up the complex, including the 10000 Buddha's Monastery itself which had 10000 mini figures on display on the walls. There were several other statues at the top, and some great views looking back down on Sha Tin. When back down at the bottom I found a massive IKEA store where I had lunch, before heading down to the shopping centre where I managed to buy a few new clothes in the sales they had on. Come evening I went out and watched the England v Sweden game which was a 10pm kick off so a lot nicer than the 2am kick offs have been having! It was a great atmosphere and result too!
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