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14 June to Monday 18 June 2001
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Got off to an inauspicious start with the flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong delayed by two hours due to a fault with the onboard entertainment system. Seemed like a poor excuse, but it was explained that the system was also used for safety announcements.
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Finally got away at 20.00 for our 12 hour flight, arriving in Hong Kong 2 meal and 4 hours of sleep later at 14.30 local time.
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After clearing the formalities and meeting up with the rest of the group and our local guide, Patrick, we stepped out of the air-conditioned airport into hot and humid Hong Kong for a 45-minute bus ride to our hotel in Kowloon.
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Hong Kong
harbour at night
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Following dinner we walked along Natham Road named after a Governor of Hong Kong, to see the lights. Then down to the harbour to look across at the illuminated sky scrappers on Hong Kong Island.
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First full day in Hong Kong
To get orientated, a bus tour was the main event of the day. We journeyed out to Repulse Bay on Hong Kong Island where we visited a fishermen's temple at the Lifeguard Club. A trip around Aberdeen harbour in a junk followed, not very picturesque, but a sight that must be seen.
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Lifeguard Club Temple
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View from
Victoria Peak
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Lunch was spent at Victoria Peak, a local tourist attraction, and because we were Ramblers we first of all walked a path around the Peak and then down past Pok Fu Lam reservoir to the main road at Aberdeen. Here we caught a local bus to Hong Kong Central, the main terminus on Hong Kong Island, where we took the opportunity to buy Octopus Cards. This is a very high tech card that allows you to travel on most forms of transport in Hong Kong just by waving it in front of a reader. On completion of the journey a central computer calculates the amount due and deducts it from the card.
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The tour ended with a return across Hong Kong harbour on the Star Ferry and a walk up Natham Road to the hotel for a much needed shower.
After dinner we took a short walk through Temple Street Market just for the experience - bought nothing.
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Temple Street Market
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What was supposed to be a gentle walk turn into a gruelling slog for most people, due to the high humidity.
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Hong Kong
Metro train
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We caught an underground train at Jordon, our nearest station, and travelled out to Tung Chung, near the airport on Lantou Island, from where we caught a bus to Shek Pik Gardens, the start of our walk to Fan Lu Tung Wan. For most of the first part of the mornings we walked up a concrete road beside a drainage ditch before dropping down on steps and a footpath for the last mile or so.
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Along the way we saw large butterflies in various combinations of black, white and blue, large spiders, crickets and a large black beetle.
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The beach was a great disappointment being strewn with rubbish washed up by the sea with some rubbish still floating on the water. However, we were so hot that we still went for a swim in the cleaner parts.
After lunch we continued round to Tai O to catch a bus to the port of Ngan Wong Wan (Silver Mine Bay) for a fast ferry to Central and back to our hotel by Metro.
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Islands from Lantou
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Kowloom
from ferry
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Rather than go with the group on a tour of Stanley Market and the New Territories, together with Jim & Joyce and John & Margaret, we decided to visit Cheung Chau and walk the route described in the 'Lonely Planet'. This gave us the change to see the harbour and islands in daylight from the sea.
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The walk took us through narrow streets busy with Chinese shoppers. Cheung Chau is the most Chinese of all of Hong Kong islands with small traditional shops selling all types of goods. With large vehicles are banned from the island most vehicles were small 3-wheeled pick up trucks, even the ambulance! The fire engines were quad bikes though they also had a full size fire engine
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When we reached Morning Beach we found this was covered in litter and so returned to Afternoon Bay. With designated swimming areas, showers and changing cubicles we had a pleasant swim in the sea and sat on a bench in the shade to eat our lunch.
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Walked back into town in search of a restaurant called 'Tea & Coffee', which was mentioned in 'Lonely Planet' and was supposed to be next to the HSBC bank. Didn't find the bank but did at last find the restaurant in a square 50m to the left of Cheung Chau Complex, as viewed from the sea.
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Caught the 16.15 ferry back to Central and the Star Ferry to Kowloon, finishing of with a walk through Kowloon Park to see the water birds on the bird pond.
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