During term time, I pride myself in being up early in the morning at 5:30am, ready to take on the day. Yesterday (click here to read all about day one) took a lot out of me and the reality that I was beginning to realise that I didn’t need to follow my normal routine. During holidays, I am not that person, even if I want to be. During my city break in Hong Kong, I definitely wasn’t that person. I turned off my alarm and slept right through to the mid-morning. That said, we discovered more of what Hong Kong had to offer during Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year, if you prefer).
Late Morning
After breakfast in Feather and Bone, we walked down towards Pier #4 in Central to get to Lamma Island for the day. We were told that we couldn’t buy tickets so ended up buying Octopus cards in Pier #5 which we could use on the ferry and MTR. The times were different over Chinese New Year (same as Sundays) and the journey was about 45 mins over.
Early Afternoon
We arrived at Sok Kwu Wan Pier which was full to the brim of tourists eating their lunch (plenty of seafood options). As soon as you move off of the pier and past the markets, the atmosphere calms and there’s a walking path along the island. Be prepared for a few wrong turns along the way. We ended up walking up the path to someone’s house at one point!
Again, the weather in Hong Kong was pretty cool (we travelled at the end of January) so bring layers. If there’s a clear sky, this place is really nice but it was a bit grim and gloomy at times when the clouds got heavy. On the map, there are two hiking routes, an orange one and a red one. We had intended to do both and when we started on the red route, we soon realised that we had gone wrong somewhere and we were well along the orange one.
We continued walking and there are various viewpoints to look out at the sea and at beaches (and power stations!) before you come down to Lo So Shing Beach. It’s a nice place to sit out on the sand and chill out. There are various food stalls and restaurants to get food from. We got some skewers (I got fish balls) for a quick snack and they did the job. I would recommend bringing a picnic if you can.
You could very easily set up camp here for the afternoon on a warmer day. Once we had taken in enough people watching, we walked up through Sha Po New Village towards Yung Shue Wan pier to take the ferry back to Central.
One regret was not spending more time around the area by this pier as there were a lot of very nice shops, stalls and cafes and it felt a bit more relaxed and less like a cattle mart in comparision to Sok Kwu Wan Pier.
On that note, another thing to be aware of is that if you are planning to take the ferry, you may not be able to get back at the time you want. On the day that we visited, we were unable to get the ferry at the time we had planned. We had to queue outside and the staff on duty let people through in groups because it was so busy. After a while, we were put through past the turnstiles but had to wait again in order for the next ferry to come. It added an extra 30 minutes to our journey.
Click here to read all about day 3!
Early Evening
We arrived back in Central by the early evening and after freshening up, we took a (longer than expected) walk to Madame Fu which is a restaurant I had been recommended and is well-known for it’s dim sum. It’s located on the former site of Victoria Prison and if you don’t know the area well it can be hard to find at first. Sassy Hong Kong refers to it as ‘Hong Kong’s most instagrammable restaurant’. The reality? Yes, it is! This restaurant has many different rooms worth dining in and taking photos of. The dim-sum, spring rolls and fried pork in particular didn’t disappoint, either.
Hong Kong is an expensive city and it was on the mid-to-higher end of the price list (for Hong Kong) but overall it was reasonable for the quality of food presented. We also ordered a dessert plate which is a nice way to taste the dessert selection but next time I would probably order one of the options on the menu. I would recommend it to a friend and I would definitely return.
A nice cocktail bar worth checking out nearby is Dragonfly which is on the same site. There was a nice crowd of friends, after-work drinks and dates enjoying the ambience under the dimmed turquoise lights. We opted to venture towards Iron Fairies, known for a very unique pit of iron fairies next to the bar with several intimate sections (they were cold though, bring a layer!) next to the stage where live music was blasting out to the rest of the bar. As a non-drinker, they also had some great non-alcoholic options (mocktails in particular).
All in all, it was an action packed second day in Hong Kong. We slept well and we definitely made the most of it!
