Long day on Lantau

We arrived at 4.10am and caught the first train to the city at 5.50am. After a quick train change at Central we arrived at our hotel at 7am. Unsurprisingly our rooms won't be ready for a number of hours, so we decided to tackle our longest planned day - a trip to Lantau Island (back where the airport is!).

To get back to Lantau we caught a bus to the ferry terminal, then ferry to Mui Wo on the east coast of the island. After a walk around town, a failed attempt for a cache, and a bakery visit, we had a winding, mountainous bus trip across the island to Tai O, a traditional Chinese stilted fishing village on the west coast... and all before 10.30am!

Tai O, on the Pearl River delta, is also home to the rare pink dolphin, so we went for a boat trip through the village and toward the new Hong Kong-Macau bridge in search of some. We spotted one, which considering there are less than 50 left in the wild, is pretty good.

It started to drizzle as we walked through the market, sampling some cuttlefish balls on the way, so we caught the next bus to Ngong Ping, home of the Big Buddha. It was raining properly by now, so we decided against climbing the 250 steps to the top and headed for Ngong Ping 360, a 5.7km cable car ride with views across the South China Sea, national park and airport. We knew it was all out there sonewehere, but the cloud was so low we had times we couldn't even see the carriage ahead of us!

We caught the train back to the hotel, KT had a snooze and Oliver, DC and I went out in search of food. We settled on the accurately named Queen Street Cooked Food Market for some delicious noodle and rice dishes, then a quick trip to the supermarket for supplies.

KT and Chris frequented the same food hall and got the full theatre of washing your own crockery before you eat, and complimentary tea service, then we all went to the coffee shop downstairs to discuss the next day's agenda over hot chocolates ☺Read more