Shek O

The hike was beautiful right from the get-go, plants I have never seen before accompanied me on the way up which was quite gentle. I overtook a lot of people, excited to see why this trail was known as one of the best in the world. It was soon made apparent to me as I got high enough to catch a view of the sea. There were amazing rock formations all around and these two islands neighboring the coast below. I actually went the wrong way as the summit was in the otherside but it was well worth it.

Continuing on, the hike was still pretty chill. It was such a unique hike because I was able to appreciate both sides of the mountain, one overlooking the sea and the other towards Hong Kong. Seeing those skyscrapers in the middle of all this greenery was quite surreal. I was able to reach the summit without much issue and continued downwards which actually took longer as I was going the opposite side. The descent was longer I would say, though it was gentle and I eventually made it back down and started to make my way to Big Wave Beach.

I passed by a quaint seaside town which had a pretty laidback vibe. The smell of the ocean was quite refreshing and I was happy to take off my shoes and walk on the sand. I made my way to the end of the beach where there were some ancient pteroglyphs. These strange rock carvings were really unique and it was pretty cool something like this was just hanging around the beach.

From there, it was another long walk towards Shek O beach. I was having doubts if I should skip this or not as I still wanted to catch the sunset up in Braemar Hill but I still went with it because I wanted to take a dip to refresh myself. It seems like the weather and water was too cool for everyone as they were just hanging around by the sand. Without the sun, it did seem like it. I still went ahead and the freezing water felt amazing and totally revitalized me! I changed back and went to the bus next and then to the metro and then another bus. I was having trouble finding the third bus but after some luck I got on.

The hike to Braemar Hill was a bit short as I skipped the most of them just because I was already a bit tired from doing Dragon's Back. The bus took me somewhere near the summit where I could simply go up after a 15 minutes or so. They also called it Incense Burner Summit, and it was crowded with a lot of young people. There wasn't much room and people were shifting all around these rocks and boulders to try and claim their space. Sadly there wasn't a sunset to see but the cityscape of Hong Kong was still a sight to behold. Watching the city come to life slowly for the night as lights started to flicker all around was really memorable. I wasn't staying til dark though so I went back down and went back to my hotel, eating at the same restaurant that I ate lunch at just because it was so good. At night, I was a bit worried about where to take the PCR test but after some research I decided to try out the community center.Read more