Weekend hike

Living in a crowded, busy, very urban city makes me miss the outdoors and nature. Where is my nearest tree? So I decided to go hiking today (Sunday). The nice thing about HK is that nature is very readily accessible. I took the MTR and then a bus to find some hiking trails in Sai Kung. Sai Kung is a mostly hilly, mountainous forested area in eastern Kowloon. I took the bus past Sai Kung town and got off at a bus station where I got some fish balls to start my journey. 

I went on this trail that went along the reservoir that had a lot of mangroves, wedding picture-taking people, and mini-mangroves:

The end of the trail leads to the Folk Museum, where they rebuilt a part of a Hakka village. You can go inside to see how people used to live, the tools that they used to harvest, etc. The house arrangements are very Hakka in that they all have the second story loft. 

The actual ruins of the village are down the road. Very educational for families. Nice hike plus more! I saw a couple of families on the way. 

 Instead of turning back and going back to the bus station, I continued on another trail. All the HK trails are very well marked with levels of difficulty, length, maps, etc. Impossible to get lost! I went on a "family trail" so I think it's supposed to be easy. There are "country trails" which are very long but they split them up into "stages" and you can do the stages separately.

This family trail had a lot of stone steps that led up the side of a mountain. The views were very nice. I got a call from a friend while walking along this trail. She asked if I wanted to do something outdoors! It's too bad that she lives in HK Island and Sai Kung is very far for her.

Lots of steps. This is probably not such a good trail for small children. I didn't see very many people along this trail. At some point, a helicopter flew by broadcasting something about "beware of forest fires."

After I found the end of the trail, I made it back to the main road and got on a bus to Sai Kung town. I really like this town because it's got a very busy pier where you can buy fresh seafood. You buy them directly from the boats. I got a pineapple bun from a really busy store. They're probably famous or something because the line is very long. The bun was also relatively expensive. This one equals the cost of 3 buns at the shops near where I live! But it was very good.

I ate it sitting on this platform that overlooks the piers and some palm trees.



All in all, it was a very good trip. Didn't take too much time or effort to get there. Even managed to get back before sunset even though I left early afternoon.