Cheung Chau

18 Dec 2016 Sun

Due to a planning oversight, we went to Cheung Chau for our hike instead. It was another mad rush to Central Pier because of the unexpected Sunday crowd in the train station. It took us almost 45 minutes to get from North  Point to Central Station and then Pier 4 with only 10 odd minutes to spare to get up the fast ferry to Cheung Chau ( 37.20 Hkd )

Cheung Chau was teeming with people from the pier and beyond even at 9.30am. Breakfast was quickly settled at East Lake Restaurant with 7 dishes of awesome dim sum dishes for about 95 Hkd. I would say the dim sum is comparable to Tim Ho Wan or even better. I can’t say for the ambience though.

We walked away from the pier and quickly ended at the Tung Wan Beach. Many eating places distracted us and almost got us eating barely after our breakfast!

Tung Wan is nothing compared to Big Wave and it would be a waste to spend time there. We hugged the coast and went as far as we could along the beach until a path led us to a flight of stairs. It was the beginning of The Mini Great Wall, a stone paved path that traced the south east side of Cheung Chau. There are few vantage points because the sea is obscured by overgrowth.  At the end of the walk, we went out to Fa Peng but somehow went around in circles. We eventually made our way towards the pier at 1 pm.

The pier area was overflowing with an ever present lunch crowd but we eventually found a little seafood restaurant where we had our lunch. Fresh promfet, razor clams and vegetable for about 155 Hkd at such a touristy place was reasonable. Down the lane, we had the most expensive dessert of all times, fruits and jellies, which I think was overrated.

We saw the pier from all angles, bought some more tarts and trinkets before running for the fast ferry departing at 3 pm for Central. The ferry was almost fully booked and most exhausted travellers slept on that 30 minutes ride because the seats were so comfortable.

At Central, we took bus 2 back to Ibis. HK on Sunday looked different, plenty of Filipino domestic workers spilling over the pavements on their day off with many cooking from makeshift stoves. Further at Victoria Park, Indonesian domestic workers did likewise.

We had discovered to our horror that we did not have enough cash with us to last us through the holiday. In the end, dinner was at a fancy Chinese restaurant Graces at Kornhill because it accepted VISA. Food was not too bad and we were too stuffed to walk. We explored Aeon across the road, decided that we should call it a day and headed back to Ib