Lantau Peak Hike

You'll know there are some spectacular and challenging walks in Hong Kong. This is something you would not expect when you're presented with the bright lights of Hong Kong Island or the neon of Nathan Road, Kowloon.

This post covers the Lantau Peak hike I did. The drive behind doing was that it is the second biggest peak in Hong Kong and presented a challenge that my body was looking for on a weekend. I think anyone reasonably fit can do the walk.

Getting there

When living on Hong Kong Island the key challenge is getting there or anywhere on Lantau apart from the airport. I took the train to Tung Chung and then a bus (M3) to Pak Kung Au. The stop is not easy for the first timer to pick out but the bus ascends over a hill about half way up there is a stop and that where you get off. Follow it on some mapping software if you're unsure.

The Pak Kung Au stop spoils you for choice you can take Lantau Trail Stage 3 : Pak Kung Au over Lantau Peak to Ngong Ping or you can take Trail 2 going backwards up Sunset peak. I went on a clear day and the views would be spectacular from both.

Ascent to Lantau Peak

There is a clear sign telling you which way to go. The signs on this route are easy to follow and you're basically walking from marker 18 on the Lantau Trail up to Marker 26. You can pick out the trail see below. It was being guarded by some fairly fierce looking animals. I had to be careful.

Guardians of the Lantau Trail

Spoit for choice : Sunset peak or Lantau Peak. Lantau Peak today

The ascent starts straight away and its thankless stair climbing exercise for the next 90 minutes. The stairs are big (some knee high) so pace yourself as its like this for most of the way to the top.

Stair at the start of the ascent, its list this all the way

Thankfully alongside the constant steps that you're negotiating you will see some spectacular scenery. So stop and take your time to admire the beauty.

This is the target : Lantau Peak from the bottom

Looking back at Sunset Peak

The view down to Tung Cheung on the right

As you go higher the vistas open up even further and you can see towards Pui O and the villages below. And further out are islands floating in the South China Sea.

Vista looking back at Sunset Peak and out to the South China Sea

Some of the vegetation along the way

Its a long haul to the top, it never gets close enough

Keep going and at the top you'll be rewarded with this.

Looking down from Lantau Peak, towards Shui Hau Village

Looking down to Shek Pik Reservoir from the top.

Then once over Lantau Peak the Buddha comes into view and its an interesting climb down with some really steep steps.

Zoomed in view of the Buddha and Ngong Ping Village

The trail winds it way down and ends at the wisdom path in Ngong Ping Village. Here are some shots of the the wisdom path.

Wisdom Path Ngong Ping Village

What better way then to have some vegetarian food at the Giant Buddha restaurant. The entire walk should take about 2.5 hours. I took about 3.5 as I was taking a lot of pictures as it was a great day.

Information on the trail 

I found the link below quite useful Lantau Trail Map. There is a lot of information out there on google. Most a lot better than mine.

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Hong Kong : Art Asia (No Country)

Asia Art Society : No Country Contemporary Art for Asia and South East Asia

Went to the Asia Art Society on Justice drive to visit the UBS exhibition No Country : Contemporary Art from Asia and South East Asia. Quite a small exhibition of art work. Below are links to pictures from some of the notable art works.

The sculpture below is by Andrew Nguyen’s Enemy’s Enemy: Monument to a Monument (2012), it commemorates a Buddhist monk in Vietnam who set himself on fire (self immolation). The piece brings together sport in the form of a baseball bat and religion the carving of the monk.

One of the more interesting exhibits was a work by Reza Afsina where he narrates verses from the bible (him being a Muslim) and slaps himself pretty hard from what it seems. I cant find a link to the video but it look very real. The point ? Bringing religions together while highlighting justice, retribution and various others. Unfortunately my brain didn't catch that and only saw someone slapping themselves very hard. Judging by the other visitor the point was lost on us, hope it wasn't too painful!

Its an interesting aside if you live in Hong Kong and the exhibition runs until Feb 2014.

Quite and interesting museum to visit - I found the Buddha statue outside fascinating.

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When in Hong Kong : Dragon Boat and Stanley

Stanley

A common stop among the tourist trail in Hong Kong is Stanley. Know for its markets of cheap souvenirs an things that entice the average tourist. Why not spare an hour or few when in Stanley to try and do some water sport.

Along Stanley beach you will find the HK Aquabound water sport centre where you can kayak, stand up paddle board, wind surf or wake board. if you're visiting in winter (after November) do the things that will keep you out of the water. In the summer all the options are great.

Hire is fairly cheap and generally easy. The centre provides life jackets and all your needs. A few hours on the water is a great way to break up that shopping trip and a way for you to admire the beauty of Stanley Bay.

Look at the buildings around Stanley Bay

HK Aquabound Centre

The view out from the beach towards Redhill

Dragon Boating

Today, I went Dragon boating with my work buddies, a mix of fitness freaks, serious dragon boater and a few "give it a go" junkies like me. Must say it was great fun, the rowing was gruelling, having to get yourself into a strange shape to paddle and then using your core muscles to pull back the paddle. Looks easy but about the only things that's moving on my body, as I type this, are my fingers.

Dragon boating practice took the shape of technique enforcement for all us newbies which meant twisting round reaching the paddle far out in front to you. With the leading hand holding the paddle at the bottom and submerged in the water. Then using your core muscles you twist round pulling the paddle back with the twisting movement. OK, so you got the hang of it.

Then come the training part and the drills.

Drill 1 : Fifty paddles, feeling pretty strong and 30 seconds break
Drill 2 : Same as Drill 1, is this all there is to it ?
Drill 3 : Same as Drill 1, getting a little bored
Drill 4 : Paddle in 2's, each row one at a time and everyone else critiques your technique. Ok so for a newbie like me it embarrassing but fun!
Drill 4: Aerobic training. Front half of the boat paddles 30 strokes, whole boat paddles 10 strokes and the last half of the boat paddles 30 strokes. For a total of 15 mins. By now the body is telling you to get back to shore for a nice lime soda
Drill 5: Straight arm paddling. Basically the idea being you can't use your arms to pull. You can only use your core. This was quite different
Drill 6: Same as drill 5, but now you core is starting to burn
Drill 7: Same as drill 5, and now the your core and back muscles are red hot
Drill 8: Power - row as hard as you can for 30 strokes. This is how races start
Drill 9: Same as drill 8, but now you really want to go back as you are knackered (exhausted)
Drill 10: 100 strokes. Lift the boat the call goes out as you start of with power and then settle into a rhythm.  At a 100 strokes you are dead. Apparently the protocol is that if you get off the boat and are so exhausted that you puke you've not worked hard enough. The race the team enter is 115 strokes or roughly 250 meter. The 250 meter of pain.
Drill 11 : 50's to shore. And at 2 hours of paddling hard you want a nice warm shower and some seriously fat (sorry carbohydrate) laden food.

The spaghetti lunch on Stanley beach with fellow exhausted dragon boater was worth the effort.

If you live in HK and get the chance to be part of a dragon boat team give it a shot it looks fun although it seems like a lot of hard work weekend after weekend.

Dragon Boats all lined up in Stanley

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