Outdoor Adventures

On my first weekend here, there were quite a few different options as to what I could do. There were groups going to the beach to hang out and another going to Lantau island to check out Buddha statues. I decided to do something epic and go jump off a cliff.

The journey began with travelling the subways all the way to the New Territories off to the east, and then a minibus for half an hour to Sai Kung Pier.

Must. Do. Heroic Pose.....among paper boats.

From there was yet another means of transportation by way of taxi, weaving around mountains and past random cows into the middle of nowhere. I got out of the taxi to find myself surrounded by trees and at least two spiders as large as my face. (No pictures, sorry)

Here's a cow instead.

The last leg of this fine journey involved much walking and hiking, which I had not prepared very well for since I had a heavy backpack, flip flops, and no sunscreen. I made do with an umbrella.

The winding road of bamboo.

The view was amazing, with water and multi-colored islands...

Eventually, I found myself in a tiny village that seems to have grown very accustomed to tourists.

Exorbitant prices for drinks and floaty noodles. The usual.

I had gotten very close to my destination by this time but not quite there yet. Next was some more hiking, interspersed with climbing with my hands and bare feet (since flip flops were too slippery) among some very pointy rocks.

Ow. My feet hurt for days afterward.

I was very much in danger of falling into the water the entire time but eventually I made it!

All this water was fresh water that would find its way into the ocean not too far away, and so were very nice to go swimming in. Beyond the fresh water pool pictured above, there was another bigger, deeper one with 10 meter-high cliffs along one side of it. You can see the cliffs above, with all the people standing on top. It is from those cliffs that I jumped into the water below. Four times. Ah....that was scary. I wish I had the courage to dive in head first, but alas it was not to be. (A few crazy people did flips though--that was fun to watch.)

After all the exhilarating submission to ten meters of gravitational pull, our time there came to an end. Most people made the (extremely sensible but slightly expensive) decision to go back to Sai Kung Pier by boat. I, however, joined my fellow PolyU friend and a group of travelling Filipinos in walking back to the point where the taxi dropped us off to catch a bus back to the pier.

But the bus never showed up. Taxis came and went, but they only picked up people who had ordered them in advance and unfortunately, nobody's cell had any signal at this point (since we were in the middle of nowhere). And so, as the sky darkened ominously, we set along the road in the direction of civilization.

Two hours later we made it back to Sai Kung, where we proceeded to eat pizzas to celebrate our return.

All in all, it was an incredible day, and I hope for many many more of adventures like this. It took a bit too long to get to this particular swimming hole (4 hours), and wandering the mountains at night was probably a bad idea but it was definitely worth it.