The first day of the Chinese New Year holiday, I met up with M and another friend, B for a hike. I hadn’t done the Dragon’s Back hike before. About the only hikes I’ve done were the one in Sai Kung and a few others that happened with the EOTC trips.

We started the hike from the Tai Tam entrance of the trail. The whole trail is quite long. We only did a segment of the hike. We went from Tai Tam to Shek O.

Going Up the Mountain

I think the hardest part of the hike was going up the mountain. Once we got to the top, most of the hike was along the top of the mountain.

Hiking the Top of the Mountain

From the top of the mountain, you can look down from either side of the mountain. On both sides of the mountain, you can see the water. The weather was absolutely perfect. for that day. It wasn’t too hot. The sun wasn’t an issue.

From up there, we could see Big Wave Bay. It’s supposed to be a really good place to surf. A lot of the teachers in my school talk about how nice it is down there. It didn’t seem like there was a lot going on there though. That could be because the beach is closed.

Throughout the trail, there are places to sit and just look. It was incredible. The colors of the water were beautiful. There were so many different shades of blue and turquoise. The sun was peeking through the clouds and created spotlights all over the water.

The way the trail went through the mountains was along the very top of the mountain. It is the reason for the name. It was almost like hiking along the back of a dragon.

We thought that the trail would be super crowded because it was on New Years Eve. It ended up being not very crowded. We did run into a few people along the trail, but overall, we were pretty alone up there.

The whole hike was incredible. It is definitely something that you should do if you’re ever in Hong Kong (assuming we’ll ever be able to travel again).

The End of the Trail Down to Shek O

We came down the mountain into Shek O to have lunch at a Thai place that B has gone to before. It was amazing food. We had a green curry and a few other things.

Treasure Hunting

While we were on top of the mountain, I saw little round things sticking out of the sand. It looked like perfectly lined up berries. I pulled them out of the sand, and it ended up being bead bracelets and a few rings. I have no idea why they were where they were. M said maybe it was a scorned lover or in remembrance or something. I’m not sure. It looked like the heavy rains the day before washed away some of the sand.

They are cheap rings. Sterling silver and fake gems. They were interesting to find though. I left the bracelets. They were really big and plastic.

Going to Stanley

After we had lunch in Shek O, we took a taxi to Stanley to take a look around. Both M and B have lived in Stanley. It’s an interesting area. I had never come that far south on the island. I had heard about the markets in Stanley. This is the first time to see them. Unfortunately, there were quite a few shops that had closed. M said that Stanley was heavily influenced by the French population. It was evident in the different shops in the shopping centre. The market place though, B said that they are starting to shift to catering to the local population because tourism is non-existent at this point.

It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun spending time with both of these women. B will be going back to the US at the end of the school year. It will be sad to see her go. I am glad I have gotten to know her.

Bonus Material

Disclaimer: I’m not thrilled with the way I look in this video. Not at all, but It was fun.