Hong Kong: Lamma Island Family Walk Trail - from Sok Kwu Wan to Yung Shue Wan

Our itinerary came about with each person gave one place they would like to go. Disneyland came from the kids, Big Buddha from bro in law and I suggested that maybe can we do to any one of the islands. Lamma Island is the common place that none of us have been. So this formed part of the itinerary. 

Our breakfast that day was at Missy Cafe 大小姐冰室. Usually sis and I shared the food we ordered so we get to try more things. Their pork chop bun was tasty. 

This travel blog is very informative when I was researching about Lamma Island. We took a ferry from Central Pier #4 to Sok Kwu Wan. The ride wasn't long, approximately 30-40 minutes. We decided to start from Sok Kwu Wan because the ferry from Yung Shue Wan to Central is more frequent comparatively. 

There are rows of seafood restaurants near Sok Kwu Wan pier and we decided to eat first before starting the trail. We randomly picked one and went with Peach Garden. I think we may have picked set menu for two (set B) but asked for bigger portion and sweet & sour pork a la carte. They also included canned drinks for free. Total HKD 514.   

Fried shrimp with black pepper & chilli

Deep fried squid

 

Steamed scallops with garlic

Sweet & sour pork with pineapple

Fried rice with sliced vegetables

So Kwu Wan 索罟灣 has a history of more than 300 years. Early settlers were mostly fishermen. They used long ropes and nets to force the fish onto shore when they only had a few fishing boats. "So Kwu" means bringing in the net and gives the place its name. 

During the Japanese occupation in WW2, a seaside cave was used to store arms and ammunitions and hence named Kamikaze Cave. At the start of the walk, there was a Tin Hau Temple built more than 160 years ago. 

Tin Hau Temple on the right

Kamikaze Cave

Beach in front of Kamikaze Cave

The next place to stop is Sok Kwu Wan Lookout Pavillion. The trail at around here is a little uphill. 

The trail continues on along sea views and ends at a beach. 

There was a small shop selling snacks and the kids had corn and grilled chicken wings. Thereafter the trail passed through villages to Yung Shue Wan. 

We left Lamma Island on the next ferry and dinner choice for the day was claypot rice. We went to Hing Kee. This was the longest we were in a queue for food even though they had 5 shops in the same area. 

Salt & pepper deep fried bean curd

Minced pork & salted vegetable with rice pot

Fish fillet with rice pot

Preserved meat with chicken rice pot

We find claypot rice in Hong Kong tasted differently from the ones we were used to in Malaysia. The ones in Malaysia are more heavily seasoned. Sis and I liked the minced meat with preserved veges the best but the kids preferred the fish one. 

We then walked around the area and got ourselves egglets from Mammy Pancakes. The ordering was fast but the wait to get our food was a bit long. 

Side note: I kept on typing Lamma Island as Llama Island -___-"

Hong Kong: Of Ngong Ping and food

The second place shortlisted for visit is Ngong Ping plateau. Our very basic itinerary was the norm - taking a cable car there, walked through the Ngong Ping Village to Po Lin Monastery and The Big Buddha. We had lunch at the monastery's dining hall. 

As usual, breakfast was a quick check online along the route to the MTR station. At this day, we tried Angus Cafe. There was a short queue when we were there but all was good as it gave everyone time to decide so that we could order promptly. Of course there were 'hiccups' here and there as everything was customizable and terminology used in cha chaan teng. We learnt that 鮮油多 and 牛油多 is different, and in Hong Kong 奶油多 is condensed milk and butter toast. It also took awhile to know which food belongs to which set. Our breakfast situation were a bit chaotic especially on this day (day 1) and the below were only a small part of the food. We thought we would get scolded but all was good, they even gave the kids some soft lollies. 

I think this was combo sandwich of ham and scrambled egg

After breakfast, we were on our merry way to Tung Chung to get to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car Terminal. There are now 3 types of cabins - standard, "Crystal" and "Crystal+". "Crystal" cabin has glass bottom whereas "Crystal+" is glass all over. We went with the cheapest standard cabin. We played the 'Sweet or Sour' game during the cable car ride - which is just wave to people in other cable cars and if they wave back, they are sweet. If they don't wave back, they are sour. 

We didn't really linger around in Ngong Ping Village, mostly just cutting cross and walked towards Po Lin Monastery. Thought it would be less warm as we visited in January.

According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board official website, Po Lin Monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks from the Mainland’s Ch’an (Zen) School in Jiangsu province. The monks used a small stone house as the site for teaching Buddhist practices in Ngong Ping. In current monastery compound, the buildings include the Main Shrine Hall of Buddha and the Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. 

We walked around the grounds but we also wanted to have lunch at the monastery. It seems like we break for food very often, it wasn't untrue I guess. 

We came across this meal ticket office first and thought that this is the only available dining option. So we went with this even though we thought it was a rather pricey, HKD 750. Luckily they allowed us to get the 5 person meal set instead of the 6 person one because we wouldn't be able to finish the food. The food portion was big. 

It was only after we went to the bathroom that we noticed the other food option. This one was more casual with outdoor seating. We initially thought they were the same. There were also stir fry noodles on sale. 

After lunch, we walked to the Big Buddha. 

On our walk back to Ngong Ping Village, we stopped for some more food. We ordered the first 3 items on their menu to share - soybean pudding (tau foo fah), black sesame soup and combination of both. 

We returned back to Tung Chung via cable car as well and dinner choice for the day was wonton noodles. There was also a queue to get into the shop but it moved fairly quickly. As there were 6 of us, we were seated separately. Sis and I shared a table with a couple and the rest at another table together. 

We went to Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop in Jordan. We ordered one dry and one soup noodles to share. 

More food was needed and we strolled over to the Kai Kai Dessert. When we saw the people waiting outside of the shop, we were about to give up dining in. I guess a good number of people outside were waiting for takeaways so we didn't wait for long either. 

We ordered stewed snow fungus with papaya, papaya with rock sugar, taro lotus sago and mango pamelo sago to share. They were really refreshing.

We enjoyed the night view from the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade area before taking the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong island. 

Side note: Microsoft IT outage 19/07/2024

Hong Kong: A day in Disneyland

We got the 1 day ticket + Early Park Entry + Premier Access (3 attractions). Tickets were purchased from Klook for adults. Senior and kids tickets were from official website. Not sponsored unfortunately. 

As we got the early park entry tickets, we needed to find a breakfast location that opens early enough and found Chung Kee Congee 忠記粥品 near the hotel. We bought buns which we thought could be lunch but everybody was still hungry after eating the buns so we had lunch and dinner was in Disneyland. 

Boat congee (Teng zai zuk)

At the time of our visit, World of Frozen had just opened. I initially thought that we needed the early park entry to get to World of Frozen but I was wrong. It turned out a good idea to get an early park entry and got to World of Frozen first as it got really busy when we left. The ticket allows one to choose 3 attractions out of the 5 below:

• Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
• Mystic Manor
• Iron Man Experience
• Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!
• “it’s a small world” (Fantasyland)

We utilised the premier access for the mine cars, mystic manor and "it's a small world". The queue for the mine cars were the longest at the time of our visit. We still missed the timing for the Disneyland Railroad. It was the kids' first time to Disneyland but all adults had a prior visit and we all missed the Disneyland Railroad during our first visit. We went to Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! twice. It was short but we had fun shooting. Our aim was the rides and didn't queue up for any of the characters.

The parade was quite disappointing though. I had memory that they were much longer but this round when it ended, we were left with the feeling of "is that all?"

Looks like I didn't take a picture of lunch which was Fish Burger Combo from Starliner Diner but here's one on dinner. I guess it didn't look particularly exciting. This was a kids' meal set of grilled chicken steak with rice and mushroom sauce from the Royal Banquet Hall. 

Side note: My merino jumper has way too many holes -__-"