San Mun Tsai second time around

We visited San Mun Tsai again, but this time taking the path we had planned for the first trip. We took the 20K minibus that terminates there.





We stopped and visited the historical gallery. It had a unicorn head, we just had read on the Internet about the unicorn dance, not as popular or widely used as the traditional dragon and lion dances.

When we arrived at the beach we walked around and explored the protected area. Ma Shi Chau






The kids liked these mini glasses dad found and there was an argument over who would get to play with them first. I am always amazed at the things kids choose to fight about.






It was part of our plan this time to take the boat to Tai Mei Tuk. We approached the Sampan lady and began to discuss cost. We would give her a number in Mandarin and she would reply in Cantonese. I say all the time I need to learn the numbers in Cantonese and have yet to do it. The bartering required hand gestures and her at least acknowledging our Mandarin figure for us to final settle. We had paid 20HKD per person for the boat when we went to Sai Kung, and we felt we should pay no more this. Locals if they even bother taking the boat, maybe get a better deal then we did, but we were comfortable paying that amount and boarded.

It was a fast paced ride, we noticed the lack of life jackets as we were zig zagging through the other boats. We arrived to find what seemed to be an even busier than usual Saturday in TMT. It wasn't until we were standing in a long bus line to return home that it occurred to me it was a public holiday. Chung Yeung Festival part of the tradition is the colorful papers placed at graves as seen in the top photo.

Thankfully we ate earlier than everyone else did and got into a restaurant no problem.

It was good food. I had a beef dish with a black pepper sauce and Nathan got a curry dish.

Sai Kung, Hap Mun and SAR day

The hot hot Hong Kong summer has arrived and it is time for us to hit the beaches. We spent the first summer holiday July 1st in Sai Kung
It was Hong Kong special administrative region day celebrating the day HK was handed back over to China. Some celebrate with parades and cultural activities some spend the day protesting. It takes us over an hour to get to any beach via public transportation. We decided to splurge and take a taxi one way. it cost about $140HKD which is around $20US.

If traveling to Sai Kung don't worry about finding a way to the beach the people selling the tickets for the Kaido/Sampan boats will find you. We were shown a picture of a beach and told $20 per person for pick up and drop off. We weren't sure what we were getting into but took our chances and got on the boat.




The boat ride was around 15-20 minutes, a pretty way to tour the shores of some of the islands. We had to take the drivers word for it when we reached our destination as he had made two previous stops.

















One of the beaches we went by was almost empty so we were a little disheartened to find our beach destination overflowing with people. It wasn't the cleanest beach I have ever swam in, the kids were just happy to finally be there and enjoyed themselves.






























































We made sure to catch a boat with a blue flag like the one we came in on and returned to the peninsula.
One reason we chose Sai Kung for our destination was the choice of western style restaurants. We learned our lesson when it comes to visiting SK on a holiday or weekend. Eat before 6 after 8 or make a reservation. Everywhere we went we were told at least an hour to wait. You can't do that with hungry kids. So we reluctantly ate Pizza hut and Mcdonalds.
We caught the 299 back to Shatin it was a long queue as a result of the holiday. But we found seats on the bus and made it back to Tai Po eventually.