Having just returned from a short vacation to Hong Kong last week, I shall share a little more since the memory is still fresh in my mind! It's my second trip to Hong Kong and I wasn't expecting much, to be very honest. To me, Hong Kong is very much similar to Singapore -- they're both cities, except that HK is slightly more expensive, has better shopping and fast MTRs (lol).

I wanted to see if there was anywhere more "uncommon" for me to visit this trip, and I really have one of my followers to thank for letting me know about this place!!! As part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark, the High Island Reservoir East Dam is located at the Eastern tip of Hong Kong, and is about 30min drive away from Sai Kung.



The Geopark is REALLY huge by the way, being separated by 2 main trekking/hiking trails (MacLehose Section 1 and 2) and walking along these two trails will help you cover the entire area. We spent half a day out at the East Dam, and this was just one of the "attractions" the geopark has to offer. Needless to say, if I ever go back to Hong Kong, I will dedicate another day to cover the other landscape attractions like the Tung Ping Chau, located at the northeastern side of the geopark!

I shall let the photos do the talking, since from the trip itself, we took over 200 photos LOL.


We were really lucky because it being an off peak tourist season, we visited the East Dam with minimal tourists there, allowing us to really bask in the nature and let nature blow us away (pretty literally, it was so freaking cold!!!)



Just as we thought we were ready to head back, we met a local tourist who told us to head the other direction and we'd reach a beach after 30min of trekking. Since we were still pretty early, we decided to do so. 10min into our walk, we were greeted with this view!!!



So, so beautiful. However, the pavements were all lined with cow dung though, so it can be quite a challenge hahaha. Also, we never made it to the beach because we were greeted by and have our path blocked by 12 huge cows/bulls !!! D: Being the scaredy cats we were, and being obviously out numbered by them, we decided to retreat :D

Getting there:

- Take the MTR to Choi Hung station, exit from Exit C2
- Board the minibus 1A to Sai Kung terminus
- From Sai Kung, we took a cab (green cab for new territories, red cabs are bound for the city) that costs approx. 100HKD for a 30min journey into the East Dam.

You might not want to have a super full meal prior to taking the cab because there are a lot of turns and curves on the road and my stomach felt so sick the whole time LOL. If you choose to walk, you can also take bus 94 to Pak Tam Chung and walk... but research (aka google) has it that you need to walk around 3 hours lol

Getting Out:

It isn't easy getting a cab, unless you're lucky to get the cab just when someone else is alighting! You can ask the cab uncle who fetched you in to leave his name card with you, as ours did and just give him a call when you're done exploring the place. Since most people heading out are probably heading to Sai Kung, you can choose to share the cab with other tourists to save some money! ^^




We ended our day by spending the evening at Sai Kung town itself. It isn't huge, and you can probably cover the whole place in about 30 min. But it is really interesting to watch the fishermen come back from fishing and selling their catch fresh by the pier. We bought some dried squid to try and it was yummy!

There are also many boat rides out to the sea from Sai Kung, so you may check that out too if you're keen. But I'm not too sure about the price (:

Since Sai Kung is known for the seafood, we had our dinner at one of the seafood restaurants! There are 2 Michelin starred restaurants here, but since all we needed was fresh seafood and the menu looks similar, we opted for the cheapest option at Hong Restaurant (the first seafood restaurant you'd see upon reaching Sai Kung). We had their set menu for 2 at HKD 388, comprising of 4 dishes! That's pretty decent for HK pricing and seafood in fact.



A side note though, you might want to tell the waiter you don't want the side dishes like peanuts and pickles because they charge a whooping HKD25 for those puny plates -.-

Imo, this day trip out was the most enjoyable day this trip because we got away from the hustle and bustle of the fast paced city and got close to nature and had our fav seafood! Will recommend this place if you've ran out of mainstream places to visit in Hong Kong hehe. Although if you're a hardcore city person, this place may easily bore the hell out of you. It will also be a lot less fascinating during a peak tourist season I guess :/

Will be dropping more posts so that my photos won't go to waste LOL. Stay tuned!

Love,
Xin Lin