Hiking In Hong Kong

I love visiting Hong Kong and just got back from hiking 30 miles over three days with my friends Ryan and Renee on the Lantau Trail. Ryan and I visited Hong Kong five years ago and hiked 60 miles on the Mackle Hose Trail and shared it on YouTube in silent form and during that trip we did notice that there was one other long distance trail in Hong Kong. It was near the airport and as we left we vowed to return to hike it. So this year Ryan set our mission forward by hooking us up with premium economy flight tickets. Fancy! Fancy! I also invited my friend Renee who you've seen on this YouTube channel hiking with me in Nepal and New Zealand to come with us to Hong Kong and hike the trail with us as well. Our little team was assembled so we grabbed an Uber and could see the mountains where we'd be hiking in the distance. Seeing mountains that you're going to be hiking for the first time especially from down below makes them look huge and makes me really excited to start the hike. But before starting we headed into the city to do some pre-hike errands. Renee showed off the shoes that she'd be making ads for during this trip. Hey stranger! And we went to the best outdoor store we could find on Google trying to snag some stove fuel which we found. And as always I'm paying it forward and uploading photos to Google whenever I find camping fuel for other hikers. Next up of course was a visit to Din Fai Tung for delicious soup noodle dumplings. Something that Ryan and I did last time we visited Hong Kong many years ago. Back at the hotel we started to load up on our hiking packs so that we could store everything else in their storage area. And we'd be coming back to stay at this hotel after the hike in a few days so they were totally fine with holding our stuff for us. Also you might be wondering why the silent solo hiking guy is hiking with other people and talking so much in this video. I like to shoot and edit videos that fit the mood of the hike so when I hike alone I don't really speak or goof off because I'm alone. So the video reflects that. To get to the trailhead we took a 45 minute ferry to Mu Wu. It was lovely taking a moment to relax and watch the skyline of Hong Kong disappear behind the boat. We approached the small village and felt good about the mostly blue skies with bits of clouds hanging out over sunset peak. There were a lot of bikes near the dock and we stopped at a 7-eleven for some last minute snacks and big bottles of water. We had less than three hours to get to tonight's campsite. We have started the hike. All we got to do is just get to that peak up there by sunset. We had officially started the Lantau trail and passed through this big wooden gate. These initial sets of stairs foreshadowed the defining characteristic of this trail. Ryan and I happen to be shooting the exact same type of video so we have to communicate about who's getting what shot and share footage after the fact, correct? We reached the camping area near the peak and found a nice flat area as the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped. And it's pretty unique to camp over such a large international airport and we fell asleep to the distant sounds of planes taking off. Morning! It's wet. It's pretty socked in but it's clearing up a little bit. I think within 20 minutes we'll be able to see water. I slept well. I mixed up my kit a bit on this hike with an accordion foam sleeping pad and a hooded senshi pullover. I slept perfectly fine on the foam and it might be a good option for warmer hikes compared to having to blow up my thermarest. And the senshi is pretty great so far. Very lightweight but keeps you warm and looks goofy which is fun. We skipped bagging the actual sunset peak because of how overcast it was. It just didn't seem necessary. Some subscribers from Korea were hiking the same trail and said hello which was nice. And Lantau peak was in view but again the weather wasn't ideal for shooting so we took our time hiking two miles down to the saddle between the two peaks and we expected to refill our water here because we saw that there were bathrooms on the map but it was a dry area. There wasn't any. And it actually started to rain so we flagged down a passing taxi and drove 10 minutes down to the nearby airport city of Tung Chung. We debated our options a bit and our logic was to not hike this main next peak in the rain when we did have tons of time to wait out for better weather. We really weren't in a rush and we wanted to try to shoot a good video. We could have easily hiked the peak without drinking water but again we were trying to shoot videos so why not see if the conditions could improve. Down in the city we enjoyed brunch and planned out what the rest of today's hike might look like and looked at the weather non-stop. We got this one day of bad weather so we're kind of taking a zero, half a zero down here. Hopefully we'll get back up but we'll see. The zoning in this city was wild and allowed for these huge tall apartment buildings right up against the forest and Lantau Peak above was still completely socked in so we killed even more time by walking around the mall and taking escalators and shopping in grocery stores with packs on. That was a new experience for me. Renee even dried out her tent rainfly next to the Starbucks and we waited all we could before Ryan and I decided to taxi back up to the saddle and hike the peak in the clouds. It was windy and visibility was less than ideal. I personally struggle with deciding whether to always shoot and hike continuously as is or to curate my experience in order to make a better video and I wouldn't be having a fun time hiking in such bad conditions and I think that would show but then again sometimes stories benefit from conflict and struggle especially when contrasted with peaceful easy moments. The trail up to the peak wasn't technical but it was getting nasty so we put on our shelves to battle the wind and the rain and eventually made it to the emergency shelter. It was a nice bonding why are we doing this moment with Ryan and we quickly made work of the full three miles to Nyong Ping with the Tian Tan Buddha sticking out of the forest in the distance. We passed through another cool wooden gate and some burning incense near the monastery before linking back up with Renee outside of a vegetarian restaurant who had taken the gondola up to meet us. The Po Lin monastery was beautiful to see and the area was definitely touristy with people everywhere but I'm glad we had some time to poke around this town. We passed through some lanterns and stood at the base of the stairs to the Buddha but it was getting surprisingly cold so we decided to walk over to the campsite just outside of town. So I guess hiking is really popular in Hong Kong because this campsite is like very full there's barely any spots left. Poor Renee's all the way over there Ryan's in the back squeezed right in this corner here. We cooked dinner and went to bed with the lights of the town shining on the low clouds. The next morning brought clear skies but lots of wind. We cooked breakfast, packed up, and left before anyone else in the campground. With Lantau Peak at our backs we passed through and out of town walking on roads a bit before we found this nice viewpoint to drone from. It was really nice to finally have a full day of hiking and better weather but we also had blow your hat off wind which you could see from this rippling reservoir down below. Lantau Peak looked far less formidable with no rain and clouds. We'd be hiking over 12 miles today with this first section being up and down some large hills but nothing too crazy. We're just trying to make it down to the beach now and the beach will be a change of scenery and we should be able to get some soup so we're very jazzed about that. Ryan highly recommended for us to visit the fishing village of Tai O and I'm glad we did. It's like a little Venice. The village was split by a big y-shaped boatway cutting through densely packed houses mostly built upon stilts. We passed bridges and tons of little shops and I stopped to buy my wife a cat but Renee recommended that I get her this puffer fish with a hat instead. We ended up eating at a memorable little shack called Crossing Boat Restaurant. Their garlic soaked veggies were particularly delicious and there were cats inside and cats outside. The donut and mango mochi at Tai O Bakery were exceptional, zero notes. We then wrapped up our time in town at a cafe called Solo and enjoyed some nice coffee as boats passed in front of us. It was a nice relaxing moment. The rest of the day was an easy stroll along the ocean side with occasional beaches to check out. This was definitely the quieter side of the island so it was nice to be alone and have some peace and quiet. We had plenty of time to reach our campsite which was one of my favorites of all time partly because we could build fires and again had the place all to ourselves. Ships and planes slipping past the setting sun. I ended the day with some spicy ramen near the fire and bedtime tea under red light. For this entire trip I had fast data on my phone thanks to the sponsor of this video Saily. You can get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily eSIM data plans with code CRAIG. Scan this QR code on screen or click the link in the description below. Every trip I'll pick a plan and install the eSIM before I even leave home so data is ready to go once I arrive where I'm Saily has every destination I might need and it was nice roaming around Hong Kong and being able to upload stories to Instagram, use Google Maps, and if I'm able to research, share, communicate, and navigate with ease while traveling that makes me a much better creator therefore helping me to make better videos for you. If you want to support me and try Saily yourself visit their app and make sure to use code CRAIG for your 15% discount. Thank you Saily for helping me to stay connected and for supporting this channel. The next morning would be our last day of hiking and would be an easy one. In Lan Phao we found an awesome bathroom, bananas, and this arrow that pointed us towards drinks. This final five mile stretch was more of an escape or exit from the Lantau Trail with roads and long walkways along water runs which isn't that fun to hike. We finally reached a main road and officially ended our hike. It only took a few minutes before we could flag down an empty taxi to ride back up to the big buddha town. The cable car up there was a perfect way to end our time on the island with its impressive height, distance, and this cool glass bottom. I think we were all ready to switch gears out of hiking mode into fancier enjoy ourselves Hong Kong city mode. We were starving so we went straight to Maxim's Palace, a dim sum place near our hotel in central. I had never had dim sum before so the experience was exciting and new but a little overwhelming. Basically you ask for small dishes from these roaming carts and they stamp your card to indicate what you bought. Our hotel room was almost ready so we killed some more time in their waiting lounge with coffee, sandwiches, and this view. Ryan booked us at a really really nice hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, but not Rene. That's Ryan, that's me, and this is where Rene sleeps. Get this trash out of our room. We enjoyed the nice room view, unpacked and imported footage. I always feel much better after a hike knowing that the footage is backed up and on my computer. Ryan and Rene wanted to go get massages but I instead wandered around the city before getting some ramen and I was starting to feel a little homesick. The next day Ryan and I went to the pier and boarded an hour-long ferry ride over to Macau. Macau is technically an autonomous region on the south coast of China and used to be Portuguese territory but most people know it as the Las Vegas of Asia. It was Chinese New Year so everyone was out and about. There were decorations and lanterns everywhere. We got some cash out of an ATM and got some soup at this random spot. Walking, buildings, cannons at the fort, and so many many many people. Ryan got a pork sandwich and we started to get tapped out from all the walking so after one last pastry we boarded the return ferry arriving back into Hong Kong at night. While we were gone the staff at the Mandarin Oriental tied our cables, folded our dirty hiking clothes, and laid out bathroom things which was hilarious to me. I picked a fancy restaurant called Grand Majestic with gigantic menus for dinner and an awesome double tiger logo. I don't know, I liked it. The place was chic and the food was perfect especially their dan dan noodles. Spicy and delicious. The next morning Ryan and I had hotel buffet breakfast which is always a delight. I was missing my family back home and recorded a little podcast episode opening up about that and how I felt about my current work and just you know stuff I was struggling with. I wandered around until I found an escalator, took it, and then found another one, and then another one, and another one. There's just this whole chain of escalators bringing you up further and further to the top of the city which was super fun to ride. Avocado toast in the shape of a rose is great comfort food and I continued exploring up the escalators until I found the zoo. Animals are great but cages aren't that very fun to see. One great positive about now being a dad is shopping for Dean while I travel and after a slight mental breakdown in the lobby of our hotel we got to see the fireworks from our room. Coffee, the sunrise, and the Chase Sapphire Lounge makes the pain go away. Mission accomplished, let's go home.