Lantau Peak
Lantau Peak was high on my list of things to do in Hong Kong before I even arrived! We waited a bit too long in the semester to do it though, there was no visibility at the peak. But the hike was still beautiful!! We took a bus from the MTR that let us off right near the trailhead. We began the slow ascent up. The trail had steps all the way up, and it was tricky because every once and a while the trail would level out only to get very steep all over again.
We saw a lot of trail runners and super advanced hikers with a bunch of high tech gear. We eventually found some people that weren’t in a rush to take a photo for us.
Not sure what’s wrong with Anni and Maarten’s heart.. We were all big fans of the cute poses we’d see other tourists do around Hong Kong.
We made it to the top in no time! The hike flew by. The clouds did break a little, but not really.
We started the descent down the other side of the peak, towards the Tian Tan Buddha. We could actually catch a glimpse of the Buddha on our way down!
The trail ends near the Wisdom Path at the Tian Tan Buddha. I like to work for my views, so I thought it was way cooler to see the Buddha after coming off the trail. It also makes more sense to do both in one day trip! From the Buddha we easily found a bus to get us back to the MTR!
Sunset Peak
Sunset Peak was a very eventful hike, to say the least. A friend asked if I wanted to join, so I tagged along with him and his other friend who I met that day. We left from Central around 1:00pm, which is much later than I’d usually leave for a hike haha. The trailhead for Sunset Peak is actually right next to the trailhead for Lantau Peak, they’re just across the road from one another. We took the ferry and then a bus from the other side of the island to get there though.
This hike is pretty notorious for being very difficult. I struggled more on this one than Lantau, partially because the steps were larger so my little legs really had to work. We were panting hard and took a lot of breaks on the way up.
We reached one viewpoint part of the way up where we could see what I think was Pui O beach.
At this point we were all very sweaty and we hadn’t seen a ton of people on the trail. But all of a sudden we hit this field of wheat and there were people ALL OVER THE PLACE!! And they were dressed up. And not remotely sweaty. I have no idea how they got up the mountain like that. Sam and Sumal called it Instagram Alley because all these people were having full on photoshoots in the wheat field.
We took some sort of very steep shortcut and made it to the top!! Unlucky for us, but the visibility was awful so we didn’t actually get to see a sunset.
We headed down a different way. The boys were up to no good at this point.
We saw a bunch of small houses each on their own mini peak. Naturally we had to see what they were so we climbed over to a couple.
It was very odd, all the houses were empty and boarded up. From my limited research, the houses are almost a century old and were previously used by British missionaries.
It was starting to get dark so we decided it was time to make our way back. We had a quick detour to a reservoir and then made our way down the opposite way we came, towards Wong Lung Hang Road.
The way we were taking down felt much longer than the way up, which we realized too late. It was also pitch black so it wasn’t a very fun hike down. We made good time though, we passed a group of three women also coming down that were moving much slower than us.
We finally got off the trail, which ended at a campsite and park at the end of Wong Lung Hang Road. My joints were all sore from coming down all the steps on the trail so I was thrilled to be on flat ground. The trail down felt like forever so we were all pretty ecstatic to be almost back to the MTR. We just had to make it about a mile to the main road where we could catch a cab.
We were laughing and speeding along the road with our phone flashlights on when I see two green eyes staring at us. I freeze and let out a “oh my god” as I try to grab Sam and Sumal. They don’t know what I’m referring to until we hear a very loud and very angry dog park. And I swear, these hecking boys start RUNNING and trying to leave me behind!!!! I grab them and tell them to turn off their flashlights. And I force them to slow down and back away slowly. Once we don’t hear the dog approaching us, we all SPRINT back the way we came.
I was absolutely terrified. I was thinking about how much I don’t want to be attacked by a stray dog or go to the hospital for all the rabies shots. But we were essentially trapped. We either had to get past the dog or climb all the way up over the mountain. We decide to try to get by again. We all pick up large sticks and debate the pros and cons of having our flashlights on. I’m very worried, I was trying to get my Uber app to work so a car could help us out. The boys eventually convince me to try again, promising I can stay between them.
We go in for round two, and this time there are MULTIPLE dogs. All barking. We didn’t make it very far until both boys were retreating again!!!! Leaving me between them and the dogs. Classic. We made it away from the dogs again and regroup. We decide to try once more but the third attempt was the worst. The dogs actually chased us back pretty far.
At this point we decided we couldn’t go by them and we needed a new plan. The three women we saw on the way down had also made it to the road at this point. We filled them in on the situation and they started making calls. The next thing I know, they had called the police and there was a police car waiting for us at the roadblock just before the dogs.
We rushed to safety and packed into the car. The police officers said the dogs were friendly and just came for food, but neither of the officers seemed to want to go out and greet the dogs, so I’m skeptical. The officers got us safely to the main road and were were on our way OUTTA THERE.
It had been a while since I’ve felt pure fear like that. At least we got a good story out of it hehe. But I definitely would not recommend hiking at night around Lantau Island.