Sai Wan
The BEST day I had in Hong Kong and quite possibly my life was in Sai Wan. On one of our Monday expeditions, my roommate and I recruited another friend, Harry, and convinced a fourth friend, Elena, to skip class and join us. Sai Wan was one of the very popular spots to go as an exchange student, but we made it there early in September, so we hadn’t heard anything about it yet.
We took the MTR and a bus to the Sai Kung Promenade. From there we were planning on taking a second bus, but a local found out where we were going and told us to take a speedboat. We were so thrilled by the idea of a speed boat we had to do it. We stopped for a quick bite to eat and walked up the promenade to find a boat to take us to Sai Wan. We found one in no time (that we had all to ourselves omg it was a dream) and were on our way!!!
We couldn’t contain our excitement the whole way in. We were all still fresh and new to Hong Kong and riding around in a speedboat through tropical islands was almost too much!!! We eventually pull into a beautiful and completely empty beach!! We hop right off into the water, throw our backpacks in the sand, strip down to our bathing suits, and jump back in the water because we were too excited to do anything else. The water is so warm that it’s barely refreshing but we’re so giddy we don’t even care.
Once we’re satisfied with swimming, we hop out and head to the small restaurant on the beach. We have a beer and then start to head to the main attraction: the waterfalls and cliff jumping. We walk past a second beach, also empty, and up over some rocks to the Sheung Luk Stream. We follow the river up a bit and are greeted by beautiful pools.
We play around in the pools and waterfalls and each take a turn jumping off the cliff!!! I was definitely the most chicken about it.
I didn’t want to ever leave, but we did have a long way home. We passed through the town and began the hike out. We had the option of taking a speedboat again, but decided to go for the free way out. It turns out the hike out was pretty darn tough. We were all very sweaty getting out of the little town.
We made it to the road and realized the buses weren’t running anymore. To our surprise, a taxi pulled up so we got in, only to realize someone else had called it. We got to stay in the taxi and the driver called for a second one. Make sure you keep track of the bus schedule or have access to a phone!
From there it was a bus and MTR ride back home. We talked about that day for the rest of the semester!! It was a magical spot.
Sai Kung
There are a lot of water activities around Sai Kung. I went a couple times, once on a field trip for my Marine Biology course and once to kayak. The field trip was on a larger boat where we collected sediment and water samples that we’d analyze later in labs.
My trip kayaking was organized by a HKU club: the International Student Association. I had joined early in the semester for cheap tickets to a Welcome party in LKF that had an open bar. That night didn’t end well but because I joined the club I had access to other events they put on!
The club rented out a bus on a weekend to take us all to Sai Kung to kayak. It was awesome being with an organized group, I didn’t have to do any preparation. We rented kayaks from Ah Kwok Water Sports Center. It was pretty comical because none of us got any instruction. It was a free for all for kayaks and life vests and then we were off.
We followed the club president to a couple different islands and beaches where we got to hop out to swim, rest, and eat.
It was super fun to kayak around with the group and my friends!! We took up the rear and spent a lot of time floating around when our arms got tired.
It was too bad Sai Kung was so far from HKU, otherwise I would have wanted to come out and kayak way more!! Such a special thing to be able to kayak and swim through October.