Lantau

There were indeed a lot of perks for those ex-pats who worked for the Standard Chartered bank in the mid to late seventies. Those included the use of the bank junk, the Lady Jane, with its captain, Shek, and also three holiday properties on the nearby island of Lantau.

Back then, you could only reach Lantau by ferry and there was a fixed number of cars on the island. We'd arrive in Silvermine Bay, pick up one of the bank's cars, and drive out to Tong Fuk Tsuen to stay in one of the two bungalows that had a path down to the beach, or in the nearby house. 

These days, this once bucolic island features both Hong Kong Disneyland and the International airport!

Happily Wol had a good night's sleep last night, and after convening and enjoying coffees at The Coffee Academics, we walked down to the piers to catch the ferry across to Mui Wo (which seems to be a re-badging of Silvermine Bay, but I'm not sure. It's definitely the same location).

We had a beer while we waited for the bus, which took us up to the 'Big Buddha' at Po Lin Monastery. Despite all the of the development elsewhere in the island, the journey showed it was a green and unspoilt as I remembered, apart from the occasional flurry of houses and apartments.

I don't remember Po Lin at all, which is a big open area with some shops and then the monastery at the far end. We had a respectful peep inside, grabbed a quick bite to eat at the café, and then ventured up the stairs all the way to the Buddha. It was quite a climb, especially in the heat.

And after that, we took another bus down to Tai O, a little village that I remember very well. In today's Blip you can see two flights of steps. Back when we used to come here, there was a rope between them, which the ferryman used to pull across his boat and passengers. Since then, a bridge has been built, from which I took the photo.

There were fewer shops/market stalls than I remembered, but we had a mooch about, and then returned to a cool little bar by the bridge, which was run by an interesting guy who'd retired from hospitality in Hong Kong to have a bar somewhere a bit quieter. It was a nice place and we stayed for a couple of beers and snacks. 

And then we took the bus to Tung Chung and the train to Wan Chai, before taking a tram into Central. The Minx had identified a curry house, The Shalimar, which took us a little while to locate but was absolutely superb, and a great finish to a busy day.