Lamma Island paved wilderness walkways

kiwi (yours truly), one Brit, one Canadian, American and one local. We had lunch by a waterfall, with not a skyscraper in sight.

We walked by two reservoirs. I saw a side of HK that not many tourists would see. I was told that if at any stage you want to get off the trail there are many side tracks to take you to by bus, which the two of us did towards the end of the walk, leaving the group to carry on and finish the trek.

It was on our way to get a bus to the very popular seaside village of Stanley that we saw the house of the second richest person in HK. His fine mansion sat resplendent on top of a ridge, on a very large piece of land and unfortunately for him, rather exposed after the recent typhoon.

On my last day in HK my niece and I got a double decker to Victoria Peak (552 metres). The bus ride in itself is an experience as many roads were not built for buses; there are steep drop offs, the top of the bus often brushing trees with the driver having to often stop when another bus was coming down the hill.

I was horrified when my niece pointed out a shopping mall as we got off the bus, as this Victorian-era environment was spoiled by our modern day indulgences.

We walked the three kilometres around the peak, the path having been put in during the Victorian era around a very steep hillside.

For the trip back to Central we walked down a very steep path. At the base a woman asked about the path to the top, to which my niece replied that it was a challenging walk.

Hong Kong I didn’t find a very attractive city, but I was very pleased to have been introduced to some out-of-the way places; a view of the city that not many tourists would see. I was certainly amazed at some of the trails and small hamlets we came across.

This is what I love so much about going to a new place, being shown around by a local and getting off the tourist trail.

Staying on Lamma Island gave me a totally different perspective to life in Hong Kong, as I’m sure I wouldn’t have got the same out of my visit if we had stayed on the mainland.