I was hesistant if I should stick to my itinerary ~ go hiking at Cheung Chau Island... Into my 4th day in HK, my poor toes had bruises & blisters liao... On the other hand, it's veri claustrophobic to stay in the city! Ahh...okie i shld do as follows:
Today I shld bring a slightly lighter load & leave my tripod at home... Head to Central in search of dim sum first! I had been wanting to try this 蓮香樓 located in 中環 since my last trip, but no time then! This time die die muz go find it! Armed wif my street directory, I exit D2 fr the station & walked along Wellington Street... Sei, it's really a long & uphill street... Now u noe why in hk have lesser 肥仔, cos alot of stairs & against gravity walks! I walked quite far & still couldn't spot tis elusive 茶樓, when i noticed a couple (suspected to be s'poreans too) also looking for this place. They even stopped to ask someone for direction, but i'm quite confident i shld be on the rite track. Yeah, Found! It's a 2-storeys teahouse, which is at least half a decade old. The 1st level is a bakery selling traditional cakes, while the teahouse is on the upper level.
The whole place was packed wif both tourists & locals... Took me awhile to locate a single seat; eating in hk, u have to get use to 搭桌which means sharing a table wif strangers. Once seated, the tea-uncle asked which type of tea i would like. Over here, u could choose the teapot or the single cup kind. I opted for the single cup (for photography's sake, nicer cup, haha!), which contained a really strong brew of tea leaves. Then, it was a long wait for the aunty pushing the dim sum trolley! So hungry! I realised once the trolley stopped in the middle, u have to dash out wif ur card to 'fight' for dim sum! Randomly picked 2 ~ got one that resembles siew mai, but wrapped wif a quail's egg on top & the other was huge beef balls. I wana eat 腸粉 but it juz din appear....The elderly aunty sitting next to me initiated to chat wif me in canto. Turned out that she & her hubby r regulars here & helped me asked when there would be 腸粉 dishing out! Finally got to try it but my verdict was so-so only...Overall, it's quite stressful to eat in this style but it's a veri localised experience!
After brunch, I walked quite a distance towards IFC... the cold weather digested my brunch veri fast, haha! Grabbed a mac & headed to the ferry terminal. I had learnt my lesson fr Tai O, muz fill my tummy since i never noe if there's food selling there! Ferries heading to Cheung Chau is run by First Ferry & i used my Octopus card to pay for the trip. Finally, at 1345 i was onboard the ferry & being a weekday, have the luxury to pick any seats. Thou the ferry was big, i could feel the sweeping currents beneath when the ferry was anchored. At 1425, disembarked from the ferry & marked my first time stepping onto Cheung Chau. I enjoy going to the islands as the air is definately less polluted since no vehicles r allowed except for bicycles.
Strolled along the pier & while checking for directions on their board, I got to know G, who's a HK-er on a photography trip too (wif his 7D)! Since both of us would be on a similar track, we explored the island together. Our first stop was a temple, abt 10mins away fr the pier. It's quite sunny by now & today was the first time i saw a blue sky in the whole week! Afterwhich, we returned back to the main Praya street, which was lined wif seafood eateries & shops selling souvenirs. I wanted to sample the local 茶果 & went in search for it. We saw 2 stalls selling & G suggested to try the one at the end of the street... Oh, tis 新照記 got media coverage bef, haha! There's only the savoury type which was the radish & 眉豆 (a kind of beans). He bought 3 & we got into our photography mode again when i started taking pics of the food! Then, my turn to buy the 山水豆腐花... Abit odd to eat the cold 茶果 & i found that it tasted like our local soon kuey wif the radish fillings. I would pref it to be warmed up thou'. The radish one tasted better than the 眉豆. 
We headed towards Tung Wan Beach after our tea-break... Omg! It's so bloody freezing! Despite the strong winds, I continued taking pics along the beach & we were supposed to look out for the cliff rock... But when we walked to the yatching area, we tot that there's no further pathway & u-turn into the sports school area. Thou Cheung Chau is not too big, neither is it that small too! When we traversed into the residential area, i knew for sure we were on the wrong path, cos i studied the street map before... to get to the ''mini-great wall'' (in order to reach the cliff rock), the stretch is along the coastline. I suggested to chk wif the hotel's reception. Oh, blur us... we should continue from the yatch area & there's a back-end route leading in.
The elusive rock-cliff
Hence, this kick-started the hiking trail... a densely forested area but the path was well-constructed. At 4pm+, we were considered late liao & factoring that sunset would be veri early. G was concerned if we had sufficient time to get out before dark & i assured him not a problem as i carried a torch wif me too! To a pc-potato like me, certain part of the path was tiring as I needed to defy gravity to ascend steps again! When we spotted the elusive rock-cliff & tot we could get close to it, alas! the smaller path leading down to the rock was under construction! 好不容易才走到，卻有這麽近、那麽遠的感覺呀！As such we u-turn & G said that he saw another path leading downwards which we could chk it out. We met 2 gals walking in & told them abt the closed-path. They wanted to walk till the other end & tot that 1hr would be sufficient. Fearing for their safety, i warned them that it's gg be dark soon. But they din wana heed our advice & proceeded...
The downwards leading trail seems abit 'endless' to me as we straddled down...finally, we reached a pavilion & stopped for some photoshoots here. Sei, for the 1st time, i walked till perspire these days! Saw a fisherman on the rocks wif his fishing rod...the currents was really strong! Becos of the fisherman, he created an interesting focus for our pics. The sunlight at this time casted an orangey glow on the cliff rocks which was nice! After satisfying our pics-taking, we headed back to the pier to wait for the sunset! Back here, it's veri windy again & for the 1st time tis wk, i finally saw a proper sunset! At tis moment, I'm glad i came to Cheung Chau today.
G suggested we take the ordinary ferry back, which would be slower but can take pics wif the open windows. His 50mm lens shld work well amidst the low light situation, while i couldn't even stablise my cam on board the ferry manz! 1hr later, we arrived at Central & changed to the small ferry to travel back to Tsim Sha Tsui. On this small ferry, i managed to capture a nice shot when sailing past the Wanchai Convention Ctr wif the neon lights illuminating the sea! Had dinner at 大家樂, a HK fast-food outlet which served a wide variety of food, from hotpot , western to eastern cuisine at a budget price. My beef bolognese rice wif sunny side-up & 冬瓜花生湯 was really yummy! Exhaustion, hungry & coldness...ah, all the feelings i disliked...tis meal certainly compensated! We baded goodbye after dinner & I proceeded to stroll along the waterfront. Since already in tis area,i gotta admire the Victoria Harbour one more time before i depart HK! Along the way, I noticed many dslr enthusiasts trying to take pics & those without tripods were using the dust-bins as support, hehe! But i din & used freehand ... I knew it won't be as sharp. This is the 2nd time I'm strolling here in such cold weather... rmbr 5yrs ago i did the same! Seriously, never expect Oct would be so chilly in HK! Walked the whole stretch, past the Avenue of Stars & wanted to take pic at the statues....aiyo, the Chinese tourists kept snapping non-stop & there's no way i could take an all-clear pic.
Lastly, took me awhile to locate TST East MTR as I had never taken from here... finally have a sense of satifsation today ^o^
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