Sleep at the Beach: Goodbye Hong Kong – Lantau Island

Sleep at the Beach: Goodbye Hong Kong – Lantau Island

I needed to get out of Kowloon and Hong Kong island fast for I couldn’t stand the thought of staying another day swimming in noises, crowds, pollution and turning into a shop worm. The last destination on my list which I hadn’t visited, Lantau Island, was known for the world largest sitting Buddha, Disneyland Resort many beautiful beaches. Given the airport was located on Lantau Island, spending my last days there before flying out was the most logical option. However, I faced the same problem as I had prior to Lamma Island: bad time-management and popular tourist destinations.

Tourist trap didn’t work the way I preferred: call up in the morning and have rooms to be available on the same day. Plus everything I checked cost no less than $60. I switched to camping solution but still no luck. I found an article published by BBC recommending three camp sites and called all of them. One was booked out. The other closed for a private event. The last one only rented out a 3-person tent for $70, a ridiculous price to sleep on the ground.

At the last minute, I found another camping site at Pui O beach. I couldn’t confirm space nor prices as the lady who worked there didn’t speak any English. Who cared? Given my rather successful beach crashing on Lamma Island, I didn’t mind doing it again. Also, no-speaking-English meant this site wasn’t tourist-oriented, thus might be cheaper.

Pui O Beach Public Camp Site
Well, not only the camp site was cheap, it was free. Thank you very much, BBC. The BBC article didn’t provide the contact for the public camp despite its being right next to Oh-la-la, one of the private camps published in the article. In fact, I had to walk through that Oh-la-la, asking its employee to get to my one. Now I knew BBC didn’t give travel advice for free.

With so many people at Pui O camp, I felt very safe, but at the same time, I felt alone, something I didn’t feel at all on Lamma island where I was completely on my own. The campers at Pui O were Western expats, immigrants, and Hong Kong Chinese. Western expats, despite being friendly and open-minded living in a foreign country, tended to be all-to-themselves. You and I, this was mine; that was yours, not-my-business kind of attitude. Hong Kong Chinese, Asians, who didn’t often travel and not used to interacting with complete strangers also stuck to their groups.

After settling down, I wanted to go to the city, but first I needed to leave my stuff somewhere not at my camp site without a tent, begging too much attention “Please come and take me away.” There was no storage facility whatsoever. I walked over to my neighbor, two Chinese who were setting up their tent and asked them to let me leave my stuff there, assuring them that the bag didn’t need to be inside the tent nor their responsibility. At first, the said no, but after I almost begged for awhile, they agreed. The other Chinese group looked on. I truly missed traveling in other parts of the world where people would invite themselves into my personal zone and intruding my privacy. If this was in Turkey, Middle East or somewhere further East of Europe, I could easily make friends with half of the campers, borrow some of their equipment, and they would invite me over to their sites.

I’m testing the long exposure shot.

Lantau was windier and colder than Lamma Island in the evening; I had to do something to shield me from the wind. I thought of building a tepee, inspired by the tepees I saw in Mongolia. I already had a knife, scissors, ropes, tapes; all I needed were large plastic bags and three long, stable poles. I figured I could insert the poles into the sand and tied them together; then I would wrap the trash bag around them, building a closed shelter.

Not able to find anything, I asked the security guard for a big trash bag, pointing to a tart covering a nearby tent. He nodded, looked around and gave me two big bags. Seeing his readiness and friendliness, I asked for long poles. He didn’t understand, so I walked him to a broken tree branch and a long cleaning mop. I showed him three fingers. He shook his head. I made a gesture to him that that was okay and returned to the tent to make half of my ‘tepee’, a cover without a supporting structure. If I could not have a tepee, at least I could have something

behind me. But the tepee operation finished before it even started and I never had to find out what it was like to sleep in the open on Lantau island. The guard returned and gave me a tent.

My ‘Pals’ at Pui O

Besides the Chinese security guard who lent me his tent, I found new ‘friends’ at Pui O beach. A Pakistani approached me first and started commenting on my luggage. He said the cleaner wanted to throw it away thinking I had left the site but he told her to leave it there. The night before, his appearance creeped me out a bit. He camped opposite of me at the BBQ area and often looked at my direction. I was trying out my new flash and afraid I might attract his attention to my camera and my belonging. But soon I told myself to get over it and see him like another camper. My fear of him being a bad guy had nothing to do with him camping by himself, looking creepy at my tent. Without a doubt, it was his appearance, neither white, Chinese nor the other Asians at the camp site. He was darker, and I couldn’t pinpoint where he came from. It was terrible for someone like me who had been around and encountered different races and cultures to fall still into the stereotype trap. Others’ perception of him must have been worse. This Pakistani had lived on this campsite for years, working at the site helping out with construction and other odd chores.

The park guardian who kept coming to my tent to chit chat with me.

By the next morning, we already chatted up with one another. I asked him to watch over my stuff when I took off for an early morning swim and later left for the city. When I came back in the evening, I saw him and other Asian women (Filipina) cooking and eating rice at their site. Having a lot of vegetables and meat but nothing to eat with, I walked over to them and asked to buy rice. Not having much left, the ladies whom he called “girlfriends” gave me a bowl of noodle soup and some sweet instead, refusing to take money from me.

It was no coincidence that only the night-shift security guard and the immigrants, Pakistani guy and Filipino women took notice and helped me. Only when you’re on your own, you understand what it’s like to be alone. Only when you’re a stranger in a foreign country, you “see” another stranger. People who always stick to a group, to their community can not understand this.

Lantau Island photos

This is Pui O beach, the place where you can camp. Make sure to bring food though because there is litterally no shop or restauarnt in this area. I bought most of my food from Tung Chung, the main town in Lantau Island.

The beach right in front of my tent. It was late at night.

During the day, I took the bus to Ngong Ping to see the big Buddha.

The big Buddha

I made another trip to Tai O fishing village.

The fishing vilage

Dried fish

If you ever wonder where and how you can find some tranquility in Hong Kong, please skip or reduce your time Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and get to the New Territories, Lamma Island or Lantau Island. You will not regret this.