Lamma Island

One of my favourite things about Hong Kong is the incredible diversity in environment you can experience without travelling very far at all. A mere 20-30 minute ferry from the central piers and you're taken from the skyscraping chaos of Hong Kong to an island which feels like it could be anywhere in South East Asia.
Lots of jungle terrain and beaches, little shops selling all sorts of cute knick knacs (the kind of shops that I find impossible to leave without buying something - a piggy bank pig made out of a coconut, that kind of thing). Lamma is particularly renowned for it's seafood too, an abundance of restaurants and bars line the piers where you can pick your dinner fresh out of the tank.
I can see why this is such a popular destination for the more chilled out expats, if I was planning on settling down in Hong Kong I would definitely choose to live here.

Jungle vibes

On my first trip to Lamma just over a month ago I found a very traditional little fishing village just to the left of the Yung Shue Wen pier, complete with stilt housing and old fishing boats. There is a little beach just beyond it which was really beautiful and peaceful, it was completely empty except for me and two local fishermen. The pavilion really added to the landscape of the place as well.

The fishing village

A little isolated beach by the fishing village..

..except for two of the local fisherman

I ventured to Lamma again last Sunday as a farewell trip with some friends who are leaving Hong Kong next week, this time we got the boat to the south side of the island (Sok Kwu Wan). The plan was to walk from the south to the north along the 'Family Trail'  (takes around an hour) after lunch in one of the seafood restaurants, but about ten minutes into the walk we got caught in a monsoon! We took cover in the Kamikaze cave (a really great spot to watch the monsoon from) for about twenty minutes before realising the storm wasn't looking to clear up anytime soon - so we headed back to towards the pier and spent an hour with a beer watching the storm from inside a canopy covered bar instead. Nice alternative!

Hiding from the monsoon in a cave

There's still plenty of places I'd like to explore in Lamma, my friends from home are coming to visit in a couple weeks (which I am very excited for!) so another trip to Lamma is on the cards then, so hopefully we will get through it undisturbed by the weather this time.

A Tin Hai Temple at the start of the Family Trail - Sok Kwu Wan side.

Catch a ferry to Lamma Island from Central Pier 4.
Check out the ferry timetable here