Tai O

My parents came to HK to visit us on last Thursday after they finished their trip in Taiwan. In order to stop them from sleeping on our couch the whole day, we got to take them out somewhere. So, we decided to go for more sight seeing trip. Initially, we wanted to go to Po Toi Island which we heard is a very beautiful place. However, the ferry's schedule was not suitable so we decided to go to Tai O first.

It was a quick decision. After we checked some basic tips and the transportation information from the internet, we departed immediately.

Tai O (大澳) is one of the outlying islands west of HK, located southwest of Lantau Island. Nicknamed ‘The Venice of Hong Kong’, it is one of the most famous outlying islands in HK. It is special not only in being a fishing village, but also not being polluted by urban life yet.

For 50 years, people crossed the water on a rope ferry pulled by two villagers. Then on October 1996, a steel pedestrian bridge across the creek was opened. It connected Tai O, which was originally divided into two parts by a river, together. The transportation in Tai O has become more and more convenient.

There is a very small population in Tai O, most are fishermen. In the past, they earned their money mainly by fishing and salt industry, such as salted fish, shrimps, and squids. One of the most famous products of Tai O fishing industry was salted shrimp sauce.

The traditional salted fish and shrimp paste storefront at Tai O.

Currently the fishing lifestyle is dying out, it barely provides a subsistence income.

Among all the stores, this one is the most interesting. They hang a whole dried shark there, cool!

They also hang another dried shark at the front of the shop. It's taller than me. The cost is startling high! HKD6500 per catty. But besides the shark fins, I don't know what's the use of the other part of the body?

There are lots of street snacks everywhere too. For example, different kinds of dried squids. Unfortunately, they are not my cup of tea.

Some stores are selling souvenir, made of all sorts of sea shells.

At the end of the street, that's the only hotel we see on the island. I think not many people is willing to stay in this kind of traditional hotel now a days. Beat me !

We walked further, into a narrow street...

This man is making a delicate snack, called 'kai-tan-chai'. Its shape is like many chicken eggs sticked together, very cruchy outside and soft inside. It's one of my favourite. Unfortunately, his production speed is like a snail crawls for 10m. In view of the long queue, I had to forget about it.

This house is like a cardboard paper house. Anyway, I think it was made of tin plate.



The boys took a rest sitting on the chair that put along the street.


And he quenched his thirst in front of the salted fish.




Truly, home made salted fish can be seen everywhere....


Some was hang...

Some was laid down, serves as food to the flies too.



Home made salted egg-yolk..




From the outlook, you can never guess what is the thing that they sell there.

This is called Cha Ko (茶果), glutinous rice dumpling stuffed with different ingredients inside. Although oily, it's quite delicious. Cheap too, HKD10 / 3pcs

I don't know what it is. But seeing the way it was processed, I have no appetite already.

The ambience around the square are is very relaxing.

Just when we turned into another narrow street, this old shop that displayed wooden face masks had captured my attention.

Apparently, Standard press had interviewed its owner, the man behind the masks, some time ago.

Some of his masterpieces. Not bad.

In modern days, the people in Tai O earn their income mainly by tourism instead of fishing. They have discovered that more and more tourists from both HK and overseas, visit Tai O during weekends; plus, tourism earns more income than fishing.

For a small fee, some residents will take tourists out on their boats along the river and for short jaunts into the sea. In fact, many tourists come to Tai O specifically to take these trips to see Chinese White Dolphins. We simply choose the one who offered us HKD20 per adult, FOC for children.

We took this boat to sail to the open sea, with a pray that we would see the dolphins.

There we go. I prayed real hard : Pleaseee... let us see the dolphins.

The boat moved on fast and it's very windy and bumpy. This William squatted on the seat without fasten seat belt. The driver warned us to watch out the children, but he didn't let me to hold him in whatever way, sigh. He is in the rebellious age to declare his independency.

At first, we passed by some hills...

The arch over there is called 'General Rock'. Ah, whatever.

Then, the hills slowly faded away as we sailed further away from the shore.

Finally, we were drifted on the vast open sea.

Like some other people on the other boat, we were focusing on the surface of the sea, waiting for the dolphins to show up.

Not too long later, we saw this dolphin jumping up from the sea...we all exclaimed in thrill.

It's not just 1 dolphin we saw, but in fact, quite many. It's absolutely fantastic to spot them in their nature habitat, somemore, in a near distance.

While many people claimed they couldn't see any, we, saw more than 10 heads. Boy, we must be extremely lucky then.

It's not easy to capture their picture as they move real fast. Got to have a lot of chances to do so. Well, this is my best shot.

Our captain started to leave the place about 15min later, though we hope he could have let us stayed longer. Anyway, I understand. With that small fee they charged, just HKD80 for all of us (4 adult + 2 children), they earned little only.

We left the place with total satisfaction and a happy heart.

This dolphin trip is definitely super-worth-it. It's more worthy than the expensive whale-watching trip we had had in Australia several years ago.

The driver used a different route to bring us back. So, we could see the island in a wider coverage.

Slowly, we entered the narrow channel, where the pang uk (棚屋), a kind of stilt house, built at both side of the waterway.

The stilted structures are an important part of the history and fishing village character of Tai O. On 2 July 2000, a fire broke out destroying some 90 stilted structures at Sam Chung and Sha Tsai Min. The Government has agreed in-principle to allow the fire victims to rebuild the stilted structures in-situ.

This is the fire-blazed stilted structure area. Some have been rebuilt. Some never.

There are 2 steel pedestrial bridges connecting both side of the land. This is one of them.

Some stilt houses was left in ruin.

Some was taken good care of.

This one is being used as a slaughter house to make roasted-pork.

Finally, the boat ride was ended. We went back to the place where we departed.

See this Venice Seafood Restaurant right in front of us. There are several this kind of seafood restaurant on the island.

Those too, are small seafood restaurants. So, no worries that you can't find any good foods here.

The attraction of Tai O lies in its tranquil natural setting and tremendous cultural resources. The overall planning concept remains one of the balancing nature and heritage conservation with appropriate new development.

Tai O is planned to become a theme park as a major tourist attraction in Hong Kong. However, the project is facing much opposition from the local people in Tai O, as they think that if the project is adopted to run, it will greatly affect their living habits and traditions that have lasted for centuries. The Government and residents of Tai O are still discussing on the solution, and how to balance the benefits of both sides.

It is definitely worth the trip to Tai O during the holidays, especially for those who want to know HK better. Life can be so simple over here.

It costs much less time to get to Tai O in recent years because of the construction of the Tsing Ma Bridge and MTR. To get to Tai O, you can take a ferry to Mui Wu. An alternative is to take a bus or the MTR to Tung Chung, then hop on a bus to Tai O. On public holidays, there are also ferries from Tuen Mun to Tai O.

While waiting in the bus, William wanted to play with the camera. That's what he shot.

He would be happy when I show him some of his masterpiece in my blog later.

Well, I want to believe he will only shot for the objects that look either interesting or pretty to him (cough cough).