Venice of Hong Kong? Tai-O village

Decided to take a day-trip out to Lantau Island on a recent stop-over in Hong Kong.  There are a couple of ways to get there, but we decided to take the cable car across.  Lantau Island is well-known for the Giant Buddha, but I must say my favourite part of the trip was at Tai-O fishing village.

Tai-O village is also known as the Venice of the Hong Kong - there are stilt houses built over the waterways.  The village is apparently known for its salt production and fishing.  There's a defintely a distinct tang of salted fish in the air.  Idyllic like anything - it's lightning years away from It-handbags and glass-steel skyscrapers.  With a very kampung feel, it brought back memories of an older, slower pace of life where time crawls lazily by.



Boats of all types

We wandered down a narrow alley littered with stalls selling all kinds of seafood - both the live and dried varieties.

salted fish drying on hooks

variety of live seafood

Stumbled upon a stall selling "san sui tau fu far" or literally "mountain water bean curd pudding".  We didn't pass up the chance to try it out.  And boy, were we mightily glad we didn't. It was beautifully smooth - even better than the famed Ipoh Snowy Mountain tau fu far. 

We spied a table ordering the mixed seafood with curry sauce and didnt hesitate to place an order too.  You get fishballs and cuttle-fish dunked in a spicy curry and a dollop of XO sauce on the side.  Shiok...sweating buckets by then, we finished with a bowl of black sesame paste.

On the pier-side, there are boats touting dophin watches.  Unfortunately, we only had 45 minutes in the village and barely skimmed Tai-O's charms.  It's a lovely spot to chill out wher everything's just a tad slower and simpler.

stilt houses

a closer look at the front or is it the back of a stilt house



the only bus-stop to the pier and town center