It's raining again...

This has been my view on the ferry the past few days. Looks quite apocalyptic. 

Speaking of apocalyptic rainstorms, have you seen this dramatic video of Sunday's black rainstorm by blogger Ka Ki Wong?

Cable-car trip

We've always wanted to take the cable car but were deterred by the long queues snaking round Tung Chung. Then one Mui Wo resident shared his secret with us: Take the cable car down. Doh!

So we hopped on the No 2 bus to get to Ngong Ping early – which was good because the crowds hadn't had time to make their way up the mountain yet in the cable cars.

After a quick look around, we took the glass-bottomed Crystal Cabin down. Sheer bliss... because we were taking the HK$130 instead of the HK$85 option plus it was still early in the day, there was no queue.

We walked right up to the front and within minutes, our car arrived. And when I say our, I mean that we had the entire cabin, which normally seats up to eight, to ourselves. Others would have had to pay HK$3,200 for the privilege of a private cabin.

So we could walk round the entire cabin to get the best shots, and even lie on the bottom to get vertiginous pictures and videos like these:

The half hour 5.7km journey was smooth and felt really safe,even when the car was being buffeted by winds. The only time I started panicking a bit was when we went over water.

It was such a great trip that we wondered why it took us so long to do it. But then, as Buffalo Wilbur wisely pointed out, we have to keep some things for next time...

Man Kok Tsui

We decided to try a new hike over Boxing Day. There was this beach we kept seeing from the ferry so we thought we'd try walking past Silvermine Bay beach, find this one, and then keep on to the tip of the bay.

It was a lovely discovery. The walk took us past holiday homes (with the inhabitants sitting outside enjoying the sunny weather) and abandoned pig farms. The beach was surprisingly clean, with pretty white corals and shells.

We thought we'd be hugging the contours of the hill so the walk shouldn't be too arduous but, after the beach, it took a steep climb upwards. Just as we thought of turning back, the views opened up in front of us and we could see all the way to Peng Chau and Central. It was breath-taking.

A sign post promised us Man Kok Tsui, which sits on a small promontory at the entrance to Silvermine Bay. So on we trudged.

We were not disappointed. Though it looked deserted, the houses and vegetable gardens in the village looked well-kept. And it had a view that encompassed Disneyland, Peng Chau, Central and Hei Ling Chau.

To make the walk even more magical, a tiny fishing boat turned up just as we were about to double back to Mui Wo. It has been hired by two guys who'd been out fishing but they very kindly allowed us to board. It cost HK$70 for both of us – which we were happy to pay for the 15-minute ride almost to our doorstep.

Mui Wo from a ferry boat