My first Saturday back in Hong Kong was spent kayaking in Sai Kung – my favourite spot – with two friends. The speed of these kayaks are a far cry from the outrigger canoe and the surf ski that I used to paddle in but oh well, I shan’t complain. It felt good being back on the water and being surrounded by the rolling green hills in the Sai Kung Peninsula.

We paddled to a sandbar called Pak Sha Chau and had a short break there.


Then we paddled over to Yim Tin Tsai island where there’s an old Catholic chapel and village. Who’d have thought such places existed?


St Joseph’s Chapel as seen from the water.


Deserted salt farms on the island


An old school building


The interior of St Joseph’s chapel is so quaint and charming! Such a lovely place to hold a small, intimate wedding.


Organic aloe vera grown by the island’s villagers for sale. You can pay any amount you want for it, and all proceeds will go to the chapel. These considerate people even provide plastic bags!


The cafe at Yim Tin Tsai where we went for lunch. This is such a gem of a place, not because of the food, but because of the fact that it’s so far removed from the hectic pace of city life. Here, you feel like you’ve left the city behind. Being in such a relaxed environment is so good for the soul.


Friendly garden gnomes around the cafe.


We found an abandoned turtle on one of the beaches we stopped at and later we “adopted” it by deflating it and bringing it back with us.


At another beach, we started picking clams that lay hidden just beneath the sand’s surface.


Our stash of clams which had to be rinsed to get rid of the sand.


We had dinner at one of the seafood restaurants along Sai Kung Pier and got them to cook half the bag of clams we picked. They charged us HKD30 for cooking these small clams. The staff at the restaurant were very amused by our picking of these tiny clams. The ones they had at the restaurant were about fives times the size of ours. Nevertheless I enjoyed our clams because that was the first time I had eaten something I had picked by myself right from its source. And that felt really good!


There was also steamed fresh abalone with orange peel which were really cheap for about HKD63 for seven of them.


Then it was dessert at this dessert house called Sweetheart Dessert. The delicious mango horfun dessert that comes with horfun-like strips made from coconut gelatin, also had fresh mango slices, sago and mango juice. It was the perfect ending to what was a fantastic day out at sea!