Good Things Come In Threes

Scarlet macaw taking the air at Pak Sha Wan.

I was supposed to be going hiking on Hong Kong Island with a friend, but she cancelled the night before our trip. I had worked out all the details of the hike I was supposed to do with her, but I decided I would change my day out to a trip to Trio Beach in Sai Kung. I didn't have very much time to work out how to do this. That's my excuse anyway and I am sticking to it.

I did know that Trio Beach was supposedly quite close to The Lions Nature Education Centre and just a few bus stops away from Hebe Haven, also known as Pak Sha Wan, and home to Sai Kung's marina and one of its few hotels - The Pier Hotel. I hoped to be able to visit all three things. After all good things come in threes.

I now know exactly what I should have done to make this trip super easy. It's just that I kept managing to do everything wrong and gave myself an awful lot of extra walking as a result.

First of all, I boarded a 92 bus at Diamond Hill Public Interchange. I should have got off the bus at Pak Kong that would have placed me right next to the front entrance to Lions Nature Education Centre. However, because I had looked up information for Trio Beach rather than the education centre, I got off one stop earlier at Tai Chung Hau, which is the correct stop for hiking to the beach.

The village next to the bus-stop.

There was a public toilet next to the bus stop, which was a welcome sight, as the toilets in Diamond Hill Station had been closed for cleaning and I was approaching desperate by this stage. After my trip to the loo, I walked the same direction that the bus had been travelling for a few minutes, then crossed the busy main road and began walking along Che Keng Tuk Road. My information had told me to keep following SKIP signs. SKIP is short for Sai Kung International Preschool. Well there was, as far as I could see, only one sign for this at the start of the road. I didn't see another until I was right in front of the school, so not the best advice I have ever had. Despite this I did find the preschool easily enough.

Signs at the start of Che Keng Tuk Road.

I walked past a sign for a Geopark Visitor Centre and had considered going to it, but it was The Lions Nature Education Centre I wanted to see and I couldn't go and see everything, so I ignored it. What I did not realize was that the Geopark Visitor Centre was part of The Lions Nature Park Education Centre and if I had followed that sign, I'd have saved myself a lot of faffing about. Sigh! Anyway, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I had noted there were no more signs for SKIP, but vaguely remembered that it was supposedly near Hong Kong Marina, so I started following signs for that. This proved to be a good idea, as I had excellent views out over the marina and just before the gate of the marina, I saw the second sign for SKIP, indicating that I should go up a flight of stairs with green railings.

View over the marina on the walk to SKIP.

View over the marina on the walk to SKIP.

Selfie with the marina.

Mangroves next to the marina.

Turtle in the marina.

The stairs up to the start of the trail.

My information said follow the sign to Trio Beach from there. Now there was a clear path off to my right and I suppose it should have been self-evident that this was bound to be the way to Trio Beach, but there was no sign and that made me feel it may not be right, so I thought to myself: "I will just follow the path next to the side of the school instead and see if there's a sign there." I did this and quickly realized that this wasn't the right way, so did I turn round and walk back? Well no, for some unknown reason, although I knew I was clearly going the wrong way, I just kept going. I passed some ruined old stone buildings, which I thought were quite picturesque, then came to a gorgeous little village. I still don't know what this village was called. I should have turned back then, but I kept thinking: "The correct path will cross this one somewhere. There will be a sign any minute now." There wasn't.

Ruined house.

Ruined house.

Many trunked tree.

Pretty village.

Pretty village.

Pretty village.

Buddha statue in one of the village gardens.

Eventually, to my great surprise, I found myself wandering through the back entrance to The Lions Nature Education Centre. Well, I had wanted to go there, so great. I had been aiming for the beach, but at least I had found something. Keep in mind that I could have got here in one minute by getting off at the right bus-stop and it had instead taken me around thirty or forty minutes by a very circuitous route.

The Lions Nature Education Centre occupies eighty-four acres of land and is used for public education, recreation, nature conservation and scientific studies. It has a Shell House displaying different kinds of shells found in the Hong Kong area. There's also an exhibition room devoted to agriculture, one on fishing and the Geopark Visitor Centre, which I hadn't realized was part of the site.

Map of The Lions Nature Education Centre.

Main building of The Lions Nature Education Centre.

Buildings and pond at The Lions Nature Education Centre.

Blue flowers outside The Lions Nature Education Centre.

Inside the agricultural exhibition.

Agricultural exhibition.

Agricultural exhibition.

Agricultural exhibition.

Fisheries Building.

Fisheries exhibition.

Shell House.

Shells.

Shells.

Shells.

I looked at all of these, but my favourite parts of the centre were the outside areas. There was a banana plantation, a rock academy, showcasing different kinds of rocks, an area devoted to organic farming, a dragonfly pond and a bamboo grove. I have actually been here before on school trips, accompanied by ninety, hyperactive five year old children.

Banana Grove.

Rock academy.

Arboretum.

Organic farm.

Scarecrow.

Mountain scenery.

Dragonfly pond sign.

Dragonfly pond.

Dragonfly pond.

Water Lily.

Bamboo grove.

Bamboo grove.

Bamboo grove.

Wetland area with turtles.

Sculpture with coral tree.

Coral flowers.

Blue flowers.

Anyway, after I had finished looking around The Lions Nature Education Centre, I decided to have another go at finding Trio Beach. I headed towards the exit and noted a carpark on my left, but the exit signs were straight ahead, so I followed them. I ended up back on Hiram's Highway, right next to the Pak Kong bus-stop. I walked back on the narrow pavement at the edge of the busy road all the way to the bus-stop I had originally got off at and, with a sense of deja vu, began my walk again.

When I reached the Geopark Visitor Centre sign, I realized if I had just gone through the carpark instead of following the signs for the exit, I could have got here much, much quicker. It was just at the end of the carpark. Oh well, I was just going to have to accept it was going to be one of those days. I followed the signs for the Hong Kong Marina, climbed the steps with the green railings and, despite the fact there was no sign, followed the path to my right. This path led through the trees with the sea to my right. It was paved and easy to walk on. I had been walking for around ten minutes or so before there was finally a sign for the beach, indicating it was thirty minutes walk away. From this point the trail became a dirt track with a fairly steep but short slope up the way. There was a view point at the top with lovely views over the marina. The rest of the walk was similar - a dirt path, slopes up, lots of trees and the occasional viewpoint through their branches.

Paved path to Trio Beach.

Finally a sign for Trio Beach.

Slope up from the sign post.

Path to Trio Beach.

The marina and pier.

View with houses in the background.

View over Pak Sha Wan Marina.

Boats, boats and more boats.

View towards an island.

Coastal view with Ma On Shan mountains in the background.

Blossom.

Finally, after what felt like quite a long time, I came to a barbecue site and some stairs down to Trio Beach. Trio Beach is about a hundred and thirty metres long and has lovely silver, white sand. It faces Sam Sing Wan Bay. This apparently means Three Star Bay. I'm assuming the three part is why it's called Trio Beach in English.

Sign for Trio Beach.

Barbecue Site.

Looking down on Trio Beach.

Trio Beach is split into two by rocks. It has a huge lifeguard tower in the middle. In summer there are lifeguards here. There are toilets, showers, changing rooms and a refreshment kiosk.

Looking across Trio Beach.

=Giant lifeguard tower.

Lone person on Trio Beach.

Boat on Trio Beach.

Looking back at the beach from the pier.

Looking out to sea.

Looking out to sea from Trio Beach.

I walked right to the end of the beach where there is a little pier. I had fully intended to walk back, but as I was sitting there, a sampan pulled in. Two people rushed over to it and I stopped them to ask where the boat was going and how much it cost. I was told it was going to Pak Sha Wan, the third place on my to do list, and cost HK$15, around £1.50. I spontaneously leapt on, even though it had never been my intention to take the boat. I got talking to the other two passengers, who were ethnically Chinese but had grown up in London. They were very friendly. They lived in Pak Sha Wan and came to Trio Beach a lot.

Sampan arriving at Trio Beach.

Sampan driver.

The boat journey to Pak Sha Wan was short, but scenic and very enjoyable. After disembarking, I watched the sampan fill up with passengers and head off to Trio Beach again.

Scenery on the sampan ride.

Scenery on the sampan ride.

Scenery on the sampan ride.

The sampan I travelled on at Pak Sha Wan.

Sampans.

I came across the couple from the boat again. They had stopped on the pier, because there were lots of parrots, cockatoos, a raven and other birds here. I think their owners had brought them out for air and exercise. I could not resist taking some photos of the lovely, colourful birds. I spent quite a bit of time here as the birds were gorgeous.

I think these are yellow fronted Amazon parrots.

Sorry what did you say? Could you repeat that?

Scarlet macaw.

Scarlet macaw on the pier.

Cockatoos.

Pretty birds all in a row.

A pandemonium of parrots eating seeds on the ground.

The girl I was talking to on the sampan with a pandemonium of parrots.

Raven.

Scarlet macaw with harbour background.

I wandered around the pier taking some photos of the boats and of all the hustle and bustle that was going on.

Yellow boat at Pak Sha Wan Pier.

At Pak Sha Wan Pier.

At Pak Sha Wan Pier.

At Pak Sha Wan Pier.

At Pak Sha Wan Pier.

Buildings at Pak Sha Wan Pier.

The Pier Hotel.

Then I continued on to Hiram's Highway. I saw the Pier Hotel and wondered what it would be like inside. I noticed that Pak Sha Wan had a pleasant little temple. I headed to the bus-stop and was soon back on board a number 92 bus.

Temple to Kuan Yin in Pak Sha Wan.

There are two ways to pay by card on the bus and I absentmindedly put my octopus card on the wrong card reader. The bus driver immediately shouted at me, but as he was shouting at me in Cantonese, I had not even noticed. This made him madder and madder and the situation served as a great form of entertainment for all the other passengers on the bus. I eventually understood what I had done and paid properly. It seemed appropriate I should even get boarding the bus wrong, as I had got everything wrong all day. Yet surprisingly, despite everything, I had had a really enjoyable day out.