1. Floating Seafood Markets
This was the highlight of Sai Kung Town for me since I had never seen a floating seafood market anywhere before. After being at this floating market, I realised how much a fresh seafood is valued and appreciated by locals in Hong Kong. I am sure same must be the case at other floating markets globally.
Sai Kung floating seafood market is not that large but had few smaller boats (15-20 boats max.) floating near the Sai Kung Pier along the shore. All the boats were floating next to each other in a tiny area and locals were crowding the whole place. It was a unique sight for me especially since I had never been to a floating seafood market before.
Customers always have the best view possible of the whole boat and everything the vendor has there to sell. It looked like locals were used to buying the seafood from these vendors on daily basis. Vendors use smaller plastic trays to separate between different species and put them next to each other filled with water for the live seafood. Every tray has a floating thermocol sheet used as a price tag that mentions how much the whole tray would cost. Basically, whatever is placed inside the tray can be bought for that price; as simple as that. No room for negotiations!
Each of these floating boats has a secret compartment right below its main surface where these fishermen keep rest of the stock of seafood that’s not on display since you can’t really fit everything at once on the floor to sell (it is logical way of making the most of the space available on a small boat). One thing that caught my attention was how dirty those secret compartments were and I was wondering how come these sea creatures were surviving in there before getting placed on display for a slaughter. It was little disturbing to see that.
Most of the boats had a single person doing everything that were older while few boats had a couple or a kid with his mother. They all were traditional seafood vendors must have been doing this for generations. Vendors have a unique way of selling seafood. Since, they are always sitting in a boat closer to the shore, they tend to use a long stick with a net attached to its other end which carries the seafood and money as and when required.
The way it works is first customers scan the whole display of seafood on the boat and make a decision on which type of seafood they want to buy. Then they point in the direction of a specific tray for which they want to pay for (sometimes they are very specific and points to a specific creature that looks cleaner or having more meat or simply looks better than other surround it). There are two ways customer can buy the fish; either properly cut and cleaned by fisherman or alive as it is to be later cut and clean at home by themselves. I think it all depends on what type of customer you are dealing with.
Most of the older people tend to ask the vendor to properly cut and clean it while young adults tend to buy live seafood. Once the fisherman done with fish preparation, he puts it inside the net and gives it directly to the customer using the long wooden rod. Customer picks up the bag and puts the money in the same net which then vendor takes down and picks up the money. It hardly takes few seconds to make the purchase. Even a person who doesn’t speak the local language can easily buy seafood at this floating market. I actually saw a vendor who was mute but still selling seafood like a pro!
Each vendor had a speciality in a type seafood they were selling. One guy was selling large squids only while another had different varieties of shrimps on display. I could see even the locals knew what to buy from which vendor. Like for example, the guy with the large squids had some loyal customers who would come one at a time and order at least 2-3 squids together.
I was impressed by his craftsmanship; the way he cleaned the fish and cut it before handing it over to the customers. Squids are a bit strange when it comes to cutting them; they release dark black ink if anyone touches them (or rather cuts them) while alive. It was fascinating to see how the squid was cut with a single knife by this guy in front of us in few seconds.
2. Kayaking or Sailing Near the Beach
We saw few locals (or travellers maybe) were kayaking around. There are various boats around for enough people to kayak. I personally always wanted to but can't since I don't know how to swim and I get scared with water.
I saw a guy sailing alone too! I mean good luck with the adventure. Takes guts to sail solo, isn't it? For all the sailers out there, good spot for you to sail around!
But for all the adventure seekers and enthusiasts out there, kayaking or sailing might be a great option to spend the day at Sai Kung beach. I am sure you will get stunning views of the nearby smaller islands and boats while sailing around.
3. Kite Flying With Locals Along the Shore
I noticed that locals at this town were fond of kite flying. I am not talking about teenagers but matured old folks. When I was strolling along the Sai Kung Pier, I could see that few locals were preparing their large kites and examining the direction of winds to ensure their kites would fly high in right direction without getting torn down. Kites were of decent size and obviously more suitable for elders than teenagers to play with.
4. Fishing with Family!
This town had a nice sea shore where locals were just sitting on the large rocks along the edges while admiring the views with their families. I saw few locals were actually fishing peacefully sitting on the stairs. They were accompanied by their kids and spouses. Everyone was carrying their own fishing gears and seemed to know how to use it. They must be doing it as a routine activity during weekends or public holidays.
Since, this town has a floating seafood market, you can imagine that locals must also be able to find some fishes easily since there is so much abundance of seafood near the Sai Kung Pier. I like how the locals in the small towns or island of Hong Kong live. They are very quite, mind their own business, don't make too much noise chit-chatting, silently walk with their dogs, do their thing and simply enjoy the nature around.
5. A Fun Afternoon at a Beach
I saw lots of families spending quality time together on this tiny beach. Fortunately, the beach looked clean and nice. Several local kids were building sand castles, finding sea shells with their siblings and parents too!
After looking at them, I couldn't resist but join them in the search of ultimate sea shells of the ocean. It's a different story that I couldn't though.
6. Paragliding Near the Beach
This is something again we spotted while walking along the Pier. I saw couple of folks were paragliding in the background when I was enjoying the view of the pier. We didn't personally explored this during our visit but I would love to go back there again and try paragliding.
7. Cute & Playful Dogs Around (everywhere)!
Another fascinating thing about locals at Sai Kung town was their weird obsession with small dogs. Not that I haven't seen dogs across Hong Kong (I have); but here every person or a family was walking with not just one but multiple dogs. It looked like a dog fair when I visited on the Christmas eve.
I have a genuine respect for the dogs in Hong Kong since dog barking is a rare sight here. Since I come from India, I am used to dogs that bark a lot and when I saw these many dogs at one place; I was expecting a bit of loud barking and banter amongst them which wasn't the case. Yes, there were 2-3 dogs in total who were simply barking for no reason (maybe wanted to clear their throats or something) but it was nothing compared number of dogs I saw at the pier.
Also, most of these tiny dogs had unique hair styles. Some of them were nicely groomed with proper hair cut while others were simply had no hair on their body (since their owners must have got sick of their hair and finally got rid of them). Locals in Hong Kong (including Sai Kung Town) treat these tiny dogs as if its their child. They carry these dogs in baby strollers! (I am not kidding at all) Most of these dogs wear proper cloths; I saw them wearing Christmas cloths on the day of Christmas eve.
8. Avoid eating at local seafood restaurants!
We saw one disturbing thing while strolling down the restaurant lane that these restaurants have been growing Shrimps inside plastic bottles! Yes, that's as weird as it sounds and also quite disturbing at the same time. Surprisingly, most of these restaurants are over-crowded; however, I am not sure if they follow right protocols while doing seafood farming.
I am sure they must have grown these shrimps right from the beginning in a bottle otherwise how do you explain that a shrimp of such a big size magically got inside a plastic bottle with such a small opening? Doesn't make sense right? I would highly recommend not to eat at such restaurants; rather buy seafood from the floating markets and cook at home!
How to reach Sai Kung Town
First of all, reaching Sai Kung Town takes a bit of effort. It is not at all close to the main island of Hong Kong. In fact, if you are coming from city centre then you need to take MTR and bus and change them couple of times. We started from Causeway Bay area in Hong Kong and took couple of buses to reach there. We basically took bus no. 690 and 792M.
Bus 690 took us from Wan Chai fire station to Tseung Kwan O swimming pool stop and from there bus 792M took us right at the heart of Sai Kung town. There are different ways to went there. You can also take MTR lines blue and purple till Hang Hua station and then get a bus. In short, you have to take a bus to visit this small town as MTR doesn’t go there directly. Also, you can always ride a car on your own if you got one or able to rent one.
Hope you liked this blogpost about Sai Kung Town. Do share your thoughts. Happy travelling!
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