Camping on Tai Long Wan beach was something I wanted to do for a long time and I have finally removed it from my #bucketlist. One of my friends organised his birthday there and it was twice better when we learned there was going to have a beach party too. We arrived at Ham Tin beach around 5 pm. He had chosen this beach has it is one of the best in the long succession of the 4 beaches of Tai Long Wan. You can directly rend (and book in advance) your tent at the local restaurant which also provides everything you need for camping (understand: everything you don’t want to bring yourself during the hike).

If you are #courageous, healthy and want to enjoy a higher reward of arriving on the beach, you can choose the option of hiking for 1h30 from the nearest road in Sai Kung. As we were late, we chose the luxury options: taxi from Wan Chai to Sai Kung (45 min, HKD 220) and the speedboat (30 min, HKD 150).

When we arrived on the beach, many people had already pitched their tent and it was the first time that many people saw the beach so crowded for a camping night. For his birthday, M. had thought about decoration and bought many #lanterns in Chinese style which gave the beach a #cozy and trendy look.

We had dinner at the restaurant on the beach where we took a fried rice with a delicious Cantonese sweet and sour pork (the best I have ever had I think!). Then we joined the other at the other restaurant for some #snacks before starting to dance on the beach with the music. The downside of the beach was to walk on a tiny wood plank to cross the mini river that separated the beach from the restaurant.

Some people danced until the sunrise some others discussed around the campfire but everybody enjoyed this quite uncommon but successful birthday celebration. Happy were the ones who had thought of bringing warm clothes as the wind blew all night and it was very cold.

I won’t lie: sleeping in a tent is not the most comfortable think ever. So, tired as we were, we decided to come back with the first speedboat at 10 am to enjoy the rest of the day on Hong Kong island. We could have stayed more but the water was pretty cold, preventing us to swim.

I really enjoyed this experience and would like to do it again, maybe on Lantau island to try a new beach in a new environment. Just be aware of the weather and the season when you decide to go, as it can easily be too hot in summer, preventing you to close the eyes or too cold and having the same result.