Monkeys were the order of the day today, as we visited Tai Po Kau nature reserve. Originally a plantation for growing pine trees, it’s now a complex of nature walks of various length and a home to many long tail macaques. Other than the zoo, this is probably the only place you will see monkeys in Hong Kong, and definitely the only place you will see them in the wild…

It was quite a journey out of Kowloon to the reserve, taking about an hour and two MRT trains to get there. We had a good start to the day though, and arrived there in plenty of time to get a decent amount of roaming done.

There was a certain air of familiarity as we started walking the trail, reminiscent of every jungle destination we’ve visited on our travels over the years. In fact, as long as you didn’t look too much in a certain direction, you wouldn’t even notice the towering hi-rises and main roads leading up to here.

Five minutes into our walk, we thought we’d struck gold when our first pair of macaques rustled their way towards and above us. We didn’t worry too much about taking photos at that point, as we were pretty sure we’d see so more along the way… unfortunately, it turned out that this was the only close-up monkey action we’d be getting all day.

We spent most of the morning just walking around enjoying the surroundings, stopping at a stream for a while to check out the fish and soak our feet in the cool water.

Lunchtime rolled around, and as we hadn’t brought any food with us, we decided to have eat at a nearby restaurant called “The Little Egrit”. There was no dim sum or congee on the menu here - it was all high class European eats, which was very in keeping with the local area (there were high-rise condominiums nearby, complete with private road and swimming pool). There was a small waterfront near the restaurant, where you could take pedlos out for a quick spin, and was netted in a manner in keeping with fish farming - which would explain where they got their “fish of the day” from.