Tai O, known as "The Venice of Hong Kong," is a fishing town located on Tai O island, which is on the western side of Lantau Island.We visited Tai O on Monday, April 22, 2019. We spent less than 3 hours there but we felt like we saw and did almost everything Tai O offered. The only notable thing we missed out on was the boat excursions to see the Chinese white dolphins. We decided not to do it because the weather was too humid for us to be out and about without much shade. Tip: Get to Tai O at least an hour before 5pm because a few of the shops and boats were beginning to close for the day when we got there around 4:30pm.Tai O is famous for their stilt houses. They are so picturesque that I remember them from Jackie Chan's otherwise forgettable 2016 film, Skiptrace.The most important aspect of traveling is eating the local food. According to this sign near the entrance, Tai O is most famous for their jumbo fishball, giant cuttlefish, and beancurd jelly.The weather was really humid, so we were looking for drinks. We tried some mulberry juices for HK$48 (USD$6.11).The juice was tasty and not too sweet but nothing memorable. All juice stands at Tai O had unlabeled bottles, so this is not an uncommon occurrence for the area.There were a lot of stands selling grilled dried seafood. I tried some grilled squid, which was chewy and had a smoky flavor.If you do not want grilled dried seafood, you can get Japanese-style grilled seafood. The toolbox holds the utensils and napkins for this shop.We got grilled scallops, oysters, and octopus skewers. Flavor was nothing to write home about.There were a lot of dried seafood sold everywhere in Tai O. People eat these as snacks or use them to make soup.You can buy dried anchovies or dried starfish.Or even dried puffer fish (some friends said these were just store decoration but I am not sold on that notion).You can also buy souvenirs like these turtles compiled together with little seashells. They were only HKD 10 (USD 1.27) each! EDIT: I thought these turtles were unique to Tai O but I found the exact ones in Santa Barbara for USD 10...Interpretive sign on Sun Ki Bridge.The stilt houses you see from the Sun Ki bridge are much more dilapidated. Some people were peering into the homes through windows and porches, which I found to be very rude and intrusive.As we were exiting Tai O, we saw this stray cat home.The public restroom by the bus station is filled with squat toilets. This was my first time seeing and using squat toilets, so that was an adventure on its own.The line for the 11 bus to Tung Chung is extremely long. We left the village around 7pm and waited 20-30 minutes in line.Unfortunately, we did not get to see what was on the other side of the pier as the sun was setting. However, we did enjoy what we saw, ate, and bought at Tai O.
The fishing lifestyle is dying out and according to Wikipedia, a lot of the young people are moving out of the village to live and to work. Thus, I recommend people visit Tai O before the village is gone for good.
