Thailand

Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra released from prison | News

Influential former prime minister released on parole after spending about eight months behind bars.

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released from a prison in Bangkok after spending eight months of a one-year sentence there over a corruption-related charge.

Hundreds of people, including the 76-year-old billionaire’s family and political allies, greeted him on Monday, chanting, “We love Thakisn” as he left the Klong Prem Central Prison.

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Thaksin remade ⁠and dominated Thai politics for a quarter-century, but his influence has waned of late following his jailing and his once formidable Pheu Thai Party’s worst election performance on record ⁠earlier this year.

His hair closely cropped and in a simple white shirt, Thaksin walked out of prison at about 7:40am local time (00:40 GMT) and was immediately surrounded by family members, including his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was sacked as prime minister by ‌a court order in August last year, weeks before his imprisonment.

He smiled brightly as he walked around to greet his supporters, but left without speaking to reporters.

Thaksin had served as prime minister from 2001 until a military coup toppled him in 2006, while he was abroad.

After 15 years in self-exile, he returned to Thailand in 2023 to face an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and ⁠abuse of power relating to his time in office. That sentence ⁠had been commuted to one year by the king.

But he was in prison for only a few hours following his homecoming before complaining of heart trouble and chest pains. He then spent six months in the VIP ⁠wing of a hospital until he was freed on parole.

In September last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Thaksin must serve ⁠that time in prison, concluding that he and his doctors ⁠had intentionally prolonged his hospital stay with minor surgeries that were unnecessary.

A Ministry of Justice panel agreed last month to grant him parole as part of a review of more than 900 eligible prisoners’ cases, citing his good behaviour in prison, his age and the low risk that he would repeat his offence.

According to the corrections department, Thaksin will be required to wear an electronic ankle monitor for the remainder of his sentence.

In a video streamed by the Thairath news outlet on Monday, Thaksin was seen rolling down the car window to greet a small group of supporters outside his home in western Bangkok and responding to reporters’ shouted questions that “I was in hibernation; I can’t remember anything now”.

Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party, which slipped to third place in February’s elections, joined the governing coalition of conservative Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

Thaksin’s nephew, Yodchanan Wongsawat, who became Pheu Thai’s standard-bearer ahead of the February election, was made minister of higher education in Anutin’s cabinet.

Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn, became the country’s youngest prime minister in 2024, but was removed from office by Thailand’s Constitutional Court after a recording was released of a compromising phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

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‘I got Sunday roast in Bangkok pub to see if it’s as good as British ones’

Traveller Sam Meaney wanted a traditional British Sunday roast on a trip in Thailand, so he decided to head to The Old English pub in Bangkok to try their one out

Many of us love to get away to visit other places and explore other cultures. However, it’s always nice to have a taste of home back too while we’re away in another country. That’s exactly what traveller Sam Meaney wanted while on a trip to Bangkok, Thailand. Sam admitted that he ‘hadn’t had a proper roast dinner in six months’, so he decided to head to The Old English pub in Bangkok to try one.

The pub, situated in Bangkok’s Thonglor area, features a traditional English aesthetic with dark wood panelling, a cosy indoor area, and an outdoor patio equipped with fans. The pub is a central hub for sports fans, broadcasting live events like the Premier League, UFC, and NBA on multiple HD screens. It also houses a regulation-size pool table.

The menu focuses on comfort food, including their famous Sunday roast, Fish & Chips with mushy peas, and the “Churchill Breakfast”. However, they also serve local favourites such as Pad Thai and Green Curry.

Going to try the Sunday roast, Sam said in an Instagram reel: “I haven’t had a proper roast dinner in six months, so this has got a lot to live up to. If this is bad, I’m going to be fuming.”

Sam ordered a pint of Leo beer while looking over the menu as he said the Guinness in the pub was quite expensive (£8).

“This menu looks really, really good,” he said.

Sam said he was going to get the chicken roast, which costs 375THB (£8.50), but ten really fancied roast beef which is 495THB (£11).

However, he said if he paid just 50 Thai Baht more, he could get the Sunday Special, which comes with a starter, roast and dessert.

He decided to go for the deal, ordering Leek soup as his starter and chocolate cake for desserts.

Admiring the pub, after ordering, Sam exclaimed: “This place has a proper old English pub feel,” as he gave viewers a look around the establishment which was covered in English and British flags.

Then it was time for Sam to sample the food, as he described the Leek soup as “banging”.

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The main Sunday roast then came, as he exclaimed: “Oh my God, look at this. That looks wonderful.”

Sam tasted the gravy, branding it as “good gravy”.

The traveller then sampled his medium rare beef and seemed to enjoy it, before moving onto the vegetables.

He admitted the broccoli was ‘probably out of a bag’ but said he ‘wasn’t going to complain’. However he said the carrots were “unbelievable” and enjoyed the red cabbage too.

Sam said he thought the roast potatoes ‘weren’t crispy’ before tasting them, but then took that back after sampling the roasties, saying that there was a ‘crisp to them’.

A Yorkshire pudding was also on his plate, which again, Sam seemed to enjoy.

Giving his verdict, Sam told viewers: “It’s not the most expensive roast in Bangkok, you get what you pay for, but it’s like a pub roast dinner back home. I’m a happy boy.”

Lastly, he tried his chocolate cake dessert, which came with vanilla ice cream. He described it was “sweet, chocolate-y and hot”.

Giving his conclusion, he added: “This is not the best roast dinner in the world, but it’s comfort, home food, like an English pub at home.

“If you’re looking for that in Bangkok, the Old English Pub is the way to go.”

People were loving the post, with it racking up more than 1,400 likes.

One person exclaimed: “That looked pretty banging to be fair, if you said you was at a pub for Sunday roast in UK I wouldn’t have challenged it.”

While another added: “Looks better then a lot of roasts in the UK.”

Someone else admired the “banging amount of meat” on the plate.

While another person who had been to the pub said: “I have had a few meals there, all top quality.”

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Cambodians struggle with displaced lives amid tense ceasefire with Thailand | Border Disputes News

Preah Vihear/Siem Reap provinces – When asked how she spends her day, 11-year-old Sokna rattled off a list of chores.

She first fetches water, then washes dishes and sweeps the leaves and dust from around the blue tarpaulin tent her family now calls home, in the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda in northwestern Cambodia.

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Sokna and her sister have stopped attending school, their mother Puth Reen said, since moving to this camp for people displaced by the recent rounds of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.

The two sisters are among more than 34,440 people who remain in displacement camps in Cambodia – 11,355 of whom are children – as of this month, according to the country’s Ministry of Interior.

“I tried to tell them to go to school, but they don’t go,” Puth Reen told Al Jazeera, explaining how precarious life had become since returning to live in Cambodia after fleeing neighbouring Thailand, where she had worked for many years, as the fighting started.

Like Puth Reen and her family, the future looks murky for the tens of thousands of Cambodians – including many schoolchildren – who are still in displacement camps, and their lives remain disrupted months after the last outbreak of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.

Forced to flee their homes in areas where local troops are now stationed and on high alert, or in areas occupied by opposing Thai forces, Cambodia’s internally displaced say they are surviving off aid donations, while those more fortunate are transitioning from emergency tents into wooden stilted houses provided by the Cambodian government.

But with tension still evident between the leadership in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, the tenuous ceasefire along the Thai-Cambodia border means life cannot yet return to normality.

Some areas on the Cambodian border, such as the villages of Chouk Chey and Prey Chan in Banteay Meanchey province, have become rallying points for nationalists who post on social media about the Thai occupation of Cambodian territory. Their anger is directed at the large shipping containers and barbed wire that Thai forces have used to block access to villages once inhabited by Cambodians and occupied during fighting.

The Thai military-installed containers now form a sort of new frontier between the two countries.

The Cambodian military has also prevented people, such as local farmer Sun Reth, 67, from returning to their homes in front-line areas, which are still highly militarised zones, with troops ready at any moment for a new round of fighting.

“Now the Cambodian military base is just next to [my house],” Sun Reth said, adding that she was not allowed by authorities to sleep in her modest home or pick cashew nuts from her farm to sell for a little income.

Cambodian children more focused on ‘rumours’ of war

The long-held border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia erupted into two rounds of conflict last year, over five days in July and almost three weeks in December.

Dozens were reported killed on both sides, and hundreds of thousands of civilians fled their homes as both countries’ armed forces fired artillery, rockets, and, in the case of Thailand, conducted air strikes deep into Cambodian territory. Thailand has a modern air force, a military capability not possessed by its smaller neighbour.

Cambodian and Thai officials reached a ceasefire on December 27, but the situation remains tense five months on.

For families who fled the fighting, school continues for most children in the displacement camps, but parents say education is fragmented while their lives are still so unsettled.

Mothers at the Wat Bak Kam camp for the displaced in Preah Vihear province told Al Jazeera that primary school students can join classes at a local school, but high school students need to travel daily to the provincial capital, about 15km (9 miles) away.

(Danielle Keeton-Olsen/Al Jazeera)
Families living temporarily at the Wat Bak Kam internal displacement camp sit outside their tents, supplied by Chinese government aid [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera]

Now the rising cost of petrol, due to the US-Israel war on Iran, has made it even harder for teenaged students, who have access to motorcycles, to make the journey to school.

Kinmai Phum, technical lead for WorldVision’s education programme, which is providing support to the camps, said school dropout rates and children skipping classes have increased substantially among students from the displaced border regions.

Kinmai Phum said the situation is a perfect storm of problems: Displaced families have been forced to move around for shelters, schools and temporary learning spaces lack facilities, and some students have psychological trauma due to the conflict.

“Local authorities [are] concerned that many children may not return to school at all if displacement and economic hardship persist,” Kinmai Phum said.

(Danielle Keeton-Olsen/Al Jazeera)
Puth Reen, left, and her three daughters sit inside their tent in a camp for the displaced at Wat Chroy Neang Ngourn in Siem Reap province [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera]

Yuon Phally, a mother of two, said she had noticed the impact of the war on her daughter and son, who are in their first and third years in primary school.

When they return from school, Yuon Phally said, they tell her about rumours they had heard about Cambodia and Thailand resuming fighting.

“Their feeling is not fully focused on school; they focus more on these rumours,” she said.

Her children’s world was more impacted by the conflict because their father is a soldier stationed in the Mom Bei area of the border.

During the fighting in December, Yuon Phally said she could not convince her children to go to school because they all waited to see if their father would call on a mobile phone from the front line.

“I couldn’t hold back my tears, and that added more pressure onto my kids,” she said.

“They would ask about their dad and how he is doing now. Then they told me to eat rice. They understood my feelings.”

She said her children’s focus on their studies only improved after their father returned from fighting to the camp where they are staying, to rest and recover from sickness and injuries sustained in battle.

(Danielle Keeton-Olsen/Al Jazeera)
Two construction workers transport corrugated metal sheeting between the newly constructed resettlement houses for displaced Cambodians in Preah Vihear province [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera]

‘Who doesn’t want to have peace?’

Soeum Sokhem, a deputy village chief, told Al Jazeera how his home is located in the militarised “danger zone” along the border, but he feels compelled to return every few days to check on his house, tend crops, sleep an occasional night, and check in with other neighbours doing the same.

“I can’t just stay here”, he said of camp life.

“I have to go back.”

When asked how he felt about the border war, Soeum Sokhem said he had experienced so much war in Cambodia that he did not know how to describe his “inner feeling like I really want to”.

He then listed off all the conflicts he had lived through in Cambodia since the 1960s: The spill over into Cambodia from the US war in neighbouring Vietnam; the US bombing campaign in Cambodia; the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, and the civil war that followed after Vietnam’s intervention to topple the regime’s leader Pol Pot in 1979, and which lasted until the mid-1990s.

Then in the 2000s, sporadic border fights with Thailand began, he said.

(Danielle Keeton-Olsen/Al Jazeera)
Soeum Sokhem at the internal displacement camp at Wat Bak Kam [Roun Ry/Al Jazeera]

Cambodia’s contemporary history has been anything but peaceful, a fact which might explain why the current Cambodian government so often speaks of peace. Government buildings and billboards proclaim the government’s unofficial motto: “Thanks for peace.”

“But who doesn’t want to have peace?” Soeum Sokhem said, after charting his life and the many conflicts he had lived through.

Now the 67-year-old said he once again hears gunfire occasionally when he returns to check on his home on the front line.

“Before, when I walked there, it was normal,” he said.

“But nowadays, I walk with fear when going back there.”

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Energy Pact Unravels: Thailand Ends Decades Long Deal with Cambodia Amid Lingering Tensions

Thailand has formally scrapped a 25 year old agreement with Cambodia aimed at jointly exploring offshore energy resources in disputed waters. The decision, announced by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, marks a significant shift in bilateral relations and raises fresh uncertainty over the future of energy cooperation in the region.

The agreement, known as Memorandum of Understanding 44, was signed in 2001 to create a framework for joint exploration of oil and gas reserves in overlapping maritime claims within the Gulf of Thailand. Despite its ambitious goals, the pact has seen little tangible progress over the past two and a half decades.

A Long Stalled Framework

Memorandum of Understanding 44 was designed as a dual track mechanism. It sought to enable joint resource exploration while allowing both countries to continue negotiations over maritime boundary demarcation. However, repeated political disruptions, competing national interests, and periodic tensions prevented meaningful advancement.

Thai officials have increasingly argued that the agreement failed to deliver results, with no concrete development of hydrocarbon resources despite years of dialogue.

Domestic Politics and Strategic Timing

The cancellation also reflects domestic political dynamics in Thailand. Anutin, who secured reelection following a surge in nationalist sentiment, had pledged to withdraw from the agreement as part of his campaign platform.

Although he has stated that the decision is not directly linked to recent border conflicts, the broader context suggests otherwise. Nationalist pressures and public opinion have played a role in shaping policy, particularly after violent clashes between the two countries last year.

Cambodia’s Response and Regional Implications

Cambodia has previously expressed strong opposition to Thailand’s plan to withdraw, describing it as deeply regrettable and reaffirming its commitment to the agreement. The lack of immediate response following the announcement leaves open questions about Phnom Penh’s next steps.

The termination of the pact could complicate future negotiations, especially in resource rich areas where both nations maintain overlapping claims. It may also delay potential energy development projects that could have benefited both economies.

From Cooperation to Legal Frameworks

Thailand has indicated that it will now rely on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the basis for any future discussions. This shift signals a move away from cooperative frameworks toward a more formal and potentially contentious legal approach to resolving maritime disputes.

While UNCLOS provides established mechanisms for dispute resolution, negotiations under its framework can be lengthy and politically sensitive.

Conflict and Fragile Stability

The backdrop to this decision includes two recent rounds of armed conflict along the Thailand Cambodia border, which resulted in significant casualties and large scale displacement. Although a ceasefire has been in place since late December, tensions remain high, and mutual distrust persists.

Each side continues to blame the other for initiating the clashes, underscoring the fragile nature of the current peace.

Analysis

Thailand’s withdrawal from the joint energy agreement reflects a broader shift from cooperative engagement to assertive unilateralism. While the official rationale centers on lack of progress, the timing and political context suggest that strategic and domestic considerations are equally influential.

For Thailand, the move reinforces national sovereignty and responds to domestic expectations. However, it also risks escalating tensions with Cambodia and undermining long term opportunities for shared economic gains.

For Cambodia, the collapse of the agreement represents both a diplomatic setback and a potential loss of access to jointly developed energy resources. It may now seek alternative avenues, including international arbitration or renewed bilateral negotiations under different terms.

At a regional level, the decision highlights the challenges of managing overlapping territorial claims in resource rich areas. Without effective cooperation mechanisms, such disputes are more likely to shift toward legal confrontation or political escalation.

Ultimately, the end of this long standing pact underscores a key reality in international relations. Agreements that lack sustained political commitment and mutual trust are unlikely to endure, particularly in environments shaped by nationalism and unresolved territorial disputes.

With information from Reuters.

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Beautiful beach island ‘now a nightmare’ overwhelmed by tourists

The Koh Phi Phi islands in Thailand deliver some of the most breathtaking scenery you’re ever likely to see, but they’ve also struggled with overtourism issues since featuring in Danny Boyle’s The Beach

An alarming crowd scene on the shores of one of the world’s most famous coastlines has raised overtourism concerns.

The Koh Phi Phi islands in Thailand deliver some of the most breathtaking scenery you’re ever likely to see. Sat in the Andaman Sea, they’re made up of dramatic limestone cliffs and white sand bays surrounded by turquoise waters filled with tropical fish.

The islands have long been popular among tourists, but particularly so since they starred in Danny Boyle’s The Beach.

The success of the film has been a disaster for the pristine, idyllic beach that gives the flick its name. Each year huge numbers travel to Koh Phi Phi’s Maya Bay, where it was shot, to bask in its impossibly blue waters and sunbathe on the golden sands.

Today, the reality of the Thai destination could not be further from the slice of paradise at the heart of the film.

A recent video from Koh Phi Phi shows a crowd of hundreds of sunseekers, packed shoulder to shoulder. They appear to be close to the dock, not yet having arrived at Maya Bay.

READ MORE: Tourists slam ‘paradise beach’ as actually being ‘most disappointing in the world’

Author avatarLiam Gilliver

The video has been met with negativity on Reddit, where it was posted. “Nothing about that looks fun,” one user wrote. Another added: “Absolutely not worth going. I went last month and it was so crowded it just wasn’t fun. At all.” A third wrote: “What a nightmare.”

Koh Tours, which offers trips around the archipelago, recently wrote a blog post about the situation there, explaining that efforts to tackle overtourism had proved difficult.

“Koh Phi Phi Leh — the smaller, uninhabited island with Maya Bay — was famously closed for three years after The Beach tourism wrecked the coral and stressed out the blacktip reef sharks,” the post reads.

“They reopened it in January 2022 with timed entries, boat limits, no overnight stays, no sunscreen allowed in the water. It’s genuinely better than it was in 2018. But it’s not quiet. A ‘boat limit’ of a couple of hundred visitors at a time still means a couple of hundred people standing in the same shallow bay.

According to Koh Tours, the archipelago’s other main island, Koh Phi Phi Don, also suffers from crowds.

“Koh Phi Phi Don is genuinely crowded. Not ‘it gets a bit busy in peak season’ crowded. Actually crowded. The village on Tonsai Bay — which is basically the whole flat part of the island between the two bays — packs in more foot traffic per square metre than most Thai cities,” the post continues.

Jub Yata is a destination manager at Intrepid Travel, a firm which specialises in sustainable tourism.

“Right now, you just walk around, you take the photos, then you have to leave. Everyone wants to see the beach from the DiCaprio film. It is beautiful, I can’t deny, but there are too many people,” she said of Maya Bay.

Jub works with Intrepid to take tourists to Thailand in a more responsible way that doesn’t overwhelm the most popular destinations. In recent years, this has meant visits to Koh Thap, Koh Poda, and Koh Khai.

Koh Thap is one of the most popular offshore islands around Krabi – a region in the west of Thailand, just across from Phuket. Most island-hopping tours come here to witness and photograph the amazing parting of the seas.

At low tide, a stretch of sand emerges from the waters, linking the larger landmass known as Chicken Island to Koh Mor and Koh Thap. The phenomenon is commonly referred to as Talay Waek, which means divided sea.

Koh Poda is a particularly quiet and tranquil place. One Intrepid traveller said that the island “felt like a completely deserted Robinson Crusoe island”.

Meanwhile, Koh Khai in Phuket is the most built-up and well-visited of the three islands included in the Intrepid tour. Made up of three small islands – Khai Nok, Khai Nai and Khai Nui – it is easy to hop from one island to the next, even in the space of just half a day. Khai Nai is the biggest of the three and has spectacular views and a white sandy beach which makes it perfect for snorkelling and swimming.

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Not in Thailand or Vietnam – this Asian megacity is a natural paradise

It’s best known for its mighty concrete jungle, but Chris Granet discovers Hong Kong’s greener side, with forested peaks to hike and pristine coastline and islands to explore

The sunshine glittered off the jade waters as we chugged gently out of the busy harbour. Surrounding us were dozens of traditional fishing boats, like the one I was on. Surrounding them was a horizon full of hills, soaring out of the sea and carpeted in lush forests.

Our destination was Sharp Island in the distance, a tiny coral-encircled gem that could’ve been Thailand, Vietnam, or any remote region of Southeast Asia. Surprisingly, I was in Hong Kong. I say that surprisingly because when you think of Hong Kong, you think of the typical Asian megacity. Dense urban living. High-rises and hustle. Manic traffic and neon nightscapes. All of which are true of Hong Kong, and fantastic to experience, but what most people don’t realise is that you can also get off the beaten track within minutes and find pristine nature and beaches.

Formed by supervolcanic eruptions, the territory comprises 430 subtropical square miles across 263 islands, endless peninsulas, and swathes of craggy mainland. Nestled at the heart of this is the main Hong Kong Island and city, which for me has to be one of the world’s best cities for natural settings. However, it’s far from remote – it’s the fourth most densely populated region in the world, with 7.5 million residents. Everywhere you look in the city are tightly packed groves of skinny tenement blocks. It’s like nowhere I’ve ever seen. “We have very little flat land here,” explained our guide. “Most of it is made from demolished hills or reclaimed from the sea – we have to build upwards, not outwards.” But this also means 53% of the land is still forest, with 40% designated as country parks.

The quickest way to experience this would be to journey up Victoria Peak, which stretches up behind the city but is usually obscured by the vertiginous towers. We headed over to the Peak Circle Walk, which gently loops around the summit, on a stroll that encompassed tranquil woodlands and cinematic views of the world-famous skyline and bay below. Magnificent. If you want to avoid the crowds, then there are several trails back down to the city, which are made all the more pretty in the evening once the towers start turning on their technicolored light shows. Hong Kong Island’s southern side is another quick escape into nature, with curving coastal roads, low-rise neighbourhoods, cute coves, and those ubiquitous jungled hills.

It was a gloriously sunny day when I walked the Dragon’s Back trail on the most southeastern peninsula. The name is attributed to the ridge rolling between gentle peaks that resembles the mythical creature’s spine, tumbling down to a bay on one side, and the sea on the other. Despite it being November, it felt like summer as we then made our way down through the woodlands to Big Wave Bay, a glorious golden arc of sand that’s just one of over 100 beaches in the territory. We sat and had a light lunch and a glass of vino in the shade of an outdoor cafe while watching the surfers ride the crashing waves. Bliss.

Nearby, giant Lantau Island has plenty of options. Connected to the mainland by bridges, it’s home to the massive airport – but I took a different sky ride in the glass-bottomed Ngong Ping 360 cable car. It whisked us up and away from a generic concrete suburb over swathes of that lush greenery to the lofty Po Lin Buddhist monastery. The walk from the cable car terminal to the monastery was lined on both sides with tourist shops – not quite the spirit of immaterialism Siddhartha had intended, but handy for those, like me, in need of another coffee. The ornately pretty monastery is famous for its large seated Buddha statue, which we reached via a long flight of stairs as breathtaking as the panoramic views at its summit. On the coastline nearby is the picturesque fishing village of Tai O, with scores of ramshackle wooden houses precariously propped up on stilts on the sides of a little estuary. It was all very quiet as we wandered its maze of backstreets, feeling a hundred miles and years from Hong Kong city. But it perked up as we reached its busier center, and at The Crossing Boat restaurant overlooking the river, we sat at a spinning table and shared a sizzling seafood lunch. Prawn, scallops and fish all locally caught, plus an array of Cantonese stir fries.

If you want proper pristine, then head up to the 58 square mile Hong Kong Unesco Global Geopark on a wild peninsula, with a cluster of islands fanning out from the mainland. It’s the epicentre of the volcanic drama that shaped the region, sculpting surreal honeycombed sea caves, hexagonal rock columns and sheer cliffs, softened over the eons by ocean erosion and dusted with white sand beaches. Truly spectacular. It’s here that Sharp Island is located. It’s easily accessible from the chirpy tourist town of Sai Kung, with its busy harbourfront heaving with seafood restaurants and boat crews clamouring to offer you tours and rides to the many destinations around the Geopark. The usual price for a return ticket to Sharp Island is 50-60 Hong Kong dollars per person (approx £6), but our group of six paid 150HKD pp (approx £15pp) as we chartered the whole boat. Said boat was a little wooden fishing vessel, like most of the others in the harbour, all prettily painted in nautical blues and greens.

I sat perched at its front basking in the high sun for the 15 minutes it took to chug over to the little island’s southern tip. There, our surly boatman dropped us off, then made his way to the northern tip, where he collected us up later. We hiked the 1.5 mile long trail, a ridge walk similar to Dragon’s Back, offering more postcard-worthy views. Branching off Sharp’s northwestern shore is its Instagram-famed bar of shingle and rock that connects it to Kiu Tau islet. It’s only visible during low tide and was sadly in the process of being re-swallowed by the sea as we arrived.

Further offshore are plenty of snorkelling opportunities as, incredibly, Hong Kong is home to more coral species than the entire Caribbean combined, as well as over a quarter of all of China’s marine biodiversity.

Back at Sai Kung harbour, we indulged in more sizzling seafood, with hearty dishes big enough to share, like the fully stacked braised crab roe and shrimp casserole, at a reasonable £10 a pop. Very nice indeed. As I sat digesting our meal, staring out to sea and watching the Saturday afternoon crowds ambling through the sunshine, it was easy to forget that I was still in the midst of a roaring megametropolis.

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