Back through Buddhaland to the bus terminal & the number 21 to Tai O – a working village where families live in stilt houses & fish the waters around the shore & up the estuaries.

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In amongst the narrow streets & walkways & bridges a living is made. Wafer thin dried fish are sold from every second shop & on every street corner. Waffles are the main fast food & the favourite of school kids, tourists & locals alike. The old men gather in smokey rooms to play chequers, mahjong & a game using hundreds of thin cards with unrecognisable Chinese characters printed on.

Squeezed in amongst the houses are small cafes & bars, little shops & crowded restaurants serving, you guessed it – fish in one form or another. Little temples & small squares provide spaces for worship or contemplation.

I take a short trip on the water to explore the shallow estuary & then out beyond the harbour wall. No sign of the pink dolphins, sadly. Amazingly, the fisherman points out in the distance the snaking limbs of a bridge under construction. This will connect Hong Kong to Macau, a pimple on the chin of main land China, originally settled by Portuguese traders in the late 1500s and which is over 40 miles away across open ocean – a truely amazing feat of construction.