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Island camping is a ferry ride from Hong Kong

HONG KONG - Thirty yards away from where we stood, a herd of water buffalo grazed in a green field. Behind us, mountains rose up with pockets of villages tucked along a winding road. Yet not two hours earlier, we had been standing amid glass skyscrapers and throngs of people in Hong Kong.

My cousin and I were visiting a friend in Hong Kong for a week this spring and decided to take a one-night excursion camping on Lantau Island, Hong Kong's largest island. After an hourlong ferry and a seven-minute bus ride, we were dropped off near a path to the campsite on Pui O, a beach with clear water, fine sand and a salmon-colored tiled pavilion.

It almost seemed too easy. The campsite was clean - and almost empty - and there were indoor bathrooms with the same salmon tile, a small store that sold snacks and beach toys, and a Western-style restaurant called Ooh La La owned by a Hong Kong-born Canadian. And the camping was free.

A mix of rural and urban, East and West, characterized much of our excursion, which offered enough distance from the bustle of the city for a peaceful break, without eliminating conveniences like accessibility or indoor plumbing.

Even the water buffalo add a layer to this rural-urban story. As recently as a few decades ago, Pui O was dotted with rice paddies plowed by water buffalo. As agriculture declined, farmers left the island, abandoning their cattle. Today there are an estimated 280 feral buffalo living on Lantau Island - but don't worry, they aren't much interested in people.

Pui O makes a good starting point for further exploration of Lantau Island, with designated hiking trails, a large monastery, a fishing village and a cable car to the Big Buddha, though we stayed on the southeastern side and used the Lantau Trail as a means for accessing great views of the island.

The trail starts along the water with an estuary in a small village full of beautiful, expensive vacation homes, then passes a stone cemetery built into the mountain and a small temple with coils of incense burning overhead. Then the real hiking begins with a sharp turn up into the mountain and cement steps built into the trail. Wear bug spray to avoid mosquito bites and potential dengue fever, and keep an eye out for colored butterflies fluttering along the path.

Halfway up the trail we stopped at Pak Fu Tin campsite where we sat at the site's one picnic table under a leafy tree to cook our vacuum-packed black bean chili (actually quite tasty). Then we continued to Mui Wo, where the ferry pier is, and, after getting frozen yogurt at McDonald's, we decided to take the bus back to the beach instead of hiking. There we lounged in the sun and s

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