(skytower @ ocean park)
Woke up ridiculously early again this morning, about 6:30 after being up until about 3:30, god knows what the feck is going on here. Either way I knew I had a bit more time to chill out this morning so took my time getting ready, tidied up a little bit and mooched around. Went and had breakfast again. The other day when I went for breakfast I got there so early that the little signs that told you what things were weren’t up yet, so I had to take educated guesses. This morning, they were. And so I discovered that I’d eaten veal sausages. Which to be fair just look like little hot dogs, but I still wasn’t majorly impressed with the idea, so tomorrow I think I will just be eating beans on toast and some watermelon ahaha. At least I can say I tried it.... hmmm.
(fish in atoll reef @ ocean park)
I then went to leave and go to Ocean Park via the subway, the reception lady had shown me how to get there on the the map and it looked pretty easy. But then I walked past the tour desk and noticed that they ran group tours to Ocean Park.. was debating easy way or harder way but eventually settled for going through the hotel. It worked out about $50 (£5) more than if I’d gone by myself, but I figured the easiness of having a coach drop me there and back would be worth it, and it was, cos by the time I left I was exhausted and also not feeling very well so would not have appreciated the subway ride home!
(outdoor escalator @ ocean park)
The bus didn’t leave for two hours or so, so I came back to my room and chilled out for a while, read most of one of the books I’d bought. I need to finish that actually, wanna know what happens! Its by Tess Gerritsen, someone I was recommended who writes crime fiction type books – I’ve run out of James Patterson ones to read! Anyway, the bus got to Ocean Park around 11:15, and we were being picked up at 16:30. I was a bit annoyed and thought I wouldn’t have enough time to get around the park, but I was welllll wrong.
(cable cars @ ocean park)
So as you go into the park, its basically just like a giant hill. Theres two entrances, and the one we were at was the one that featured the outdoor escalators! They were pretty immense, there were four of them and between each one were paths and viewing areas, so you could see the view as you got higher and higher up – the view was amazing from the top! I think Louise would have had big issues, seeing as she doesn’t like escalators – each one of these was really long!
When I got to the top I wandered around for a bit, went on the SkyTower which went ridiculously high and also provided some more amazing views. I filmed it as I was going round, was pretty immense... also made my stomach somersault quite a bit. Next was off to Atoll Reef, which is basically a big round building with an aquarium in the middle, four floors low (it goes underground). It wasn’t that much different from any other aquarium to be honest, I was quite appreciative of the indoor air con! The fish in there were absolutely massive though, some of them bigger than me and there was a giant turtle swimming around which was pretty cool, tried to get a pic but it was quite hard!
(random fish @ ocean park)
Next, I headed off to the cable car. Basically, this cable car connects the two different parts of the park. Now.. I’m now REALLY glad I didn’t bother to go to the Ngong Ping Cable car because this one freaked the feck out of me and it was nowhere near as long and nowhere near as high! Was pretty damn high though, and kept moving up and down, and kept making grating noises on the rope so I was like HOLY FECK GET ME OFF THIS THING! It stopped as well, quite near the end, and I’m so glad at that point I was at a bit above solid ground, only about 50ft up – if I’d stopped at the bits over the cliffy ocean bits I would definitely have been freaking out somewhat.
So at this other end of the park were the pandas and a lot of other animals. First I went into the natural panda habitat bit, which was pretty cool – only one of the pandas was out in the viewing area of two , so I watched him for a while. He was wandering back and forward, and was quite far away so it was hard to get a good idea of how big he was or to get a good picture, but I think he must have been pretty massive. Also – he was older than me, haha.. born in 1986! I then headed off into the other panda / other animals bit, where there was another panda but they were sleeping. Apparently the males tend to pace a lot (i.e first one) and the females just sleep (second one). There were a few fish and things in this part too, like carp and stuff, which were alright, if a little boring – its carp for gods sake!
At this point I’d seen most of the park that I wanted to see, so I started wandering around and going to the ‘show’ things, as there were quite a few! First off I went into a bird show, which I’d missed part of so only saw about five minutes, the birds were flying around and above the crowd and stuff so it was pretty cool actually. Then headed off to see the sea lion show, which was a lot more entertaining – there was two sea lions and they both did quite a few little tricks just like waving and stuff which was funny. By this point the battery on my little camera had started to run out which was really irritating as I wanted to take more videos! After that there was only one more show I wanted to see, and it was right back down by my original entrance. Instead of taking the cable car again, I took this nifty little train that was underground, and did not give my stomach any more somersaults. Whoop! Anyway this last show was basically an ‘illusion show on ice’ – it was really really random but parts were pretty cool. There were about four people doing magic tricks, one guy that did the thing where you hold yourself up on two bits of silky rope stuff, and then there was a guy in what looked like some kind of weird slinky outfit just kind of .. dancing?! That bit was bloody odd.
(PANDAPANDAPANDA!! @ ocean park)
After that it was practically 16:30, so I went and waited outside for our bus back. We didn’t end up leaving the park until about 17:00 and got back around 18:00. At this point I was feeling ridiculously ill.. I don’t know what it is, but I’d been feeling nauseous on and off all day, and the only ‘odd’ food I’ve had from here has been a) veal sausages and b) mcdonalds. Though to be fair the chicken in the mcdonalds was weird, it was a browny colour instead of white, but I just assumed that to mean they’d used a different part of the chicken? Either way I felt like absolute crap by the time I’d got back to the hotel and decided to have a nap. Once again I set my alarm for the light show, but once again I slept through it, and although I’m annoyed I won’t get to see it, I’m thinking it was better for me to sleep today as I felt better when I woke up and I don’t wanna spend my time on the plane or my first time in Sydney feeling ill! So once again I’ve messed up my sleeping pattern, having slept from about 18:00 until midnight. And now I’m wide awake.
(view from the cable cars @ ocean park)
So overall view of my day – Ocean Park is awesome. Lots of animals, few rides (which to be fair I didn’t go on) but they looked pretty cool. Its such an environmentally conscious park as well. I expected all the signs about not littering etc as they’re everywhere in HK, but even all the animal shows were themed around different parts of looking after the country – the bird show was based on not cutting down trees as then the birds will have nowhere to live and it will wreck the food chain, and in the sea lion show, one lion ’fined’ the other $1500 for littering. Was pretty amusing to be fair. All around the park all you see is signs and notices on how best to care for the country and the planet to preserve the wildlife, and thats a pretty good lesson to send.
(view from the top of the outdoor escalators @ ocean park)
The weather was insane, I have no actual idea of temperature but I know it was bloody hot and at points I had to take my cardigan off, leaving me in a vest top with many strange looks from a lot of locals. WTF does she think it is, summer?! WELL YES! It is.. practically anyway, for me! No tan lines that I can see, so it can’t have been that hot but it bloody felt it! I think thats about it for my day, in summary, Ocean Park was awesome and I would definitely recommend it to anyone in HK, especially if you’re interested in animals / environmental conservation.
I finish on one thing I have definitely decided since being here – if you live in HK, or even if you’re staying for a little while and visiting tourist spots – you CAN’T be afraid of heights. In all seriousness, everything is high here. Its mental.
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