9:00 AM We woke up late and rushing to get to Ocean Park as early as possible in order to avoid the long lines at the attractions and rides. Grabbed some sausage bread at a local bakery along the way. We took the MTR to Admiralty were the buses to the park are located.
9:30 AM Just outside the MTR Admiralty station was the City bus station. Ticket prices are HKD 10.00 one way for Adults and HKD 5.00 for children. It wasnt really a long wait as buses arrived at 10 minute intervals. The bus ride was about 20 minutes.
10:00 AM just in time for the parks opening. There was only a small crowd at this time except for groups of school children on their field trip. We were dropped by the bus were the Jungle Log Jam ride is and you have to take the long escalators to get to the headland rides.
We were so soaked after the Jungle Log Jam ride!!! Look at Ellas shirt in the photo...wet but enjoyed the ride so much! Ella was not in the mood for the mine train roller coaster and definitely nobody wanted to try the spinning wheel. Time to move on to the next area.
Off to the long escalators to get to the Highlands!
We went through all the Marine Land attractions Jellyfish spectacular, Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium, Pacific Pier, and the Atoll reef. The reef is the highlight of Ocean Park its such a large aqaruim with various sections and its just so amazing to see a wide variety of sea creatures. Imagine 250 species of sharks, rays, and large fish which totals to about 1,500 fishes in one tank!!!
12:00 PM We just missed the live show at the Ocean Theater it was at 11:30am. Next show is at 2:00pm. There were a lot of stores in this area but the lines were so long( Mcdonalds, chicken place, etc.). We decided to eat at the lowlands after the cable car ride.
Ella really was not in the mood to ride that day and i didnt want to go alone so i just tried the Dragon Coaster and we headed of to the Cable Car.
The cable car was pretty scary at first but once you get the hang of it just sit back and enjoy the view. It was quite long approx. 1 kilometer.
1:30 PM Were now at the lowlands although most of the attractions are for kids, Ella was so excited to go to the Giant Panda Habitat. We had our Hotdogs and chips lunch( there wasnt really a lot of choices)
2:00 PM The Panda were so cute!!! watching them play around made you feel you wanted to have one at home. We spent around 25 minutes in the airconditioned habitat, in fact i could stay there for half a day just watching the Pandas. It was a different experience compared to watching lions, monkeys, or dogs. The pandas seemed so playful and affectionate.
2:30 PM Weve been around the park time to take the bus and head back to Admiralty.
TRAVEL TIP: If your planning to see all the attractions and enjoy the rides definitely you have to spend the whole day at the park operating hours is 9:00am-6:00pm. To give you and idea we started at 10:00am went through all the attractions except the live ocean theater show, tried 2 out of the 10 rides and we were done at around 2:30PM.
3:30 PM back to Tsim Tsa Tsui. We really didnt have a filling lunch so we decided to grab something on the way to the hotel. On the corner of Cameron and Canarvon roads a food store similar to our fishball carts here was peddling everything from squid, curry fishballs, tofu, chicken, sausages, pepper, and other street foods. The aroma was irresistable!
The huge sausage was HKD 10.00 and the small bacon wrapped sausages cost HKD 15.00/ 4pcs. We still wanted to try the other yummy looking food but the vendors didnt speak or understand English so we decided to go the safe route. We just bought some fried rice( good for 3 persons) beside the hotel for HKD35.00
5:30 PM Ella was nagging that she really wanted to buy a Toy Watch brand. So we surfed the net and headed over to nearby Miramar Shopping Plaza. D-MOP didnt have the watches in this branch. So we headed of to Canton Road which is a HKD 17.00 cab ride away.
6:15 PM Canton Road is lined with designer shops all the way down to the Ocean Terminal. I didnt visit this place the last time i was here so i was pretty shocked to see all the huge stores of Gucci, Prada, Channel, LV, A/X to name a few.
7:00 PM Still no luck with the Toy Watch we went straight to the Ocean Terminal which had a couple of very reputable watch stores. Ella had a hard time choosing from the numerous watches that she liked, since we were pressed for time we decided to forego with the purchase and buy in Manila.
7:30 PM It was Av's turn he wanted to go to an F1 shop beside New World Center mall. He visited the shop earlier but it was still closed. We had a long walk from the Ocean Terminal past the Avenue of the Stars to New World Center. The Symphony of Lights show was about to begin so we paused for around 10 minutes and took some photos.
8:15 PM Finally we got to the Formula 1 shop which by now was already CLOSED!!! Time for some last minute shopping at Mong Kok.
TRAVEL TIP: For motors ports fans the Formula 1 shop is beside the New World Center Mall along Salisbury Road at the Tsim Tsa Tsui harbor. I believe this is the same shop that was at Nathan Road before.
8:40 PM We decided to split up as Ella went to the ladies market, Me and AV went to Sneaker street and Dundas Street where all the hobby shops are( Diecast models, Toys, airsoft guns, car accesories shops).
TRAVEL TIP: Mong Kok is heavily segmented into 4 main streets spanning about 4 blocks. Ladies Market, Sneaker Street, Electronics and clothings street, and Nathan road. If you really plan on doing your shopping here i suggest you visit on your first day and schedule another visit to check out stores that you might have missed on your first outing. I tried going around the whole Mong Kok area in one night, and shopping was not that enjoyable anymore due to exhaustion.
10:30 PM After all the walking and shopping time to meet up with our cousin Christine from Cali who was working in Hong Kong. She invited us to a German beerfest at Marco Polo Hotel and we really didnt know what to expect.
It was our first time to attend this kind of event and german beer was flowing! There were some game booths and lots of ex pats drinking, and dancing the night away. Also the view from the Marco Polo hotel 6th floor outdoor deck was spectacular!
1:30 PM time to head back to our hotel. We hailed a cab with a lady driver she asked us to talk to radio operator because she didnt understand English. Approaching our hotel we were in high spirits that she got the right directions, she went past the street of our hotel and we thought she wanted to go through the rear of the hotel. But to our surprise she made a u-turn and stopped at a bus stop!!! She was talking loudly so we didnt argue and decided to just walk to the hotel it was about a few hundred meters away.
What a night! Tomorrow we head to Macau.
TRAVEL TIP: Ask the hotel staff to write down all the places you want to visit in Chinese so you wont have a hard time communicating with the cab driver.
Hong Kong
Mong Kok
Ocean Park
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