The small and humble-looking cafe
Slug and I in the cafe
Fish cutlet with omelette, toast, ham slices and baked beans, and came with borsch soup and hot Horlicks!
After breakfast, we walked to Admiralty Bus Terminus, where we purchased two really expensive admission tickets at HKD208 each. We hopped onto Bus #629 for a 30-minute journey to Ocean Park located in Aberdeen.
Slug and I on the bus
On the way to Ocean Park
The Ocean Park is a huge sprawling aquarium-cum-amusement park, which is divided into two sections separated by a forested hill. Visitors get from one section to another by cable car! The bus dropped us at the Tai Shue Wan Entrance of the park, and after grabbing a map at the entrance, we dashed into the nearest exhibit - the aviary. We visited the mammals enclosures as well.
Ocean Park
At the Tai Shue Wan entrance
At the flamingo pond
Inside the aviary
White cockatoo
A pack of otters cuddling together!
A sneaky-looking alligator
Me with a swan
Travelled up two long escalators to reach the rides area. The first one we encountered was a roller coaster named Mine Train. Slug was raring to go for a ride on that, but I was hesitant. It seemed to be a scary ride because from the entrance, I could already hear screams coming from the ride. He managed to convince me to go for it, saying that it was an 'easy' roller coaster since there were no loops. So we queued up for it, but as we got nearer to boarding the Mine Train, I was getting increasingly nervous. My palms were clammy when we sat in the train and buckled up. As soon as the train picked up speed, regret started to set in. When the train went for its first dip, I could hardly scream because I felt like I was going to fly off my seat, so I clung on to Slug's arm for life. The second and third dips came after, and my eyes were shut and I was already numb with fear by then. The train returned to the station and I burst into tears. It seemed strange why the other kids were laughing away while I was the only one crying.
View of Tai Shue Wan from the escalators
The Mine Train
At the roller coaster station
We moved on and arrived at the Pacific Pier, where we had fun watching the sea lions sunbathing and swimming. During feeding time, we bought a bucket of fishes to feed the sea lions, which grabbed the fishes with their snouts with amazing accuracy.
Outside Pacific Pier
A sunbathing sea lion
The keepers feeding the sea lions
An adorable sea lion waiting for us to feed it
After that, it was on to an area of more rides and game booths, but first, we had lunch at one of the fast food stalls there. Slug tried his luck at one of the game booths there, and after that, we went for a ride on the Ferris wheel, where we had good views of Abderdeen. We saw another roller coaster, named the Dragon, and my legs trembled just by looking at it. The track was long and winding, with many dips and three big loops!
An area with even more rides
Game booths and food stalls
Roast chicken and fries for lunch
Slug testing his strength at a game booth
Me on the Ferris Wheel
View from the Ferris Wheel
The Dragon
After that, we hopped on to the Atoll Reef aquarium, and we were fascinated with the many sea creatures it housed, as well as this giant circular tank full of big sea creatures like stingrays, sea turtles and various fishes!
Me bending over to touch the sea cucumber
Cuttlefish and starfish
Octopus
Seahorse
Some bizarre but cute earthworm-like sea creature
The top of the circular aquarium
Many fishes!
A manta ray zipping past
Our favourite green sea turtle!
A huge stringray trying to get close to us
A large fish
The Shark Aquarium was just beside it, and inside, we moved around on a travellator and watched various kinds of sharks. I shuddered when I saw the Great White swim above us.
Check out the bulging razor-sharp teeth of the Great White!
We intended to move on to the jellyfish aquarium, but upon seeing the long snaking queue for the cable car and considering that Ocean Park closes at 6pm and it was already 4+pm and we had not set foot in the other section of the park yet, we joined in the cable car queue. It was a tormenting 20-minute wait for us to finally secure seats on a cable car.
Shark mascot entertaining us while we waited for the cable car
Finally our turn!
The cable car first went up a hill before making a steep descent down to the other section of the park. It felt scary at first, because we were many feet above the hill slopes and the thought of being a potential cable car casualty greatly haunted me, but the fear soon wore off.
Inside the cable car
A trail of cable cars behind us
Cable cars descending down the hill slope
Only an hour left to closing time, which actually was okay because from what we could see from the map, kiddie rides dominated this section and they absolutely did not interest us. We wanted to get on the hot-air balloon, but it was full-house. We then rushed to the panda enclosure. Haven't seen pandas for a long time!
The other section
Slug outside the panda exhibit
The cuteness of the pandas just left us mesmerized for a long time. There were three pandas in the enclosures - one was chomping on bamboo shoots, one was dozing on a bamboo raft, and one was hidden away somewhere. We were lucky because we managed to capture a picture of the panda chomping away just before it got irked that too many people were watching it and decided to hide away too. Now that two pandas were out of sight and one was sleeping, there was not anything much to watch and the other viewers walked off disappointed.
Panda munching on bamboo
We wanted to take the cable car (I was infatuated with the ride!) back to the first section, but unfortunately, the cable car had closed at 5.30pm. We roamed around aimlessly for a while before deciding to leave. As 6pm drew near, it grew dark and we felt that we had not got enough of everything here. Exited at the main entrance and took the same bus back to Admiralty.
Me and Slug fooling around
Main entrance of the park
Back at Admiralty, we took the MTR to Mongkok. As we walked from Mongkok to Ladies Market, we snacked on takopachi, waffles, ice-cream and bubble tea along the way.
Shop selling various snacks
Takopachi with a generous bunch of seaweed thrown in!
We browsed through the stalls at Ladies Market, which sold mainly clothes, VCDs, cutesy stuff and imitation goods. To our disappointment, this tourist attraction did not really captivate us, and we moved on to Temple Street.
Ladies Market
Slug at Temple Street
Temple Street
Temple Street was not as extravagant as Ladies Market, as could be seen from the simple stalls there vis-a-vis the large tented stalls at Ladies Market, but somehow, we liked the rustic feel of that street. The old deteriorating flats and the groups of old men gathering at stone benches for chitchats showed us an unpolished and gritty side of Hong Kong life, where those who could neither catch up with the cosmopolitan changes nor adopt sophisticated urban lifestyles were trapped in their near-obsolete subculture and way of life reminiscent of the '80s. To be frank, this kind of nostalgia really appealed to us.
We had dinner at an unostentatious dim sum shop along Temple Street, and the server, a skinny man in his 40s, sat us down at pull-out table and chairs at a dimly-lit corner of the street. Simple and modest roadside fare.
The dimsum shop
Having dimsum dinner
After dinner, we continued exploring the stalls selling all kinds of bric-a-brac (antiques, jade, alarm clocks and even sex toys), as well as the secluded shops blocked from view by the stalls. The VCD shops were selling porn openly and the bookshops were selling porn magazines openly. Sleazy.
Stall selling dodgy Chinese aphrodisiacs and sex toys
Got tired of walking and had some refreshing at a nearby dessert shop. Slug ordered some water chestnut broth with egg, and I had mango sago. Yummy.
Seafood restaurants at Temple Street
Dessert shop
Having desserts
Bright neon signs at Nathan Road
After dessert, it was already 11+pm and we took the train back to our apartment. We were quite annoyed with two of the tenants who shared the apartment with us, because everywhere they went, they just had to slam the doors and create a din. They freaked Slug out because while Slug was getting some water from the water dispenser in the living room, they kept twitching the doorknob of their room. Whatever was that for? We were seriously wondering what they were up to.
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