HK 2008 Day 1 - Ocean Park

HK Day 1 - Ocean Park: December 12, 2008 - I booked the first flight of Cebu Pacific from Manila to Hong Kong so we arrived at around 10AM in the HK International Airport. After going through the usual long line at the immigration, we picked up our luggage (amazingly we didn't have to wait that long!), bought our Airport Express Travel passes and headed straight to the city. After around 30 minutes of ride at the train and roughly another 30 minutes bus ride from the Kowloon MTR station (where we got off from the airport express train), we reached BPI International. We checked-in at the hotel, dropped off our luggage in our room (which, as far as I could remember, is at the highest floor of the building), and then got ready for Ocean Park. It was already lunch time by then. As soon as we got out of the hotel, we checked out the nearby money changer. I realized the exchange rate was steep and I'd rather make my banks back at the Philippines get richer so I just used my BDO and BPI ATMs to get some HK dollars. We walked all the way from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui to look for ATMs bearing the Maestro and Visa logos. After making ATM withdrawals, we walked a bit more to go to the Yoshinoya restaurant where DH and I ate with our friends when we went to HK in July 2007. We found a Crocs store beside Yoshinoya's entrance so DH and I promised we'd definitely go back there. :D We looked for a 7-11 store so we could load up some money in our Octopus cards (the airport express travel pass doubles as an Octopus card). Then we took the MTR from the TST train station and got off at Admiralty station, where CityBus 629 is. We paid HK$10.6 each for the bus ride (DS is still free) using our Octopus cards and off we go to Ocean Park!

We got off CityBus 629 at the Tai Shue Wan entrance park of Ocean Park. Tae Shue Wan connects to the Headland through the super long Tai Shue Wan escalators. Afaik, you had to pass 4 long escalators to get to Headland. Of course, our first stop was to take some pictures with the Ocean Park signage. Yeah, I know the guy beside DH and DS above was a nuisance in the picture. But you see, he's part of the experience: a picture beside an authentic Chinese guy at Ocean Park Hong Kong! LOL.

So we took a ride on that uber long escalator and of course, took some pictures! Smile!!!

I think we stopped after two long escalators when we posed in front of the Mine Train. You know what, I've been to Ocean Park four times already but I was never ever able to take any of their rides. I don't usually chicken out in park rides. I thought I just don't want to die in a foreign land. :p

After climbing up with the long escalators, we reached Pacific Pier. Here, DS had a close encounter with a real and not so real seals (or sea lions? darn, I still don't know the difference! LOL).

After DS enjoyed watching and laughing at the seals (or sea lions, whatever!) at the Pacific Pier, we headed straight to the Ocean Park Tower. Our first ride in that trip! Oh, that is if we don't consider the 4 long elevators as a separate ride. :p After so many shots, we got this nice shot wherein we have the Headland rides as our background.

When we got out of the Ocean Park Tower, we headed to Headland to have some snacks at McDonald's. On our way to Headland, we saw the Ocean Park's mascot! So DH ran ahead of the mascot while DS and I tried to catch up. So we got this nice shot here. I was all smiles here although I was catching my breathe. LOL.

Apparently, it was the mascot's meet and greet time. We learned his schedule was around 4-4:15PM. We were so damn lucky! So lucky that we were one of the first people who lined up. :p

One, two, three, smile! :D

Rides at Headland were all for adults. Since DS was with us, we just checked out the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium and Atoll Reef. DS was so happy shouting "Isshh! Isshh!". :p

After checking out all the aquariums, we finally went to McDonald's and had one Big Mac Meal (with Large Fries and Large Coke) shared. We also almost finished up one tumbler of Oreo (we brought all the way from Manila). Since it was December, at 5PM it was already getting dark. Ocean Park is open only until 6pm so we hurried to the Cable Car queue, hoping that we could still check out the rides at Lowland for DS. The line was not that long compared when we were at Ocean Park summertime of 2007. But we still spent some good 30mins at the queue before we finally got our ride.

I had to use the camera's flash here because it was already dark inside the cable car.

Of course, we didn't forget to take a family pic before we got off the cable car. :p

To our disappointment (which later on I had to thank as well since we came in late), the whole Lowland was under renovation. So we just contented ourselves taking DS's pictures with this coin-driven car. He cried when we took him out of it so that justified our wants to buy him a big remote-controlled car for Christmas.

Since Madagascar 2 was on cinemas that time, they also had some standees of the animals from that movie. Smile! Although DS was already crying here. He was cranky and sleepy. :p

December, I believe, is a good time to visit Ocean Park. It was way better than the time we visited Ocean Park on July 2007. The weather was good and the park was not crowded. The queue waiting time was reasonable and tolerable. Even if we already arrived at the park at around 2PM and it closed 6PM, we really enjoyed our stay there. Not so tiring. And since December means Christmas time, we also got to take some pictures with the park's Christmas decors like this sugar house here. :)

Here's a poinsettia-looking flower arrangement. Yeah, DS was still crying here. :D

And here's a reindeer (at the back of DH and DS) surrounded with BIG gifts! Yes, my son was still crying out loud here. LOL. Apparently, DS was already full of poop! :p

We took again CityBus 629 to get back to Admiralty and then MTR back to Kowloon. We were sleeping the whole time at the bus. The traffic was so heavy then because it was a Friday. I think it took us more than an hour to get back to the city. It was ok though since all of us were able to sleep and rest the whole time we were stuck in the heavy traffic.

As soon as we reached the hotel, we just stayed a bit and then took off to Harbour City, the biggest mall I've ever seen in my life. We went to Toys R' Us and checked out if we could buy DS's big remote-controlled car there. But it turned out the car models at the toy stores back in Manila were much better. So we just bought a few gifts and took more pictures with the Christmas decors around the mall.

As you can see, I was no longer in the pictures at the end because I was so tired and harassed. DS had been picking me to carry him. :p So then we called it a day. ;)

Up next: HK 2008 Day 2 at Macau. =)