MFM/HKG Day 4 - 21 Aug 2011

21 Aug 2011 (Sunday):

Yawn! Rise & Shine... Ocean Park! Here we come...

We took the MTR from Yau Ma Tei Station to Admiralty since there is a shuttle bus to OP. But first, we had breakfast @ one of this small Hongkong eatery where they served porridge & soya bean drink. Perhaps it is a Sun or perhaps, its was still early, there were not many people around. Time was around 830am, if i remembered correctly.

From Admiralty, we took bus # 629, straight to OP. The fare to pay is HKD$10.60/adt & HKD$5.30/child (4-11 yrs old). Wait! There is this promo which we saw at one of the shops in Admiralty Station - mtrtravel ( 港铁旅游) which was selling admission tickets to OP at a discounted price.

Must share this with you. Normal admission into OP wld cost HKD$250/adt & HKD$125/child (3-11 yrs old) but with this promotional rate, we only paid HKD$222/adt & HKD$111/child... savings of HKD$28/adt & HKD$14/child. Kekeke..

We arrived 10mins early & decided to join the queue when we heard an annoucement - " No outside food & drinks allowed "... We saw the security officers tellin those with foodstuff to finish outside before entering the park. Alamak! We bought buns for ourselves, thinking we could munch on them inside the park when we are hungry. Now, what to do? We cldnt possibly finished all the buns since we just had our breakfast. From the looks of it, the officers were doing a tough check on all the bags. There was no way we cld sneaked the buns in without being caught.

An idea came to Daddy. A notty idea. Ssshhhhh.... if you wana copy us, dun go ard telling people. Haha! What we did was since all the buns were packed separately, Daddy stuffed them down his pockets.. We had 8 buns between ourselves; 2 for each of us. So i took half & stuff them inside a plastic of clothings, in between the clothings... Daddy was carrying his haversack & that bag was inside the haversack, hoping they wld not asked us to open that bag.

Lalalalalala.... we passed the gantry with no problem. My bag was not checked; only Daddy's. But since those buns were inside the plastic, they were not confisicated. Water, plain bottled water was allowed but not soft drinks, packets drinks such... Too strict!

A quick glance at the map & showtimes, we made a dash to join the queue for the hot air balloon. Daddy said better joined the queue first & everywhere wld be equally crowded soon. He pointed in the direction at the admission gantry. Faint! Look at that mass of people.

Soon it was our turn, after perspiring like crazy. Up, up, up we go. Let's just say, its only for a short 5 mins. Look a the bottom right foto. The white shelter that u see is the admission gantry area. Below that are the massive crowd of people. Click on the collage to enlarge for better view.

After that, we saw some of the OP mascots but only managed to take with one of them - the red panda. If you watched Kungfu Panda, this is Master Shifu. Kekeke..



We did not plan for specific rides. Basically, we played those without long queues or no queue at all. Where was the queue? I tell you. At the "Raging River" & "The Rapids". The min waiting time for these 2 rides were 90 mins for each. Gosh!!



The kids dancing to the tune of the background music. Another boy was tempted to follow but was shy when i invited him to join these 2 monkeys.

We watched the sea lion show at the Whiskers Theatre, which in our opinion, its better to exclude. NOT fasinating at all. See the 6th foto, where u can see those huge balloons? Look at the crowd again. And umbrellas were irritating as well.

This is the goldfish encounter where many different species were on display. Seen a cute little fellow in the foto? It went " Oooo " when i took a foto of it. Muahahahah!

Spectatcular Sea Jelly. This was also another encounter with long queue. I tell you. OP needs better crowd management & shade management. Areas where it is shady, they have those cool mist blowing from fans to circulate the air & thus, a cooler area. But areas which have no shades or trees to provide that min blockage from the sun, especially while queue-ing for rides, what do u expect but umbrellas. But its so irritating cos it "disturbed" you to the extreme where u hv to duck, bend or well, u know, "siam" the umbrella before it pokes u in the eyes, on the head, or into ur ears.

After this, we stopped for lunch. But all restaurants & cafes were so crowded & sun was scorching hot, it made our mood very bad. Finally, we managed to settled down at MacDonalds but we waited for quite some time before having a table all to ourselves.

Rude encounter. I was with the 2 kids & Daddy was queue-ing for food. This family came up to our table & without asking, just sat down & plonked their bags on the table. I was staring at them & in an irritated tone, told them this table was taken. Know what they replied " But you are nt eating what! " I answered " Our family is queue-ing to buy food. And u are rude to even sit without asking. " Reluctantly, they got up, without even apologising. Sheesh!

Unable to take foto with the real ones? Get a hold of this! Looks real to me.

Towards the evening, we gave the kids a splashing, cooling time at Kungfu panda Wild Wet Zone. Free admission. But this was a timed play area - think only 10mins per grp. And they have adults to watched over the kids. Kids were provided goggles & water guns.



This is the Grand Aquarium. It was even better than Sentosa's Underwater World. And importantly, the whole area was air-conditioned. Very, very welcoming after a hot day outside.

Panda enclosure. They have individual compound for each panda & this was the only one up & abt. The rest were all bz hiding away in a corner, snoozing.

Again, we were unable to take close shot of the pandas os there many people ard, pushing & squeezing js to catch a close up view of the panda. So what to do but to take with the cuddly ones at the souvenir shop instead.



Managed to get a video of An-An. And someone pushed me while i was taking this video, hence u see a slight shake. Note: the woman's voice you hear blabbling away does nt belong to me.

With this, we end our day at OP. We took bus # 629 back to Admiralty & took the MTR back to Yau Ma Tei.

Tomorrow wld be our last day. Our flight via 3K696 departs at 2030hrs which means to say, we have a full day ahead for tomorrow as well.

Good nite for nw. And oh, forgot to mention, i tried the much talked abt Hui Lau Shan (许留山) mango pudding. Delicious!!