After our brunch, we headed to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station (one of the train stations nearest to our hostel, the other one is East Tsim Sha Tsui Station). Before leaving Chungking Mansions, we asked our caretaker how to get to Ocean Park. His instructions sounded easy.
But the MTR system was more complex than what we thought. It's not as easy as our LRT and MRT system in Pinas. At that time, we had a map of the system in our hands. But we were lost in all the wrong ways. Another kababayan stopped to help us. She taught us how the system works. From our base point, we had to travel the red line to reach another blue line to Admiralty station.
(click to enlarge)
Down the station, there were buses lined up for Ocean Park. There was a booth where you can buy Ocean Park tickets. One ticket costed 250 HKD.
We boarded the shuttle bus and again used our Octopus cards to pay for our fare. There are two entrances at the park because the park has two parts divided by a mountain-- the Summit and the Waterfront. The bus took us to the Tai Shue Wan entrance which is on the Summit part. Immediately, we grabbed our cameras to capture the breath taking sights.
It was winter when we visited HK and you can just imagine how cold it was and how devastating my attire could be.
Going inside the park, we were given food stubs that we can claim in selected kiosks inside.
The first attraction we saw inside was the Flamingo Pond.
At that point, I was already excited to see the main reason why I wanted to visit Ocean Park—cable cars! But when I looked at our park map, I realized that the way to the cable cars will still be long. We had to pass by the Tai Shue Wan escalator that was so far the longest escalator I have seen.
Waiting at the top of the escalator was a kiosk that offered burger and fries. We used our food stubs. While eating, Marjorie noticed the mine train and decided to try.
The mine train looked so scary for me because it is situated atop the cliff with the full view of the sea under it. She begged me to join but my very fantastic dress did not allow me to.
After the ride, we walked more and saw more thrilling rides like the Abyss Turbo Drop, the Ferris Wheel and the Eagle.
Walking made up the most part of our adventure and my feet were giving up when we saw the cable cars!
Cable cars, here we come!
The cable cars connect the two parts of the park. I was so excited to see the other part of the park although I haven't seen much of the Summit side. My excitement turned into fear when the cable car started to ascend. I was closing my eyes during the first part of the ride but Joy told me that I am missing something. Truly, it was a spectular view down there- I saw Hongkong islands, I saw the South China Sea and man, I thought I was so close to heaven.
We were already in the Waterfront side when the ride was down.We were first attracted to the Sky Fair- colorful hot air balloons. We never really thought that we can ride the balloons so we just took pictures of ourselves.
What followed next was a tour of the animal kingdom. We saw a panda in the Giant Panda Habitat and different kinds of gold fishes in the Gold Fish Treasures.
We saw an Ocean Park Express which is a train that looks like a submarine. We were so curious that we failed to know that the train will transport us back to the Summit. The ride really felt like a ride under the water although I was old enough to know that it was more of special effects.
When we unboarded the train, we were already in the Summit and we experienced the Atoll Reef where we saw sting rays.
We also saw other kinds of underwater creatures and was shocked to see a human whose job is to feed the big scary fishes.
We also experienced the Sea Jelly Spectular. The jelly fishes were glowing in the dark!
After watching the jelly fishes, we decided to call it a day but we remembered our food stubs and decided to eat. After a delicious meal, we decided to take the 629 bus going back to Admiralty station.
Ocean Park was indeed an experience. Thank you Ocean Park for taking my breath away!
Hongkong
Avenue of Stars
Disneyland
No comments:
Post a Comment
sign my wonderwall.