Are We Too Old for Hong Kong Ocean Park?

Nursing a hangover, unlike eager kids, we decided to go to Hong Kong Ocean Park as late as possible, which turned out to be a bad move. It was oh-so-terribly hot when we arrived, but we had already bought the tickets and taken a bus ride to the place, so we went in.

As soon as we entered, we got ourselves balloons. If I was with someone else, I would hesitate to get one, but it was with her, so I didn’t need to do it since I knew she would want to get one, too. Our weirdness connects us.

When we saw a very long queue outside an exhibition, we thought maybe it was something interesting, so we joined in. It turned out to be a seahorse exhibition: different types of seahorses, their food sample, and infographics about their mating process. Boring! I have a feeling the seahorse is a big thing in Hong Kong.

Maybe something to do with luck? I need to look it up.

The highlight of the day happened at the Asian Animal exhibition. We entered the place solely because it was air-conditioned, but we were in for a treat. PANDAs were waiting for us. Okay, yes, they didn’t exactly wait for us. They were just sitting there, being much bigger than I ever imagined and chewing their bamboo with not a care in the world, the perks of being uber-cute.

Oh, btw, sometime in between the exhibitions, I got a fish painted on my face, and from then on I started to draw the crowd’s attention. It was mostly kids who looked at my face with envy or pointed it out to their parents, but some adult strangers asked to take pictures with me, to which I happily obliged. I felt like a local celebrity! Is this what they call five minutes of fame?

We then proceed to have lunch in Hong Kong Ocean Park Food Court. I didn’t eat mine. The fish was a little uncooked, and I would be damned if I had food poisoning on the second day of our trip. The food experience was below par, and it reminded me of the same experience at the Toranga Zoo and Universal Studios. Why is it that the food at theme parks is always bad? I need to look that up, too.

After lunch, we took the cable car to go to the other side of the park. I love cable car rides. I have had good memories of them, with my school friends who officially became good friends after our ride together, with my besties to Hakone, and now with Jik, until she threatened to throw Miaw out of the window! Thankfully nothing happened. All three, four of us, if you count Liu, the dolphin balloon, reached the ground safely.

The next stop was Old Hong Kong. We spent some quality time there, taking pictures in some of our most ridiculous poses.

There was a miniature exhibition there featuring colourful stuff collected by a Sweden-born Hong Kong-based artist from a beach in ONE DAY. It felt like a nudge for me to be more mindful of my disposal.

Our final stop was the gift shop (obviously, it’s me we are talking about!), but Nah, Disney world has a much better collection, but it didn’t stop me from taking pictures with the shark hats.

I liked our Hong Kong Ocean Park day, but I think I am done with theme parks for a while. Only for a little while because I do love theme parks.

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