Day 11 - Ocean Park Hong Kong Island

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Today was my first real free day of my entire trip. No pre-arranged tours, no traveling from one place to another. It made a nice change, but meant that I needed to actually do some research into how I was going to entertain myself for the the day.

I had always intended to get a suit made in Hong Kong. Custom made suits are fantastic and many Asian countries make them for considerably less than you would pay for even standard off the rack suits in NZ.

I've had 2 made previously in Thailand. Both for around NZ$300 - $400. My 1st day tour guide Norman had given me the details of his tailor (most locals also get their clothing tailor made). A Chinese Tailor out in Tsim Sha Sui (the main retail area of Kowloon).

I'd also decided to pay a visit to Ocean Park. This is a reasonably well known tourist attraction. I knew it was an animal park and that it also housed Hong Kong's only 2 Giant Panda's An-An and Jin-Jin.

I slept in a little bit this morning, after a couple of days of early starts and didn't bother getting out of bed until around 9am. I had a $50 off coupon for Breakfast at the hotel so decided to make use of that.
The breakfast was in the 1st floor restaurant. It was a buffet breakfast (pretty standard for hotels). The standard price for the breakfast was HK$128 + 10% service fee (around NZ$31) which was still a pretty good price, but with HK$50 off it was good value for money (as far as hotel charges go). The breakfast was your usual options, breakfast sausages (Chicken and pork), Scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, cereal, fresh fruit, youghurt etc.
I made use of the cereal, fruit and yogurt to start with. You start to miss some of the basics on tour as it doesn't really figure in Asian diets.
Following I had a cooked breakfast. The decent start to the day was going to help keep me going for the day.
I caught a cab around 10am and headed for the Tailors. Hong Kong taxi drivers really have no idea where places are. It's always best to know the street name of where you are going as it is unlikely they will know the name of a shop, hotel, restaurant etc even well established or high profile places. Taxi's are zoned for the area they operate in ( I have no idea how to tell them apart. They all look the same... Red), so they generally know their zone well, but out of zone you need to be as specific as possible, knowing the name of the region is a good start.
I had a business card for the tailors which had street names and location in both English and Chinese. I gave it to the driver. He stared at it for a minute before taking off. Having the details of where you want to go written in the native language is good.... however it is distinctly possible that the drivers can't read, which can make that theory null and void.
Anyway we got there without any mishap for around HK$40 (about NZ$9). I went upstairs to the tailor and we started talking designs. He had a good variety of cloth to choose from. I settled on 1 suit jacket, pants and a shirt. We settled on a price of HK$2880 for the lot (NZ$600 exactly on today's exchange rate). This is a little more expensive than I've paid before but already the fabric seems a better quality and the service is also very good. There was no pressure selling and they (now the both the owners were involved) were very good at given suggestions and opinions as to what style would look best. I was measured up (very comprehensively) and my details were recorded. On this occasion I asked if I could pay upfront. I would not normally recommend this practice. You should almost always pay on acceptance of the product to ensure you get what you ask for. However I was paying by credit card. I had checked the exchange rate before I left. It was pretty good but was sliding (with the forecast to slide further), so to ensure the biggest bang for my buck I needed to pay now to avoid the real cost going up with a worse exchange rate.
I asked them how to get to Ocean Park. They suggested I catch the underground (less than a minutes walk from the tailors) to Admiralty station and catch a bus from there to the park.
We agreed to meet again at around 5 - 5:30pm for an intial fitting (time is short for me as I fly out early Saturday morning. However a less than 48hr turnaround is normally pretty easy for good tailors).
I followed their directions. They were spot on. I jumped on the underground and got off 1 station later (About a 4 minute journey under the sea to Hong Kong Island). Outside at the bus terminal there was a ticket booth for both admission to the park and bus fare. This is a really well thought out system. Ocean park is obviously a popular place for both locals and tourists alike. To avoid long lines at the park you buy your ticket with your bus fare. There was no line at the bus booth For HK$228 I had my return bus ticket and my admission to the park (NZ$50, very cheap for a theme park). I caught the dedicated Ocean park bus. The driver was another Michael Schumacher and we made it to the park about 15 minutes later. I entered the park around 11am. The park was reasonably empty.
When I left the hotel it was overcast with light rain. Now the sun was out and starting to beat down. It was going to be a scorcher.
When visiting things like theme parks that are over a large area I apply a "left hand down rule" that is I always walk around the ground going left. This usually means you don't miss anything. However the park is all over the place and I couldn't help but criss-cross all over the show.
I first visited the large covered Aviary. It was a really nice walk with heaps of birds in it. There were some amazing colors on some of the birds.
My intention was to view the animals at the park. The park has a number of theme park rides but I really wasn't interested. After Disneyland it was going to struggle to cut it in that department.
I found that Ocean park is a bit all over the place. The animal enclosures are pretty spread out, while the amusement rides tend to be clustered together. My impression is the park hasn't really found it's niche. Is it an animal park or a amusement park as I don't believe it does well at both.
The park is multi-leveled and they have steep escalators to get you up to the next level. The park also has an upper and a lower park which is connected by a cable causeway.

I by-passed the rides and headed out to the Marine part of the park. It took a bit of getting there. By now the sun was beaming down and I reckon it was around 31 - 32 degrees and the humidity was getting up there. The sweat was starting to pour. I downed a 1 litre bottle of water in quick time.
The amusement rides at the park were a little dated. I likened them to some of the better carnival rides (or similar to something you would find at Rainbows end).
There was a lot of work going on around the park and it looks like they were in the process of adding new enclosures and rides.
I made it to marineland and this part I was pretty impressed with. It was a large indoor aquarium. It had a massive indoor coral reef and undersea setting.
The entrance had lots of small tanks with different sea life before you entered the 1st part of the main enclosure. You could see sharks and rays swimming on the surface. A couple of the bigger rays were real entertainers and swam up reasonably close to the people (it couldn't get right up to be touched as there was a shelf before the railing to stop the fish getting too close).
We headed down a flight of stairs and saw the coral reef enclosure. Lots of smaller (up to about 1/2 a metre long) exotic fish swimming around. The puffer fish were real entertainers. They would come right up to the glass and stare at you face on. I spent around 10 minutes just watching. Watching fish has always fascinated me. I used to love visiting exotic fish shops when I was younger. I headed down another flight of steps. This took you to the mid-sea part of the large fish enclosure. There were sharks, rays, Turtles, huge Trevally, Cod, Grouper and even Baramundi in the enclosure. I was completely spell bound. I must of stayed there for around 30 minutes (with my concentration regularly broken by rude Chinese people who have a habit of pushing in, or bumping you without apology grrr). I was amazed at the size and variety. I thought that was it for the aquarium, but I went down a further flight and viewed the same fish enclosure, but this time viewing was at the sea floor level. A number of the larger sharks were clustered together sleeping. This was enclosure was very well thought out. Being able to see the fish above the water line, mid level and at the bottom gave completely different perspectives.

I left the aquarium and headed to the Cable way. The next major animal enclosure was down at the bottom park. I jumped on the sky rail and headed down. It takes about 5 - 7 minutes to get to the bottom and you get some really good views.

The bottom enclosure was the Asian Animal zone. This section housed the Giant Panda. Before entering the Panda enclosure I took in the Chinese Alligators (very small compared to the Salt Water Crocodiles in Australia, which is probably why they are extremely endangered). I entered the Panda enclosure. The enclosure had both Red and Giant Panda in separate parts. The 2 little Red Panda's were in full view and reasonably active, however the Giant Panda were a little hard to see. Only 1 of the 2 (not sure which it was) was insight, although just barely. It was sleeping behind a big white rock. You had to be on the right angle to get a good look and take a photo. I waited patiently behind a young family who were getting a good look and taking a photo of themselves with the Panda in the background. I was going to move to the spot when they moved. Unfortunately the Chinese rudeness came to the fore again. Not once but twice did others jump in front of me when the space cleared. It was abundantly obvious that I was waiting for the spot (as it was really the only viewing spot). I was pretty pissed off and had to really control myself from telling them their parentage.
I did manage to get in there eventually and take a couple of photo's, but some of the excitement had somewhat worn off.

I grabbed some lunch as it was about 2pm. I hadn't taken in any shows or talks while at the park as they were always on when I was a mile away from them. The Dolphin & Sea lion show was kicking off at 3:30pm so I decided to head back up to the upper Park to catch the show.
I arrived at the theater (outdoor stadium style seating overlooking a large pool. Seating of probably 2000 or so) at around 2:30. There was still an hour to go before the show, but already there was a lot of people sitting or milling around the back waiting. It was obviously going to be a popular show. I took a seat in the shady part of the middle section around 2:45pm figuring it was best to get in early judging by the swelling numbers. I listened to the Ipod while waiting. By 3:15pm the place was packed and ushers were looking for any available seats that could be filled.
The show was pretty good. In the same vein as Marineland in Napier (which I think is now shut down). Lots of jumping and tricks with the trainers. The show lasted around 30 minutes. At the conclusion I headed towards the exit. I needed to be back at the tailors before 5:30pm.
I followed the reverse of the mornings travel and returned to the tailors without mishap (unlike Tokyo) just after 5pm. I was offered a beer on arrival I declined but accepted the cold coke offered next instead.
The cut-out of the suit arrived about 5 minutes later. The suit was pinned and altered and re-sized. There were 4 of them giving it the once over and deep in discussion (in Chinese of course) about different aspects as they often made a small alteration. The main owner has a real eye for detail. He noticed that the left shoulder was slightly lower than the right so had it pinned so it could be altered. I couldn't tell be he's the expert.
I felt a little sorry for the tailor. I was sweaty and smelly from walking in the sun all day. I was desperate for a shower. I felt pretty funky, so it can't have been that pleasant working around sweaty clothing.
After finishing the pinning and tweaking they asked me to return tomorrow at 4pm for a final fitting.
I left the tailors and looked to jump into a cab. It was after 5pm so I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get one. There were a few around so I hailed 1 down. The taxi driver didn't want to take me as he didn't know the street or hotel as it wasn't his "zone" the next cab was parked up, but the driver seemed to look the other way when I tried to grab his attention. Seems my business wasn't what they wanted. Perhaps they can do a number of fares in the same time frame with locals. Who knows.
Instead I walked the 30 or so minutes to the hotel. It's pretty easy to find. I just walked down Nathan Road for about 20 mins and turn Right at Waterloo Road for the remaining distance to the hotel. Nathan Road is one of the main streets in Kowloon. It is quite long. It is the 5th Avenue of Kowloon with all of the designer shops.
I returned to my room and had a shower. I then headed down to cashier to settle my bill (I still had another day, but wanted to settle now to know just how much money I would have to spend). I had 2 laundry bills and 2 transfers (To and from Airport) which came to HK$625. Laundry is not cheap in Hotels as the transfers were just HK$98 each.
I went to the bar and had a drink. It was Happy hour (happy hour is from 4pm - 9pm) so it was 2 for 1 drinks. I had a couple of Carlsbergs which went down great after a hot day. I then headed to the Western restaurant at the hotel and had dinner.
I could of had the buffet but instead decided to order off the menu. They had a set menu that had Soup, Main and dessert for HK$195 + 10% service fee. I ordered the Australian Cornfed Pork Chop. The soup came out first with some crusty bread. It was really nice, although I'm still not sure what the soup was. I couldn't understand the waiter when she told me. Service was very fast (especially as the restaurant was full). I had the main within a couple of minutes of the soup being cleared. The pork chop and vegetables were fantastic. I had a black pepper sauce over the chop. The chop was very moist and easy to carve. I couldn't finish the salad as I was getting pretty full. Dessert followed almost immediately. I was double chocolate cake with a lemon and Strawberry sauce. Again very nice. I had declined buying a drink but accepted water. I should have known something was up when the water came out as bottled water and poured at the table (however the water was the bottled stuff that is replenished daily free of charge in my room). When the bill came I had been charged for the water, HK$40 in fact (about NZ$8). It was daylight robbery. It was not like it was water from the top of the Swiss alps or anything. It annoyed me a little but overall the meal was very good and very reasonably priced for 3 courses.

Tomorrow is a "yet to be decided day". At this stage I'm thinking of heading out to Hong Kong Stadium where the 7's are played, although it's over the other side of Hong Kong Island and it takes 3 different bus routes to get there. So I'll cross that bridge. Other than that I'll complete the last of my shopping at the nearby markets and complete the suit fitting. It's my last full day of the holiday (Saturday is a 5 hour flight back to Tokyo, and Sunday afternoon I start the trek back to NZ) so I'll be making the most of it while trying not to exceed the budget.

Anyway I'll let you know how I get on (maybe not until I get to Tokyo as I have to check out at 5am Saturday morning to catch a 5:10am bus to the airport. Yuck!)

Zai Jian

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Photos

Giant Moray
This sucker was huge

Chinese Alligator
These 'gators are only around 2 feet long

One hell of a leap
The ball was a good 3 - 4 metres in the air