Let's have a round of applause for Ocean Park. We managed to spend a whole day there yesterday and loved every minute of it.
The place was particularly neat because they had a bunch of pandas. A bunch being 4, but the point is Emma loves pandas. Who doesn't? They've got to be about the most lovable creature on earth - they eat for about 14 hours a day, sleep and otherwise generally harass their buddies.
They also had a dolphin show. We won't dwell on that though, because the real deal-clencher was these awesome seals. Or Sea Lions. I'm pretty sure there was a plaque explaining the difference, but I didn't read it. We were too busy being entertained by the little cheeky one picking on the big lazy ones.
Oh, and Emmie-Lou got to feed them.
And, I got to taste one.
Whiskers didn't taste all that good. For what Ocean Park lacked in mascot-tastiness, they made up for in Jellyfish Spectaculars. This place would have been intense should you be silly enough to pay it a visit after taking a hit of acid (kids, don't do drugs).
And, like any self respecting theme park should, they also had rides. Although I near soiled myself on the 65 metre drop known as
The Abyss, on the whole (while still entertaining) the rides fell slightly short of "thrilling". Personally, I've taken wilder chair-lifts at Perisher Blue, but they scare me at the best of times (no comments about being a blouse, please).
So kids, that's Ocean Park. Definitely worth the visit if you've got the time here in Honkers. Speaking of things worth visiting in HK, check out HK island from Kowloon at night. Amazing. Ben, I don't care how awesome a lighting designer you are, I bet you can't make Canberra look this good (yes, I AM ignoring our local architecture. So what?).
Then, it was time for dinner. In case you hadn't noticed by now, dinner also means beer.
That was yesterday. Today quickly developed into shopping day. For all you shopaholics back home, HK is pretty awesome for shopping. Not necerssarily that cheap, but not expensive either. Note, I'm generally not allowed to enter places like Versace, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. So, if you're the type of person who's willing to spend a third world country's defecit on a handbag, yes, HK probably is expensive.
In addition to "regular" shopping (that is, malls, streets and the like), there's always markets. We are in Asia, after all. Worth a look is the goldfish market, which isn't so much of a market but is super interesting nonetheless. You can buy fishies by the bag, or pick one or multiple turtles off the pile. The selection of pets was substantially more exotic than back home, anyway. I was reasonably tempted to by a python for the low low price of about $1,800 HKD. That's about $300. Awesome.
They also have markets for more consumer appropriate items. Clothes, luggage, watches, crap you'll buy but never use and basically anything you can think of is for sale.
We scored some bargains and probably paid too much for other items. I, for one, can't be bothered arguing with some bloke over the equivilant of $2 or $3 Australian dollars. I'm more likely to talk a guy down from $20 to $12, give hime a $20 and tell him to keep the change. I'm seriously that lazy.
Oh, wow. It must be dinner time. Do yourself a favour and visit a small eatery called Good Satay. Guess what they serve? Yeah, Satay. How do you reckon it was? Got it in one: Good.
And all for less than about AUD$20. Score. After dinner, there's always time for more shopping and markets.
You've probably guess by now that HK is awesome. In fact, our whole holiday has been awesome. Slowly it draws to an end, which we're really not thinking about too much because we're having such a great time. Missing you all back home - keep checking for another few updates before you all have to put up with our lengthy and boring story and photo sessions.
Finally, the lesson for the day. China food is poison. Don't buy is clever.
WTF?
t+e
Amazing/ridiculous casinos.
Cambodian temples. Scrap that, can we just say Cambodia?
Amazing food.
Learning how to cook amazing food.
Lazy Vietnamese shopkeepers.
Disney's Hollywood Hotel.
Rock n roll Buddhas.
Canoeing on Halong Bay.
Crazy Vietnamese traffic.
Birds that belong on pirate ships.
Skyscrapers.
Pandas.
Beer.
Giant beer.
Emmie-lou drinking a giant beer.
Pandas... in cobs of corn?
Boat trips.
Apple broadening their horizons - in HK, they even sell jeans! I wonder if they call them iJeans?
Disneyland!
Well fans, that's pretty much it from us and our holiday. We've had the most amazing time - met amazing people, done amazing things, eaten amazing food, but now it's time to head on home and think about getting back to reality (if our stupid plane will ever board). Thanks to all our regular readers and casual visitors. We hope we were able to relay some of the enjoyment of our adventure through the wonder of the internets. We look forward to beer and bbq's with you all in the very near future. Oh, and if my boss is reading this, can I have another couple of weeks off? I don't really feel like coming back to work.
