Day 2: Ocean Park and LKF

6^th December 2013

Although Leo and Em originally had their heart set on visiting Disneyland on their second day in HK, I managed to convince them on take a trip to Ocean Park instead.

At just over half the price, but double the size, consisting of an awesome combinations of animals, aquariums and a theme park; they changed their minds.

Especially when I mentioned pandas 😉

Obviously food was our first stop of the day.

The Old Hong Kong area recreates what it says on the tin…

…with some awesome vintage adverts decorating the scene!

We all had fried noodles with a side of rice rolls smothered in soy, hoisin, sesame and chili sauce, yum!

The food is surprisingly cheap for a theme park, only costing $25(about £2) each!

After lunch, we visited the Grand Aquarium.

They have some pretty cool sea-life in there, but it’s a shame that people push and shove to get near the tank, take a photo with their flash on (despite the copious signs advising against it) and move onto the next one. They don’t seem to have any interest in the well-being of these creatures at all

Anyway, on a more positive note…how adorable are these?!

Next stop was the highly anticipated panda enclosure!

This was the first time that Leo had ever seen one, look how excited she is! ^.^

After passing a room full of strange looking fish…

…we popped into the panda-themed gift shop!

We bumped into an old friend on the way to the cable car.

Having had our fill of food, fish and pandas, we took a very scenic ride on a cable car over to the other side of the park.

This is the side with the rides, so our first stop was a water ride called The Rapids, to cool us down.

We happened to share a boat with some really rude Mainlanders who kept pointing at Leo’s boobs and tattoos (she’s so sexy). One of them even whacked her camera out to take a photo without permission!

Here we are at the end of the ride…

We also visited the other enclosures, featuring seals, sea lions and walruses which was rad!

This is my favourite ride, so of course we went on it (even if it is meant to be a kid’s rollercoaster, I still screamed the whole way round. Twice).

I had a little wander around the park, while Leo and Em went on a real rollercoaster.

All those drops and going upside down…no thanks!

At closing time, we made our way over to Sheung Wan to meet Ryan for dinner at Tapas a’Peel. Hidden away down a side street on Hollywood Road, with only a French restaurant and an artsy little bar for company, we popped into the candle-lit restaurant.

We ordered lots! I recall Piri Piri chicken skewers; patatas bravas in a spicy, tomato sauce; garlic prawns in spicy olive oil; avocado, Italian vine tomato and mozzarella in a lemon dressing; a garlic loaf with rosemary and sea salt; a sun-dried tomato and olive loaf.

My personal favourites were the incredibly cheesy and delicious smoky anchovy pizza:

And everyone’s favourite was the fresh mango wrapped in Prosciutto ham with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar!

SO GOOD!  😀

Although there were a couple of stand-out dishes, the food was a little over-priced for the small portion sizes and average taste.

Nevertheless, I still had a great (third) birthday meal! 😀

After dinner, we popped into Al’s Diner in LKF to meet Ness and Rico for a few belated birthday drinks!

Rico generously bought us all jello shots!

I swear no one can eat these glamorously…a local must’ve seen us struggling and showed us exactly how its done.

Apparently the trick is to stick your toothpick in the inner side of the cup, circle the jelly a few times, squeeze it onto your hand and eat it whole!

I left them for a minute to take a phone call somewhere a tad quieter and when I got back Ry had bought these amazing glasses from one of the many ‘party-merchandise’ sellers floating around.

$20 well spent 😉

Big thanks to Ry, Leo, Em, Rico and Ness for a great belated birthday do! 😀

 

xxx