There’s no Photo Story posting for Day 4 because I only have a few food photos and a few selfies. We walked around Mong Kok and other areas. It was a free and easy day. In fact, RK and I separated from Alicia and Victor for a local tour by Roy (the local friend we mentioned in Day 1).
On Day 5, we went to Ocean Park, the largest theme park in Asia! I insisted to go to Ocean Park after Disneyland because so many people were saying Ocean Park is better than Hong Kong Disneyland. Let’s see if my friends and I felt the same.
Day 5 – Ocean Park Hong Kong
Look at the clear blue sky! There was Level 1 warning for Level 3 typhoon that day but we were not convinced. Not gonna give up Ocean Park until we see the wind coming!The weather was hot. The dumb me attempted to sit on this old Chinese trishaw and gave my skin a wake up call. As you can see, there’re setups of old Hong Kong. How could my friends keep hurrying to move on without photos? T_TOcean Park is HUGE. We went straight to the cable car to go to the other end of the park where there’s lesser crowd. Counter traffic theory again. Look at the size of the cable car! The smallest I’ve been in. And definitely not the shortest ride.Check out the view~ The cable car was crossing the sides of two hills, allowing us to see life outside the park, on the island, as well as off the island. There were a lot of yachts on the water, to the right of this view.RK was wearing Uniqlo’s Airism under his shirt because he was planning to forget about looking good. He wanted to take off the shirt and wear a white Airism tee around the park when the weather heats up. Learning from Disneyland.This was one of the four park areas in Ocean Park. I think this area had the craziest rides. We warmed up with some chill rides before adventuring into Thrill Mountain (the name of that park).We stumbled upon this huge building and walked in out of curiosity. The aqua animals were housed here! We saw the trainers playing and swimming with the dolphins. There’s actually a dolphin (some grey blurred patch in between my peace sign and the bunch of trainers.And tadah~! Dophins show at the Ocean Theatre. As before, we were not watching out for show schedules (because our planner Alicia was not a fan of shows). We saw crowd filling up the theatre when we were looking down from a ride. LOL.I never learned my lesson. I sat on this burning seat and burned my thigh. Felt the burning for a couple of minutes. Ouch.The mini tech geek in me was thrilled their interactive screen was very engaging. Animated and clear illustrations of reproduction cycle of a shark via xray scan by scrolling across the screen.The thing about Ocean Park is that it has everything: rides, shows, mascots, exhibits, aquariums, zoo, garden, cable car, arcade, etc. Even 3 dolphins made out of flowers.Doesn’t this look like some freaking sci-fi movies? Where they put mutants or humans in huge jars of fluid in some hidden labs… Those are jellyfishes, by the way.I turned into a jellyfish~~~~ See how big my face was compared to the other jellyfish behind me. Well, I followed instructions and looked quite silly.I just want to say that food in Ocean Park is expensive. For a very normal meal, we paid more than the cute meals at Disneyland. So even though Ocean Park ticket was cheaper, the expensive meal made it cost the same as Disneyland.I didn’t understand RK. Every time I saw a mascot, I’d be like, “I want a photo!” He’d be hesitant to queue with me. But when it’s time for photo, he’s extra smiley compared to the other photos we took (without needing to queue). ???This is an important photo. Because it’s the last photo my Nabu X (on my left wrist) was spotted. It came off during the bumper car adventure and we could not find it anymore. And it was RK’s because I decided to accidentally wear his that day and lose it. Oops! Hehe.RK’s selfie during rides continued at Ocean Park. This was before the ride so that we could see how our feet would dangle. This ride was amazing. We thought it would be so scary but it was just enough of thrill. My one-liner comment would be: I saw the world upside down.Don’t remember if it was RK’s or my idea. “Stick your head in there and pretend you’re Winnie the Pooh looking for hunny.”PANDA! Never thought much about seeing panda (because the place is called Ocean Park) but I ended up with a nice photo with panda! Woohoo!There was a collaboration with LINE so Ocean Park was filled with super adorable LINE figurines. There was even a water splash area in conjunction with Summer.I love this photo. Because for whatever reason, RK entertained my antics even though he blocked the panda he was mimicking. Now, how do I rate his pose?We stayed until the Symbio show at night and it was magnificent! RK and I missed Symphony of Lights so according to Alicia and Victor, this laser light and water show was much better than Symphony of Lights. This was an ancient Chinese story of phoenix and dragon. The lake was even set on fire!
I just realized that we took so much lesser photos in Ocean Park than in Disneyland even though Ocean Park is bigger and has more to offer than Disneyland. If only we had more photos of the rides, I’d tell more about:
our waste-of-time first ride on an eagle-shaped capsule,
the awkward experience at The Rapids with a Mainland Chinese couple,
the pirate ship that made Alicia and I feel dizzy,
The Dragon roller coasters that was basically about us hitting our heads against the seat cushion, and
the Mine Train that went 360′ three times because my neck almost broke 3 times.
At Ocean Park, you’d see a lot of teenagers and young adults as opposed to young families in Disneyland. They are of different genre so don’t compare them apple to apple.
To me, Ocean Park Hong Kong is the place you can go over and over again with different groups of friends for the rides and all; it’s like Sunway Lagoon. You’d remember the experience because of the companions that you went with.
On the other hand, Disneyland is the place where you go once and you’d remember it for the rest of your life. If you were to go again, the charm would be different because the charm lies in the experience with the park, rather than the generic fun with your friends and family. It’s like Legoland and Universal Studios.
See the difference?
Hope this blog entry and the previous review on Hong Kong Disneyland is helpful if you’re considering the two theme parks in Hong Kong.
This is my final entry for this Hong Kong Trip Photo Story series because I don’t have enough photos for Day 6 (and a bonus Day 7) but I’d continue writing about my other experiences during this Hong Kong Trip. Stay tuned!
