Lamma Island

Last weekend I went to Lamma Island with a few co-workers. The plan for the day was to be lazy and sit in the sun. The +33 sun. Fun! We rented an umbrella on the main beach to keep from melting. Other than sitting on the main beach, which is hardly worth mentioning as a beach as it is ridiculously filthy, there are a few other things to do on Lamma.The main ''attraction" would have to be the big wind turbine. You can walk right up to it and feel it vibrate as it spins wildy out of control. Actually it stops when the wind is too strong. Also from the top of the hill where the turbine sits is a good view of the rear-side of HK Island. Please note the blue sky, it does not happen often. (usually only after 2 weeks of solid rain)Here is a list of things you can't do on Lamma. About all you're permitted to do is sit on your ass and be quiet. Oh feel free to clean up after all the dirty hippies though. (Lamma is known as Hippie Town by some HKers)Walking up the path to the turbine we saw this funny leaf which looked like it was floating/dancing in the air. Turns out it was caught in a huge spider web spun by one of the many gigantic spiders that inhabit this part of the island.

Hong Kong International Art Fair 08

HK's biggest art event of the year took place a couple of weeks ago. It was a mass gathering of over 100 galleries from something like 20 countries. The work for sale ranged in variety, with prices anywhere from $7K - $250million HKD. This wasn't your average art sale.

We saw many familiar works, as well as a lot of new things coming out of China I had never looked at. This was my first actual 'art fair' and I have to say I don't think it's the best way to sell art that's for sure. It was fun to look, but the quantity and variety would turn off most first time art buyers. I suppose that's what the private VIP opening was for, the people with real money.

Lei Yue Mun - Seafood 'Bizarre'

Sunday we 'tried' to go for seafood at one of the popular local seafood places. Lei Yue Mun is right across the harbour from HK Island on the Far-East side of Kowloon. We took a short ferry ride over and then the fun began.

The look of the fishing village was pretty much what I expected, but it was a little more crowded than I thought it might be. Also it was very smelly, like fish - big surprise! The idea of Lei Yue Mun is that you go look at the large tanks of sea creatures and pick out what you want to eat. I had read that you didn't 'need' to do this, but it was popular. I don't know a whole lot about how to choose anything from the ocean, so I was thinking we could just order off a menu. Wrong! The place we went had menus, but no prices, and it didn't clearly explain the cooking fees if you did bring food. Our waiter spoke zero English when we asked about how we were supposed to bring our own fish. Feeling a little out of place and knowing I was going to get badly ripped off most likely, we decided to eat somewhere else. Although we didn't end up eating in Lei Yue Mun, the experience was interesting. Huge tanks line the sides of a very narrow alley-like pathway of seafood stalls. Again, not knowing how to buy fresh seafood, and given most people spoke no English didn't exactly make me too comfortable.

I'm sure regularly it's a great place to eat, but I'd only go again if my friend(s) spoke some Cantonese to help out. It was interesting that the seafood hawkers were only talking to me whilst ignoring the locals. That really made me feel like I would get totally ripped on the price. Oh well, next time, next time...

Lots and lots of fish. Some small, some massive. If you like creepy crawlies, this is the place for you.

Local transportation/housing.

Welcome to Ping Chau

Ping Chau is a small Island located in the far North-East regions of Hong Kong. It is actually closer to China, much much closer. So close, that they have immigration boats circling around to make sure people are not swimming away from China to escape. To ride the ferry back to mainland HK, two police officers checked everyone's ID. There is another island in Hong Kong called Peng Chau, so a 'Tung' has been added to make it Tung Ping Chau to avoid confusion. The island is a whopping 2km across, so it can be hiked rather easily. Without taking photos I don't see any reason why it would take more than an hour to walk around. We were there the whole day, so everyone took their time taking photos and exploring some of the interesting rock features around the island.

While we were waiting for the return ferry, members of our group decided to spontaneously start jumping. Maybe they got too much sun?

It's a very nice island, although it take at least 1.5 hours to get there. That's how long the ridiculous slow ferry took. A speedboat would maybe take 20 minutes. Also the ferry departs from University Station, which is about an hour away from HK Island East. We had to wake up quite early in order to catch the morning ferry. The water on TPC is very clean, aside from the side that faces China which is littered with trash everywhere. The south side is much much nicer. >more Photos

Don't do this in Tung Ping Chau.

So let me get this straight, as long as I'm authorized, it's perfectly fine to spear-fish while water-skiing being pulled behind a water scooter, and I have to make sure I'm not enjoying myself? I'd like to see that waiver form...

Ng Tung Chai Waterfall - Tai Mo Shan Park

There are many small waterfalls in HK, but Ng Tung Chai is supposed to be the biggest in the country park of Tai Mo Shan. It also gets some of the most rain in HK. After getting lost in the small village of Ng Tung Chai, we finally found the start of the trail up to the waterfalls. Maybe it's because I can't read Chinese, but I'm pretty sure the trail was not very well marked in the village. I was expecting it to be jam packed because it was Sunday, but the trail was quite dead. There are 4 waterfalls in all, and it took about 1.5 hours of hiking/stopping/photos/eating to get to the top. If you were just hiking up it would probably only take 30 minutes if you were quick. The 4th waterfall is also 'closed' due to a landslide, but the trail remains marked with a warning to proceed at one's own risk. Having hiked in the Rockies in a snowstorm or two, I'm pretty sure it would not have been to bad, but we didn't go past the 3rd as we were already sweating too much. The picture above is from the 2nd/Middle waterfall. Also I saw a nice green snake trying to hide. It freaked Mai out, but I remember reading somewhere that there are not any poisonous snakes in HK, except for pets who have been let out in the wild maybe. There were many small lizards, and birds everywhere who are very noisy. All in all a great place to hike, but it does take awhile to get there from HK Island. It was very hot and humid, but lots of shade. The rain makes the trail very slippery, but the waterfall gets bigger after a nice rainfall. Bring lots of water!

Directions: Find your way to Tai Po Market MTR station. From there, the bus 64K will take you to Ng Tung Chai. Most of the buses now have electronic displays of the upcoming stops in Cantonese and English so that is very helpful. I believe it was the 18th stop. Once off the bus, follow the small windy paved road (about 20m from the bus stop) up the hill to the town of Ng Tung Chai. The hiking trail is on the right hand side of the road walking up from the highway. It may be marked but not in English. The trail is paved up until a large temple/shrine. Past the shrine there is a map showing the two trails up to the waterfalls. It would be nice if this map was at the bottom of the hill! If you get lost, draw a picture of a waterfall and I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction.

Hong Kong Hikes

Lately I've had a bit of the hiking bug. There's so many places in Hong Kong worth exploring I feel as if I haven't even seen most of the New Territories. During the Easter holiday, we went hiking in Sai Kung, out towards the eastern shoreline to a place called Tai Long Wan. This is a picture just up the hill from Sai Wan Beach. I also posted more photos of the area on my photoblog as well.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to another area in the NTs, close to Tai Po. It's called Tai Mo Shan country park, and it's home to the tallest peak in Hong Kong. It's not big by mountain standards, but there is frost there quite often. I'm hoping we can find the place called Ng Tung Chai waterfalls. They're supposed to the best, and some of the only, waterfalls in HK.

Sai Wan Beach- Sai Kung Country Park

A few weeks ago I hiked to this beach in the Sai Kung East Country park. The area is known for being one of the most natural and clean areas in Hong Kong. The water on the beach is actually clear! The day I went was slightly hazy, but you could tell the air was much cleaner than somewhere closer to HK Island. It took quite awhile to hike into this particular beach, but there is also a road that I will know to take a taxi next time. Also close to this beach is the Tai Long Wan stretch of beaches. I didn't make it there this time, but I hope to go back soon. It is supposed to be the nicest beach in Hong Kong and least crowded. It takes about 1-2 hours to hike into depending on how you go. I don't recommend climbing over the hills to get there, it takes a good 3 hours as I found out.

Chinese New Year "Flower" Market

Victoria Park has a massive market set up every Chinese New Year that consists of everything from tangerine trees to inflatable condom cushions. I still don't see the connection.

This year we decided to go on the weekend, again. A bad decision, again. It wasn't as busy as last time we went, it was MORE busy. The huge crowd made it virtually impossible to see anything the vendors were trying to sell. I think I saw a couple flowers wedged in somewhere.

The only thing I could really get a glimpse of were all the various types of balloons floating around. This year lacked inflatable rats, I was dissapointed. Last year's Pig creations were much more entertaining.

Walking on The Great Wall of China!

We made it! After a rather interesting morning we finally had a chance to see the Great Wall of China! The section we went to was the Badaling leg. Rumour has it parts of it are somewhat "fake" or slightly over-renovated, but it's still impressive. The two hours we had to walk it were once-in-a-lifetime steps - it's still hard to believe we were actually on it.

The Great Pull-Car of China

Before I post any pictures from our walk along the Great Wall, you must see how we got up to the top of the section we visited. Walking perhaps? Nope. We took a "pull-car." Our tour guide had described it as a "cable-car" which would mean floating in the air usually, so I thought it was hilarious when we arrived to take this thing up the hill.

I enjoyed how it was lit with nice colorful neon lights in the tunnel.

There were random signs telling you "Do not get off!"

This thrill ride took about 7 minutes. The Great Wall is quite long so you can't really get to "The Top." It goes up and down and up and down many many times. Some parts much higher or steeper than others. We went to the Badaling section, which had a theoretical "top" you could climb to. We would not have had enough time without the help of the amazing pull-car/cable-car wannabe.

I think the Wall is losing some of it's mystique. The people who built it would be rolling in their graves at the state of things now.

Thumbs down to NowTV

I am being forced to watch 'unlawful,' 'copyrighted,' 'broadcasts' over the internet of the 'Rugby World Cup' because my 'cable provider' didn't fess up enough dough to secure the event. It boggles my mind how the arcaic iCableTV got the rights here in HK. No one has iCableTV anymore, it sucks! Unless you want to camp out at a pub all night for 40 nights there's no way to watch it on TV.

Our TV is still in pink-vision so it doesn't matter too much because it is painful to watch the screen anyway. 1 more month until new Sony! mmmmmm....HDTV!

On a side note Mai and I went to the mega mega Megabox Mall yesterday. It's damned MEGA! I have never seen such a huge mass of retail space in my life. It is a total of 18 floors dedicated to mostly shops and restaurants. They also have a full size ice-hockey rink, an IMax, a regular movie theatre, and this store called B+Q. Anyone who knows what B+Q is will already be scratching their heads as to why it is in Hong Kong. It is pretty much the equilvalent of HomeDepot meets Ikea. And guess what? It's on the 4-5 floors! You can imagine the fun people have in carrying full sized sheets of plywood down the elevator and onto the MTR. This store makes no sense in HK. Even if you paid for the delivery why would anyone shopping on the 4-5th floor of a hi-tech shopping mall need a huge 26" circular saw or buzz-grinder? Lucky for them they also have many other departments other than lumber and power tools. You can also get a bathroom fixture the size of our living room. In case you don't mind walking through the shower on your way out it might make sense.

Updates from July!

Before I left for Canada I did a walk around of our neighbourhood and had forgot to post these pictures. The photo below is of our area called Kornhill. It is made up of approximately 20 buildings all around 30 stories.

In the picture below you can see our building on the left and behind it is Mt.Parker. There are many trails and you can climb up to the top, and continue on all the way to Tai Tam Reservoir if you like, it's only a couple hours hike.

This is what one the pathways look like. They are relatively well kept considering the jungle nature and vast amount of vegetation over-growing the trails.

Below is one of many barbecue areas along the paths. Here you can have a fire or just a quick picnic. They are very frequent with at least 5 barbecue areas along the way to the top of the mountain.

This is about as far away as you can get from skyscrapers on the Island. The views are quite nice and it actually feels a bit like you are out in nature away from the hustle and bustle.

Also back in July Mai and I went for a bike ride around the Taipo area. We rented a weird 3 wheel bike that almost fell apart. It was quite fun and very hot.

Stanley Dragon Boat Races

On June 19th Hong Kong celebrated the 'Dragon Boat Festival.' It's a national holiday in Hong Kong, so everyone has the day off to head to the beach and watch the crazyness that is dragon-boat racing. I'm really not too sure how it worked, but there were many different races around the city/country/whatever it is - pretty much anywhere with water. We watched a few on tv before I headed off to Stanley Beach. The boats on tv had up to 50 people in them, they looked like they would sink! When I got to Stanley the boats were all 20 people per team, so it didn't look as insane, I was dissapointed that none of the teams sank. One boat did crash rather violently into another which made everyone on the beach applaud with laughter. Although it was a mostly fun event, you could tell some teams were a little more prepared and serious than the others.

The photographers were also out in full force. Many of them would stand in the water knee deep to get a few shots of the boats landing on shore after the race. How it worked was the boats raced directly onto the beach, so it was slight caos with 8-9 large boats 'crashing' into a sea of people all at once. There were 3 categories, Mens, Womens, and Mixed, with a seperate category for white dudes and asian dudes. I think this was mainly for weight difference. I didn't stay for the finals as it all started to look the same to me and I only went to get some photos and I was alone and melting in the sun.

I would really recommend this event high up on my list of things you have to do in Hong Kong if you're here in June. Next year I'm even going to try and sign up for a team.

> Photos Here <

Big Buddha Day

Yesterday Mai and I travelled to a land far far away, to see the Big Buddha. How big is he? We weren't quite sure, he was covered in mist most of the day. You'll have to Google for an answer as to how big he actually is. It is the largest sitting Buddha in the world apparantly. The Buddha is located close to the Hong Kong Airport, and takes about 2 hours to get there due to large line ups and crazy mountain roads. There is an option to take a SkyRail cable car up the mountain to the Buddha, but we arrived late (would it have mattered?) and the line to go was 3 hours long. By the time 3 hours has passed it would have been almost dark. We elected to take the roller coaster, er um I mean bus up the mountain. I'm very happy to be alive. Normally HK bus drivers are insane, but just wait until you get them on a one lane slippery mountain road with construction and opposing buses the whole way. Yikes...

Once we arrived at Ngong Ping (village atop the mountain), we climed the few hundred steps up to the sitting big guy. Even though we really didn't get a good look at his entirety, it was impressive still. Being close to the airport, I wondered if there was a blinking red light on his head, but that might not appease the gods. I didn't see one anyway. We looked around the top, and soon Mai was frozen. We walked back down.

Being Hong Kong, the government has managed to turn Ngong Ping into Disneyland # 10 in Hong Kong. There's only one official Disney, but it seems everytime something profitable comes along, they have to turn it into a fake cheesy plastic world of 'new' old buildings. The Ngong Ping village is actually only about 2 years old. And it looks rediculous. It's nothing but a big shopping mall full of fake little Buddha statues you can waste tonnes of money on. Personally I'd rather have my photos.

At least there was something genuinely historic on top of the mountain (aside from the Buddha, which actually isn't that historic being only 25 years old approx.) Also on top of the cloudy mountain is the Po Lin Monastery. I have no idea how old it is, but it was the only thing that looked like it had heritalogical importance. (is that a word?)

Inside was a collection of small buildings and gardens with various monks running around. I was glad to see none of them were begging for money, like the fake monks in Mongkok do. As far as I know these monks were real and probably wished that no one was there poking and prodding there big Buddha. All in the name of money, woohoo tourism. I found all the large incense pots pretty self explanatory, but in case you needed some help, the "Beware of Hot Pot" signs were everywhere. I love culture...

Hong Kong Rugby Sevens!7!

6 months in the making, the wait for the HK Sevens is finally over! The action starts tomorrow night, and doesn't stop until the wee hours of Monday morning! I'm excited.

I ordered my tickets from the'Phoons about 6 months ago, so it feels like it's been a long time coming. For anyone who doesn't know what the Hong Kong Sevens is, it's a 3 day International Rugby tournament between about 30 nations. Each team has 7 players, hence Sevens. It's a fast paced game with lots of scoring and the games are only 14 minutes, so to win you have to score quick and often.

From what I understand, all the Non-Local Locals (white people) gather in the south stands of the stadium (it's general seating for 40,000 people) and have one big party.

This is the biggest event of the year in Hong Kong. It's sold out before it's sold out. The only way to get tickets is you have to play rugby, or get really lucky or know someone. I happen to play for a local club, so getting tickets was easy. Considering it's a 3 day tournament/festival, this is by far the best bang for your buck in Hong Kong. I might change my mind when I've spent a few thousand on booze for the weekend, but hopefully it won't sting that bad.

And for anyone complaining about my photos not being updated, I will bring my camera for at least one of the three days.

Chinese New Year Parade! Awesome busy crazy police defying goodness!

Last night was the New Year night-parade. I was expecting the huge crowd, but not the stupidity offered up by Hong Kong police all night. More on that later...

The parade was amazing. I have never seen so many different types of groups all in one parade with so much energy. There was everything from dragons to NFL cheerleaders from Arizona. I'm not sure why they were there. At least they wore red. Most enjoyable were the 4-5 different lion and dragon dance teams. They moved so fast and intensely it was hard to focus my eyes or my camera for that matter. Other groups included bagpipes, ballet dancers, disney characters, light bulb head people? weird... there were many groups from around Asia as well. The Korean and Japanese groups were fun and didn't get into any fights as a bonus. So many floats, so many people, so many different shades of red.

As for the buffoons heading up HK police. (It is the year of the pig afterall) For some insane reason, it was impossible to cross the two biggest roads in TST. I realize they were the parade route, but there are at least 20 different ways of crossing that don't involve going on the actual road (subways etc.) I decided I would take the ferry to the parade as it was the fastest way. What this meant was when I arrived in TST I was basically unable to move. They had blocked off almost any way of moving from the ferry pier to the parade and the amounts of people only grew as more ferries came in. For some dumb reason you could not get across to the other sides where the parade was actually happening. It's difficult to describe, but basically the police pissed off a vast amount of people for no good reason other than 'safety', but people falling into the harbour due to over-crowding is safer I guess.

In order to watch the parade, I had to walk through a 10 block long mall past the parade route, go through some weird back alley of a hotel that was being used to shuttle hotel patrons from the hotel because the front entrance was blocked (can you say fire hazard?) go underneith an overpass, up and over another overpass which thankfully was blocked off to traffic, and walk up the hill to where I ended up watching the parade at its midpoint. A lot of effort for arriving more than an hour early. My final viewing point was on top of a medion of the highway where the parade route turned around on, so it was quite perfect for viewing. I am proud to say I was the first person to climb on the medion, and about 1000 others followed. Lucky for me as the police were quick to tell everyone to get down. Let's just say it didn't work. About 5 people actually climbed down, some kneeled, haha, and when the police walked on ahead everyone just jumped back up. We watched the first 10 minutes of the parade and were told to get down again. This time no-one got off and the police didn't make a fuss. My excuse was I didn't speak Cantonese. About 30 minutes later the original police guys came by and did absolutely nothing about us all climbing up. Good enforcement boys. I wouldn't have had a problem getting off, as I was one of the only people who could see over the medion, but since no one budged I didn't mind following the crowd.

The parade lasted almost 2 hours, a tad more than the original 1 hour estimated. Let's just say I have no idea how all the fancy buildings got built here. No one seems to have a clue about organization.

And the most amazing thing of the night... the crowd that took 2 hours to build up was nicely dispersed in about 20 minutes.

I didn't take many photos as my lens selection was not the greatest for the front row seat I had, but here's a few I took. Also I video-taped most of the groups, and got some awesome footage. Check back in about a week and I might have a video done.

Happy New Year!

P.S. The fireworks were wet... to be continued

Yuen Po Bird Condo

Mai and I went to the Yuen Po St. Bird Garden. The birds there are fancy, they live in condos.

Wong Tai Sin

Every Wednesday and Friday I walk by this temple on my way to school. Other than what it was called, I didn't know what Wong Tai Sin Temple was or even how big it was. Today I decided after 3 months to finally take a peak. It is actually a pretty cool place. Usually I find stuff like this to be typical 'touristy stuff', but the temple was anything but. There was no question I was the only white guy in the place, and probably the only one who spoke English. For the middle of the week it was quite crowded, more than I usually noticed. The temple consists of a few buildings and some nice gardens. Today there were hundreds of people burning incense with many people holding bundles of up to 20 sticks at a time. They would place the bundles in various spots (little hut-like structures) and many of them were focusing on the main alters of the temple. I don't know yet if this was a special day/week, if it has anything to do with Christmas(likely not) or most likely something to do with New Year's or the season changing. Usually there will be a few people burning incense, when you get off the MTR there are street vendors selling them, but today seemed unique with the large crowds. The oddest thing I saw was a man carrying a full sized pig on a wooden board, wrapped in red celophane. He was taking it towards the main temple. I must find out why...

More pictures >>> here.

Update: 10 Seconds on Google Reveals.....

Haha! I feel somewhat silly. According to most sites, this is one of the biggest temples in all of Hong Kong. And I walk by it every week and didn't know it's significance. Wow, funny stuff. I guess a lot of mainland Chinese people hold the temple in really high-regard, and the incense burning has to do with connecting to the spirits (I sorta knew that) Here's some proper info:

"Wong Tai Sin Temple, a Taoist temple established in 1921, is one of the most famous temples in Hong Kong. It is also renowned among overseas Chinese in Southern Asia, Europe, and America.

Wong Tai Sin Temple is named after Wong Chuping. When Wong Chuping was 15, he began to follow Taoism. Forty years later, he achieved enlightenment and became immortal. People called him Wong Tai Sin from then on. It is said that he punishes evils, heals the wounded, and rescues the dying. The influence of Wong Tai Sin spread from Guangdong Province to Hong Kong in the early 20th century. With his mercy and his power, he is said to grant whatever is requested."

That would explain all the kneeling and begging.

"Wong Tai Sin Temple is known for its fortune-telling. The fortune sticks (or lots) in Wong Tai Sin Temple are very accurate. Many people who visit the temple come to have their fortunes told. Generally, worshippers entreat the fate of the same year. They light worship sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder containing fortune sticks until one falls out."

Cool. I saw so many people doing this, and had no idea what they were doing. It looked like a game of sorts.

"The stick is exchanged for a piece of paper bearing the same number, and the soothsayer then interprets the fortune on the paper for the worshipper. Wong Tai Sin has many worshippers in Hong Kong, so the joss sticks and candles burn exuberantly all year round, especially during the Chinese Lunar New Year and Wong Tai Sin's birthday - the 23rd day of the eighth lunar month."

Hmmm, this doesn't explain why so busy today, but I guess it is a tourist spot, so maybe it is because of Christmas and the New Year. (Not Chinese New Year Yet)

"Wong Tai Sin Temple is also called Sik Sik Yuen. The architecture of Wong Tai Sin Temple is in the traditional Chinese temple style: grand red pillars, a magnificent golden roof adorned with blue friezes, yellow latticework, and resplendent multi-colored carvings. Aside from the Daxiong-baodian or Grand Hall, Sansheng Hall and the Good Wish Garden are also worth seeing. Also at the temple are the Nine Dragon Wall--a replica of the renowned Nine Dragon Wall in Beijing, and the Good Wish Garden - a miniature copy of Beijing's Summer Palace."

Hmmm, I didn't see this, I'll have to go back.

"Additionally, Wong Tai Sin Temple is the only temple that offers facilities for wedding ceremonies in Hong Kong."

Hahahaha. Of course! It's Hong Kong. Well that was a cool history lesson. Maybe I should find things out a little sooner so I know what's around me. That's the problem with Hong Kong. The goverment is so dead set on distroying it's history, that any that remains is usually hidden quite well behind some large skyscrape or a shopping mall. This temple, by the way, is right on top of an MTR station (that means they either moved the temple, or the MTR was built under it) and a mall is across the road... sigh...

Source:Travel China Guide

Ocean Park

Ocean Park - Sunday December 17th.

Mai and I finally decided to go to Ocean Park. We had been planning on going for about 2 months now, but never got around to it, and Mai's friends bailed so we had no one to go with. Except the doll...

For +12ish, it sure was cold outside. The sun was shining as well. Oh what's that?! Oh wow! It's blue sky! I thought I'd never see that in Hong Kong. Actually this is the south side of Hong Kong Island, so it doesn't mean the other side was nice and pollution free. Anyway, back to OP.

The land on which the park is built is almost all on the side(s) of a mountain. It makes for a very cool cable car ride up to the main level, where all the good rides are, as well as dolphins and such. We didn't see the dolphins, but while they were having a show, the park was quite empty so ride lines were short. The best ride was easily the roller coaster. They have two, but the one that goes upside down 3 times was more fun. I used my PanasonicD-Crap to take a short video. It's pretty low res, but I'll see if I can post it before too long. What also makes this roller coaster cool is that it is on the downslope of the mountain. At parts you feel like you're going to fall down the hill. Mai almost lost her shades, but nothing else fell off.

Also in the park we saw some sharks, lots of people taking pictures of sharks, and some people taking pictures of people taking pictures of sharks. All in all, lots of cameras. Other rides we went on were the swings, the big tower turning thing, the 'abys' freefall, a big ship that Mai floated on (haha), and the cool train roller coaster that really felt like it was going to fall apart. The last ride we went on was not so smart, as it was a water-plunge coaster. Ya, I got wet. Mai got more wet, haha. Her boots filled with water, and we were both really cold.

So we treked back up the escaltor (stood idily) and returned to the main entrance to see the jelly fish! Wow, for a tiny little rubbery creature, they sure are cool. We waited in line quute long, but it was worth it. It was like a night club for jelly fish. Very cool. We missed out seeing the panda, as he looked like he was sleeping in his den.

Ocean Park was fun, but it might have been more enjoyable if it was warmer. I might not go out of my way to make sure I went here on a shorter trip to Hong Kong, but if you're staying awhile I would give it a try. The roller coasters and jelly fish are worth it.