Saturday 13 June 2009 (Hong Kong)

We have quickly adapted to our new time zone, which saw us rising at around 8:00am to make our plans for the day. We decided that a reasonable weather forecast gave us an opportunity to visit Ocean World. Again using the MTR (which this time went under the strait between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island), connecting to a bus, really showed us how efficient the Hong Kong public transport system is. This also explains why, compared to other big cities, Hong Kong seems to have very light traffic. We bought Octupus cards, which are loaded with money, and can be used on all public transport, as well as convenience stores, fast food outlets, vending machines and suchlike. Once you are finished with the cards, you return them for a refund of your deposit and all money left on them.

The bus ride to Ocean World again showed how much green there is in Hong Kong. There was quite a bit of building upgrading going on, and huge scaffolding towers made entirely of bamboo were being constructed. Looked kind of dangerous, but they were all over the place. 

Ocean World itself was good without being fantastic. It was spread out over a huge area of hillside with massive escalators taking the visitors from one section to the next. The usual rides and animal enclosures were fun and interesting, and a very long gondola ride took us right back to the bottom. A large area of trees had been cut out in the shape of a sea horse on the side of a hill. The highlight though was definitely the panda bears. Poor timing on our behalf saw us miss most of the shows (ie. Sea lion shows etc) however, they were all shows we had seen elsewhere before.

On a side note, although we have only been here for a day and half, we have noticed a distinct lack of roaming wildlife. No lizards, spiders, or stray cats/dogs to be seen.

The combination of heat and a lot of walking sapped our energy fast and necessitated an afternoon rest back at the hotel room to recoup some energy for the evening travels. This coincidentally timed in with the All Blacks game (Isaac‘s debut game) - having the Australia Network channel is proving very useful - even though the game itself  was not great.

Dinner time took us in search of the Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant which, according to the almighty internet, was on the third floor of a building just around the corner from our hotel. Upon arriving there, there was no signage, and the lift in the building only went to floors 5, 7, 9 and 11. Complete confusion led us to look elsewhere and we stumbled upon an Indian restaurant we had passed yesterday but had not been able to find the entrance to (I‘m beginning to sense a theme here). As we walked past today, again looking for the entrance, a hawker approached Jen to which she politely told him “no thanks”, as you do every 20 seconds when walking down the streets. She didn’t realise that this man was actually trying to get us into the very restaurant we were looking for. Anyway, a tasty meal ensued during which I decided that this was my favourite Indian restaurant,  not because of the taste of the food, but simply because they did not serve that sorry excuse for curry, the masquerading cream tomato soup known as butter chicken.

We then went to the Symphony of Lights on the harbour, which is the largest permanent light show in the world. Looking out onto the magnificently lit up Hong Kong Island skyscrapers at night is a remarkable experience in itself so to add to this by making the lights on the buildings dance in time with music makes it truly memorable.

Another quick trip to the market ensued and then wandering the streets taking in the sights, during which a drink was needed every half hour to keep us going, the best of which was made solely from fresh mango and ice.