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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hong Kong Ocean Park and Repulse Bay

Our second day in Hong Kong, we decided to visit Ocean Park and Repulse Bay (浅水弯) only after we had reached Central (中环) MTR Station. Both of the places are located at the southern part of Hong Kong Island. Travelling from Tai Kok Tsui (大角咀) to Central MTR Station was easy. We took a 10 minutes walk from our hotel (Tai Kok Tsui Bridal Tea House) to Olympic (奥运) MTR Station, took the train to Hong Kong Station, followed by a few minutes walk through the underground pedestrian walkway to Central MTR Station.

The more tricky part was to find the bus terminal at Central Station. Following the signage was not everything. We had a hard time to believe that the terminal which was badly illuminated, greasy, filled with exhaust smoke, and only with a few people was in fact, the Central Bus Terminal (the feeling was so far away from clean, fully air-conditioned, and packed with people at Central MTR Station). Then, we were misled to the wrong bus, and was been told to get down from the bus by the driver in a very rude way, after both our parents had paid HKD10.60 each for the fare (scanned their Octopus Card with HKD10.60 charged). We dealt with the customer service officer later to get to the right bus. But, we couldn't claim the money back anymore. We shared more of our experience about Hong Kong Transportation System in our Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen post.

Despite a few try-and-error over the ticketing system and the impolite bus driver, our journey from Central Station to Repulse Bay was a pleasant one. We enjoy the scenery across Hong Kong Island, starting from the highly densed northern area, to the full-of-nature southern area.

Repulse Bay is basically a beach with coarse sand, packed with many locals and some tourists. The beach is one of the popular location for the locals to spend their weekends, picnic and enjoy the sea breeze. The bay is well protected by a few islands nearby. In our opinion, although it is a popular site which has been listed in many local tours, the beach is far from being an excellent one. In our country, we have many beautiful beaches, such as those located in Langkawi, Pangkor, Sabah, Sarawak, and Terengganu, which are much nicer than Repulse Bay. Regretted? Definitely no! At least we had seen the place. By the way, Repulse Bay is the area where many rich and famous in Hong Kong reside.

The bus fare from Central Bus Terminal to Repulse Bay was around HKD6.60 per person per trip. Please check this site for the latest fare. The journey took us around 30 minutes. Please be noted that Repulse Bay is a big area with a few bus stops. The beach that we visited is located at Repulse Bay Beach Stop (浅水弯沙滩).

We could see people were gathering at the beach. It was 10 am in the morning.

We turned right on the same spot as the previous photo, and this was what we saw.

We went to Ocean Park after we made a short stay at Repulse Bay. By taxi, we took less than 10 minutes to reach the park, with a fare around HKD30. The entrance fee for the park was HKD280 per person (around RM112).  We were requested to went through security cheek-point where we were requested to open our bags for checking, before we could proceed to the ticketing counter. Ocean Park is a conservation-themed amusement park. We like the conservation part- the pandas, red pandas, sea lions, dolphins, birds, fish, and many more, while we ignored the thrilling games such as the roller coasters in the park.

This is what we saw at the entrance of Ocean Park.

A big lake (upper left and lower right), fountains, the Grand Aquarium (upper right), and a few huge ballons (lower left) were the things that caught our attention, right after we entered the park.

Photo taken in The Grand Aquarium.

Panda (upper left) and red panda (upper right) are really cute! We took our opportunity to take photo with the panda (lower left), while our parents were attracted by the beautiful landscape of the exhibits.

The kids' area (upper left), the Old Hong Kong Street (upper right), Emerald Trail (lower right) and the cable car that connects the Waterfront and the Summit of the park.

There were several animal shows in the park. 

We strolled around the Waterfront for a few hours. Then, we used the cable car to go to the Summit of the park.

This is how Deep Water Bay looks like from the cable car.

Our first ride on the Summit was the Ocean Park Observatory Tower.

The Summit Plaza and the surrounding area of the park from the observatory tower.

The Pacific Pier from the observatory tower.

California Sea Lions at the Pacific Pier.

Nice view of the Ocean Theatre by South China Sea. For us, the dolphin's show was the best animal show in the park. 

Ocean Park is a must visit place in Hong Kong. It worth the money paid, especially for taking a look on the cute pandas and the red pandas. The park is big, we can easily spend a whole day inside the park. The food and drinks are expensive inside the park (which is about thrice the normal price). We spent more than more than HKD300 inside, just for the drinks, some snacks, and a simple lunch. So, bringing our own food and drinks from outside might be a good idea. Comfortable shoes is essential of a whole day's walk, and bringing an umbrella or a hat is necessary to counter the unforgiving blazing sun.  The weather was hot and humid during our visit. So, we went into the air-conditioned areas (animal exhibits, souvenir shops and restaurants) once in a while to cold ourselves down. You can visit the official site of Ocean Park here for more information.

We came out from the park around 5:30 pm. We went to Admiralty MTR Station from Ocean Park using the bus service. From there, we went to Mong Kok Station for our dinner before we took a taxi back to our hotel. Third day, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland. Click here to follow us now! Our complete itinarary for 7 days 6 nights in Hong Kong is here.



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