It was a rainy day on Monday 11.08.08 in Hong Kong, and the rain here is really ‘long winded’… it basically went on and on for the whole day. I was sort of kicking myself for choosing the day to visit, and I can’t not go because I will be flying off on the 12.08.08. Despite that, there was surprisingly a lot of people in Ocean Park – many of them Chinese nationals and I must say Chinese tourists must have brought in a lot of foreign income for Hong Kong.

Personally speaking, I don’t see that many people neither in the Singapore Zoological nor the Jurong Bird Park when I was there. In fact, when I visited the Bird Park some time ago, it was also raining and there wasn’t a lot of people. And what do I think of it? With hotels mostly concentrated in the CBD area, where the shopping centres are located, getting to these locations is a pain. No one would really make their way to these places except for those on package tours, considering that it takes more than an hour to get to any of these places by MRT or bus. For me to go to Ocean Park from my hotel in Mongkok took me about 1 hour, that’s including fumbling my way to the wrong MTR station, wasting time to find out where is the bus stop and what bus to take, and missing my stop which required me to walk an extra 10 minutes in the rain.

Ocean Park seems part zoo, part theme park to me. There are roller coasters, hot air balloon, a cable car ride and a lot of carnival like stuff. Then there are pandas on display, Chinese Sturgeons in a really miniature version of Sentosa’s underwater world, a large 3 level aquarium with many sharks, sting rays and deep sea fishes, and a special room dedicated to all sort of jelly fishes all rolled into one. I think if not for the proximity of Macau, the HK SAR government gahmen should just put up a casino in it too just like what ours did with Sentosa.

My personal suggestion is… don’t go on a rainy day, because it drives everyone in doors and you can’t stand long holding up a camera to take photos without someone bumping into you and spoiling your shot, and don’t go alone, because you need someone to hold your stuff when you go try the roller coasters and stuff.

I reached there around 1pm and I was only 50% done with the place when I had to leave at 6:15pm to rush back to Central Hong Kong to meet a friend for dinner. I would say it’s a place worth going if you are going in a group for a day of fun in the sun.