Tanggera: The Ocean Park Hong Kong Experience

I haven't had the chance to visit Manila's own Ocean Park, but I was lucky enough to experience Ocean Park Hong Kong a couple of days ago with my mom and sister. I thought, "Oh yeah, boring.. Ocean Park, what's there to see other than marine life?" I was dead wrong.

What I saw at Ocean Park HK after the jump.

Okay, first of all, if you're planning on going to HK, don't miss Ocean Park. It's one of the most kick-ass places ever - and I'm not even talking about the marine life yet. The sheer size of the marine-themed park did not even compute in my head, as the tour guide handed us a copy of the park's guide map. The map could be a bit misleading about the distances. Remember to bring an umbrella or a cap, wear rubber shoes or comfy foot wear. It's really hot out there, there's no wind of any kind and you'll do a lot of walking.

Six hours is not enough to explore the entirety of Ocean Park. Visitors who have the energy to spend the entire day there should arrive at 9:30 AM and leave at 8 PM. You may also plan your Ocean Park trip by checking out their website for shows (believe me, you don't wanna miss these) and other performances.

Here's what we did at Ocean Park:

Hover for captions.

10:45 AM - Show: The Illusion Trio at the Amazing Bird Theatre

These three are pretty sneaky. The first 5-7 minutes of the show was so-so, but they actually pulled off this trick that I'm still trying to figure out up until now how in the world they did it. Rating: 3/5

11:00 AM - Show: Tropical Parade at Sky Fair

Dancers dressed like peacocks and high jumpers gave everyone a pretty entertaining 20-minute show. You may also try buying snacks and beverages as shops and other knick knacks are inside the Sky Fair area. Rating: 3/5

11:15 AM - Bungee Trampoline

If the Chinese would have allowed us to make nice poses while we were on the air, we would have entertaining photos, I swear. They might not look like the ones on "Girls Jumping on Trampoline" on the Man Show though. We coerced our mom to try this one out for our own entertainment. LOL. Rating: 3.5/5

12:00 NN - Sea Lion Fun Time Show at Whiskers Theatre

This bit made going to Ocean Park one of the best experiences in my entire life. I mean, this is my first time to see a real, gliding and grunting sea lion! I'm that shallow, sorry, but large marine creatures are fun to look at. I sure hope they can make this one more interactive. Rating: 5/5

12:30 NN - Giant Panda Adventure

The aquarium outside the Panda Sanctuary lies a bad-ass fish

The Sea Lion was completely PWND right after I saw two live giant sleeping Pandas and two very awake cuddly brown baby Pandas. Luckily, I got to shoot the baby Panda while it was going up the tree. I swear everyone leaned against the railing like they wanted to fall off just to get a good photo. I was so naive, I even asked the nice lady out front if what they had were just cartoon Pandas.

1:00 PM - Cable Car Ride

Mum's shit scared

So, we marched off to the Cable car section to go from the Lowlands to the Headlands, where the amusement rides are. I'm generally scared of heights, I just hide the fact that I really really want to scream and piss on the seat everytime I'm on a ferris wheel. So, I thought that a cable car ride wasn't really that scary. Much to my surprise, I discovered that Ocean Park sat right smack in the middle of a mountain while riding that cable car. We were hovering over a god damned mountain, while looking out the ocean - it a nice view alright, but the cable car was so shaky I nearly cursed every damned curse there is on the dictionary.

1:30 PM - Search for food

We were expecting to see Mcdonald's right after we got off the cable car, but it was like 10 minutes away! We didn't wanna eat in because we wanted to get on all the rides before being picked up at 4:30 PM. After walking for an inhumanely long time, we decided to get some weird pseudo-American food because Mcdonald's just had take-aways and had a really long line.

2:00 PM - Coral Reef Atoll

I haven't been to the Ocean Park here in Manila because most of my friends say it wasn't worth the ticket price. Ocean Park HK's coral reef atoll is a huge four-floor (maybe five) glass aquarium with cute little aquariums on the side. Visitors get to see the top floor first, with a view of what looks like a sea with a little island on it. As you go down to the lower floors, you'll see sharks, sting rays and other huge-ass marine life. It was breathtaking. Rating: 5/5

3:00 PM - Amusement Rides

My sister was excited to ride the roller coaster. I was too ~~chicken~~ tired to go on any longer without some refreshments (we bought two bottles of coke for $25 HK each !#@$%!), while she thoroughly enjoyed getting thrown up and about. My sister said there was one time on the coaster when she thought she was going to get gobbled up by the sea. I think it was a good decision on my part to not have subjected myself to something like that. LOL. Their version of the popular Enchanted Kingdom ride, Anchors Away, is called the Crazy Galleon and it wasn't particularly scary. What I appreciate about OP's rides is that they have baskets for your things. We didn't get on the Mine Train because we didn't wanna get wet and we were too tired from walking.

4:00 PM - Bird Sanctuary and the Flamingos

We got a bit lost and ended up at the bird sanctuary. At the foot of the sanctuary, there's a large man-made lake where we got to see about fifty to a hundred flamingos. We even got to see them fight! Ha ha! Rating: 3/5

4:30 PM - Souvenir item shopping and photo-ops

Ocean Park is littered with souvenir shops, but the one near the entrance has almost all the items you can find. They have the staple key chains, bags, t-shirts and stuffed toys. You can buy Panda keychains for $45 to $60 HK and stuffed toys for about $150 to $200 HK.

More photos in my Multiply album.

I don't know if Ocean Park was made for children, but hell, three of us adults enjoyed it thoroughly just like little kids. If I'm going back to Ocean Park Hong Kong, I'd definitely go on the coaster, the raging river, and the mine train. And for $680 HK, I hope I get to go on the Dolphin Encounter.

What's your Ocean Park experience like?

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