Whattatrip!
We had such an AWESOME time over at Hong Kong.
Stayed for a magnificent 4 days and 3 nights.
We explored, did a LOT of sightseeing, went shopping...........
And, BUT OF COURSE .......
We hit Hong Kong DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
Wahooo!!
***********************
We left Manila on the 8am Wednesday flight to HK.
With us on the trip were the Supah FAB Castillo's:
Lola Luz/Mom, Eman, Yvette, Albert, Jen, Zachy's SFO based cuz- Ryan, Jay, Meg, Cousin Nikki and Zachy's bestest buddy/cuz- Raffy.
After a smooth and uneventful flight, we arrived in Hong Kong International Airport (Chep Lap Lok) at around 10:30 am.
We then took the ultra-convenient and ultra-fast Airport Express train to Kowloon.
Zachy was "infinity" amazed with the speed....
It takes around 24 mins to get to downtown Kowloon via the Airport Express.
It's super clean and the train station is real spacious which is kinda weird for sardine-can Kowloon.
One of the neat things about the Airport Express is that when the time comes to depart-- you can check in - right at the train station.
Yes -- the Airport Express station has a fully functional check-in facility.
It looks exactly like the check-in counter at the airport except.... it's at a train station and the airport is like 30 km away.
Whatta truly great way to avoid the long lines at the airport, especially since most of the passengers will check in over there.
Anyways, once ya get to the Kowloon station, there's a free shuttle to the numerous hotels dotting the Kowloon/Tsim Tsa Tsui (TST) area.
We took the next shuttle to the place where we would stay for the next few days.
The Marco Polo Prince Hotel.
***********************
After checking in and droppin' off our luggage, we had a quick lunch over at the City Super Deli, Harbor City located right under/adjacent/next to the Prince........
The Momster recommends ordering the sesame seed noodle soup with chicken and fried rice from the food stall right next to the White Spot counter.
The Dadster recommends the Burger Mushroom combo from White Spot.
Eh!?
White Spot in Hong Kong??
Yuppers!
I miss me White Spot. :)
Me used to eats there every once in awhile over at Vancouver, BC.
***********************
Anywayz, once we finished our well-deserved lunch, we made a quick beeline towards our first great HK adventure --
OCEAN PARK!!!!!!!
Now Ocean Park holds a whole lot of memories for moi.
My beloved Mom first brought me to Ocean Park when I was around 5.
The same age as Zachy is now.
I can still vividly remember my first cable car trip on Ocean Park.
I also remember being vividly scared coz it was so dang high and it was perched on the side of a mountain.
I kept wondering.... how the heck can these cables support all these cable cars??
And would we be able to survive the drop if the cable cars fell??
I guess the Zachster felt the same way too.
Since we arrived at around 1:30pm, (Ocean Park would close at 6pm) we decided not hit too many attractions/rides and just concentrate on the ones that the kids would enjoy the most.
The decision was made easier by the fact that Rose and I toured the ENTIRE Ocean Park - rides, lowland, headland-- you name it - the last time we were here in 2003. (Phew!)
Our first stop was the Shark Aquarium.
The Shark Aquarium has an underwater tunnel walkalator much similar to the one in Underwater World, Singapore.
Howevs, the walkalator in the Ocean Park Shark Aquarium is shorter and just goes straight instead of around in a circle.
D'sharks in the tank sure look a lot meaner and tougher than the ones in Sing though!
After saying our sharky goodbyes, we then headed off to the majestic ATOLL REEF!!
The Atoll Reef Aquarium is a truly spectacular, one of a kind experience.
Not too many aquariums in the world can come close to the size and depth of this baby.
It holds over 2.2 million liters of water and is home to over 2000 fishes from 200 species.
It's even got a giant grouper (Lapu-Lapu) that's over 80 years old and 7ft long!
Hmmmmm...this might be Mr.80 yr old fishy......
Not too sure....
But that's one HUGE FISH!!
The pathway around the Atoll reef slowly spirals down.
And by the end of the journey, you're probably around 4 floors down from where you started.
So basically you see small tropical fish like Nemo, Dory and Gill at first.
Then after you head lower down to the depths you see the medium sized fishies.
And then soon after......the Big Boys.
Cara:"Yang!"
(Her fave word for describing things)
Rush Hour Traffic
Zachy's ultimate fave fishy was the Manta Ray.
We got a real good video of the big Manta "flyin" by.
Hmmm..
Manta Ray = Giant Underwater Bat??
Definitely, some similarities there......
After the Atoll Reef, we huffed and puffed back up the hilly pathway to catch the 3:30pm Dolphin Show.
For some reason, we found the show kinda boring.
Maybe it's because we've seen our fair share of dolphin, seal and whale shows.
Ya gotta admit though, it's still kinda interesting to watch dolphins somersault in the air
and
check out seals french-kissing their trainers,
Errr......
My main gripe was that the show was too dang short.
Not enough bang for your buck.
Aka Bitin.
"Like we waited in the heat for this?"
The Sea Jellies Spectaular Exhibit sure made up for the Dolphin Show though.
I mean check this vid out....
Wow pare...cooooooool................
I never knew Jellyfish could be so psychedelic.
May ambient music pa...
Double cooooool pare.............
The Jellies come in red colors too!
100 US dollars to anyone who'll dare swim in THAT Tank.
After a quick merienda and some souvenir shopping, we headed down towards the Ocean Park Lowlands to check out the other rides and attractions.
In case ya didn't know, Ocean Park has a huge Balloon ride that you can take.
The balloon ride will lift like 18 people way way up in the air for a few minutes.
We wanted to ride but Zachy wasn't up to it.
So we headed out to Kid's World for some kiddie fun!
Kid's World was sweet.
It had mini-rides for the kids like the mini ferris wheel and the Frog Hopper.
Zach had a blast on this one. :)
His stomach felt "weird" daw.
No doubt!
Kid's World also had a real cool playground.
The rubber playground flooring was so soft.
Not like the rock hard rubber playground matting here in the P.I.
And it had a Jump-around thingy.
Perfect for releasing the angst of feisty 5 year-olds like good ol' chap Zachy :)
It was then finally time to leave since Ocean Park was already closing at 6pm.
Plus we were sooooo damn exhausted since we woke up at 3am that day to pack and get ready for the trip.
So we bade goodbye to the fat Hippos,
the fat people on stilts...
and made our way back to The Prince.
(to be continued)
***********************
P.S. -- We took a taxi from Marco Polo Prince to Ocean Park in order to save some time (Since we finished lunch at around 1ish). The ride cost around HK$150 but it only took like 15mins to 20mins to get there from downtown Kowloon (TST) insead of the usual 1 hour by MTR/Citybus.
We also took a taxi back to Marco Polo Prince coz' we were so BUSHED!!!
It cost around the same but it took just a little longer becuase of the rush hour traffic.
We had such an AWESOME time over at Hong Kong.
Stayed for a magnificent 4 days and 3 nights.
We explored, did a LOT of sightseeing, went shopping...........
And, BUT OF COURSE .......
We hit Hong Kong DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!
Wahooo!!
***********************
We left Manila on the 8am Wednesday flight to HK.
With us on the trip were the Supah FAB Castillo's:Lola Luz/Mom, Eman, Yvette, Albert, Jen, Zachy's SFO based cuz- Ryan, Jay, Meg, Cousin Nikki and Zachy's bestest buddy/cuz- Raffy.
After a smooth and uneventful flight, we arrived in Hong Kong International Airport (Chep Lap Lok) at around 10:30 am.
We then took the ultra-convenient and ultra-fast Airport Express train to Kowloon.
Zachy was "infinity" amazed with the speed....
It takes around 24 mins to get to downtown Kowloon via the Airport Express.
It's super clean and the train station is real spacious which is kinda weird for sardine-can Kowloon.
One of the neat things about the Airport Express is that when the time comes to depart-- you can check in - right at the train station.
Yes -- the Airport Express station has a fully functional check-in facility.
It looks exactly like the check-in counter at the airport except.... it's at a train station and the airport is like 30 km away.
Whatta truly great way to avoid the long lines at the airport, especially since most of the passengers will check in over there.
Anyways, once ya get to the Kowloon station, there's a free shuttle to the numerous hotels dotting the Kowloon/Tsim Tsa Tsui (TST) area.
We took the next shuttle to the place where we would stay for the next few days.
The Marco Polo Prince Hotel.
***********************
After checking in and droppin' off our luggage, we had a quick lunch over at the City Super Deli, Harbor City located right under/adjacent/next to the Prince........
The Momster recommends ordering the sesame seed noodle soup with chicken and fried rice from the food stall right next to the White Spot counter.
The Dadster recommends the Burger Mushroom combo from White Spot.
Eh!?
White Spot in Hong Kong??
Yuppers!
I miss me White Spot. :)
Me used to eats there every once in awhile over at Vancouver, BC.
***********************
Anywayz, once we finished our well-deserved lunch, we made a quick beeline towards our first great HK adventure --
OCEAN PARK!!!!!!!
Now Ocean Park holds a whole lot of memories for moi.
My beloved Mom first brought me to Ocean Park when I was around 5.
The same age as Zachy is now.
I can still vividly remember my first cable car trip on Ocean Park.
I also remember being vividly scared coz it was so dang high and it was perched on the side of a mountain.
I kept wondering.... how the heck can these cables support all these cable cars??And would we be able to survive the drop if the cable cars fell??
I guess the Zachster felt the same way too.
Since we arrived at around 1:30pm, (Ocean Park would close at 6pm) we decided not hit too many attractions/rides and just concentrate on the ones that the kids would enjoy the most.
The decision was made easier by the fact that Rose and I toured the ENTIRE Ocean Park - rides, lowland, headland-- you name it - the last time we were here in 2003. (Phew!)
Our first stop was the Shark Aquarium.
The Shark Aquarium has an underwater tunnel walkalator much similar to the one in Underwater World, Singapore.
Howevs, the walkalator in the Ocean Park Shark Aquarium is shorter and just goes straight instead of around in a circle.
D'sharks in the tank sure look a lot meaner and tougher than the ones in Sing though!
After saying our sharky goodbyes, we then headed off to the majestic ATOLL REEF!!
The Atoll Reef Aquarium is a truly spectacular, one of a kind experience.
Not too many aquariums in the world can come close to the size and depth of this baby.
It holds over 2.2 million liters of water and is home to over 2000 fishes from 200 species.
It's even got a giant grouper (Lapu-Lapu) that's over 80 years old and 7ft long!
Hmmmmm...this might be Mr.80 yr old fishy......
Not too sure....
But that's one HUGE FISH!!
The pathway around the Atoll reef slowly spirals down.
And by the end of the journey, you're probably around 4 floors down from where you started.
So basically you see small tropical fish like Nemo, Dory and Gill at first.
Then after you head lower down to the depths you see the medium sized fishies.
And then soon after......the Big Boys.
Cara:"Yang!"
(Her fave word for describing things)
Rush Hour Traffic
Zachy's ultimate fave fishy was the Manta Ray.
We got a real good video of the big Manta "flyin" by.
Hmmm..
Manta Ray = Giant Underwater Bat??
Definitely, some similarities there......
After the Atoll Reef, we huffed and puffed back up the hilly pathway to catch the 3:30pm Dolphin Show.
For some reason, we found the show kinda boring.
Maybe it's because we've seen our fair share of dolphin, seal and whale shows.
Ya gotta admit though, it's still kinda interesting to watch dolphins somersault in the air
and
check out seals french-kissing their trainers,
Errr......
My main gripe was that the show was too dang short.
Not enough bang for your buck.
Aka Bitin.
"Like we waited in the heat for this?"
The Sea Jellies Spectaular Exhibit sure made up for the Dolphin Show though.
I mean check this vid out....
Wow pare...cooooooool................
I never knew Jellyfish could be so psychedelic.
May ambient music pa...
Double cooooool pare.............
The Jellies come in red colors too!
100 US dollars to anyone who'll dare swim in THAT Tank.
After a quick merienda and some souvenir shopping, we headed down towards the Ocean Park Lowlands to check out the other rides and attractions.
In case ya didn't know, Ocean Park has a huge Balloon ride that you can take.
The balloon ride will lift like 18 people way way up in the air for a few minutes.
We wanted to ride but Zachy wasn't up to it.
So we headed out to Kid's World for some kiddie fun!
Kid's World was sweet.It had mini-rides for the kids like the mini ferris wheel and the Frog Hopper.
Zach had a blast on this one. :)His stomach felt "weird" daw.
No doubt!
Kid's World also had a real cool playground.
The rubber playground flooring was so soft.Not like the rock hard rubber playground matting here in the P.I.
And it had a Jump-around thingy.
Perfect for releasing the angst of feisty 5 year-olds like good ol' chap Zachy :)
It was then finally time to leave since Ocean Park was already closing at 6pm.
Plus we were sooooo damn exhausted since we woke up at 3am that day to pack and get ready for the trip.
So we bade goodbye to the fat Hippos,
the fat people on stilts...
and made our way back to The Prince.(to be continued)
***********************
P.S. -- We took a taxi from Marco Polo Prince to Ocean Park in order to save some time (Since we finished lunch at around 1ish). The ride cost around HK$150 but it only took like 15mins to 20mins to get there from downtown Kowloon (TST) insead of the usual 1 hour by MTR/Citybus.
We also took a taxi back to Marco Polo Prince coz' we were so BUSHED!!!
It cost around the same but it took just a little longer becuase of the rush hour traffic.
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