After getting all 4 of us ready, we headed down to our (free!) breakfast in the hotel restaurant, where, I am ashamed to say...we pigged out. Really pigged out. I've never seen my boys eat that much in one sitting-and I got fearful glimpses into the future-and our future grocery bills! Breakfast was wonderful though-and it was great to fill up on a meal that was included in our room price!
Next stop after breakfast was back up to the room to load up Kieran in the Ergo and pick up our backpack with the waterbottles, sunscreen, camera and Kieran's accessories (diapers/wipes/extra clothes). I'm not sure which weighed more-the backpack, or Kieran in the baby carrier! Then, we set out to conquer the MTR.
We walked the 2ish blocks to Jordan Station-the nearest MTR station to our hotel- and descended down the steps into the "unpaid" area-full of shops, ticket machines, info booths, and aha-an ATM! We withdrew money ($1USD=$7.2ish HKD) and promptly realized that we should have familiarized ourselves with HKD denominations ahead of time! Luckily, we're not strangers to foreign currency, so after a quick glance at what we got out of the ATM, we were good to go!
Next stop...info/ticket sales booth. We had to decide exactly what type of MTR pass we wanted to get. We decided to get the Tourist pass for each of us adults-72 hours of unlimited MTR rides, as well as including one ride on the Airport Express-and the regular Octopus card for Brendan-since he could use that at a child rate. Kieran was free!
For our first excursion in Hong Kong, we decided to head to Ocean Park-why not start a vacation with a trip to an amusement park? We thought after a day of traveling, it would be nice to start with a "fun" day for the boys. Ocean Park is part amusement park, part aquarium and was quite a bit of fun! Unfortunately, a good chunk of the amusement park stuff wasn't geared towards the kids, but that's okay-they had fun anyways!
In order to get to Ocean Park, we had to first ride the MTR a few stops, and then get off and ride a bus there. It was a long ride-at least it felt that way-as it was standing room only on both the MTR and the bus. I think it took about 45 minutes total to finally get to Ocean Park. Luckily, we bought our tickets at the MTR station, so no waiting in line for that once we got there!
It was a very hot day-and very humid. We're used to hot and humid, but it seemed even hotter and more humid (to me at least!) in Hong Kong. We're typically not out all day in Okinawa-so walking around all day was definitely a challenge in that heat.
The first thing we noticed about Ocean Park is that it's pretty big-spread out-and not easy to navigate. We spent a considerable amount of time just walking from place to place-not so lovely in the heat. We initially rode up to the "top" of the park (it's on a hillside) on a series of outdoor, covered escalators. While the covers were nice-keeping the direct sun off of us, they were not opaque, so there was a bit of a greenhouse effect while under them-and sadly, no breeze. We were sweating it out by the time we reached the top!
We went on a ride with the boys-a moving observation deck type of ride-and got to see the park, and surrounding areas-it was quite the view! We went next to one of the aquarium displays-it was so nice to be in the air conditioning! The aquarium was nice-but we're used to the aquarium here in Oki-so it was a little underwhelming for us. We did however go to the "Jellyfish Aquarium"-nothing but various kinds of jellies-and that was really neat! There are so many different types of jellies-and they range in size from pretty darn tiny to wow!
Unfortunately, the boys were too short to ride the two rollercoasters there...but Mom and Dad weren't! Jason and I took turns riding the coasters-and taking a break from the walking around. Brendan was big enough to ride the flume log ride-and he got to ride it-twice! Once with Mom and once with Dad-what a lucky kid! We also rode in a cable car from the "peak" of the park down the hill. The boys really liked that a lot.
The other highlight of Ocean Park was the panda exhibit-this is the first time either of the boys had seen a real panda! They both loved it-Kieran really loves bears. He was very excited to see the real pandas...as well as the stuffed ones in the requisite exit-through-the-shop end! Lucky for us, as silly as it seems, we collect magnets from each place we visit. The boys are thrilled-they get to pick a new cool magnet to stick on our fridge (at their level, so they can play with them) and we're thrilled-magnets are pretty cheap! So, we avoided having to purchase one of the expensive stuff animals or t-shirts and came home with a panda magnet instead!
We got off the cable car at Ngong Ping Village-basically, a little tourist attraction with shops, restaurants and 2 theaters (one showing a kids story- A Monkey Tale, and the other showing Walk with Buddha, about the life of Buddha). We walked through the little village area and up to the base of the Buddha...and then up 268 steps to the top! Kieran rode on my back in the Ergo (and slept the whole time) and Brendan did a terrific job of climbing all 268 steps!
The monastery was very beautiful-lots of gorgeous flowers, painting, lanterns, carvings, everything. The ornateness of it was impressive-lots of detail on absolutely everything!
After walking to the Buddha and the monastery, it was time for lunch. We found a Turkish restaurant and had some really good food-in fact, the dish we ordered for the boys was so good, we decided we needed to find a recipe and make it at home! After lunch it was time to see "A Monkey's Tale"-a cute little interactive children's movie that illustratees some of the principles of Buddhism. The boys (and us!) really enjoyed it! After the show, it was gelato time...and then, unfortunately, as we were eating our gelato, the cable cars closed down due to the weather. We ended up being stuck for about another hour or so-but the cable cars finally opened back up and back down the mountain we went!
Unfortunately, being stuck up on the mountain, we weren't quite sure what to do with the rest of the day-it was late afternoon and we were left with less time than expected. We decided that it would be a nice time to head down to Victoria Harbour and check that out.
As we headed into the city area around the Harbour, we quickly realized that we were unlikely to find an affordable, kid-friendly restaurant in that particular area-it was mostly high-end (very high end!) shops and hotels. We ended up heading back down towards the waterfront and stopping to eat at McDonalds-not exactly gourmet fare, but not too pricey, and definitely kid friendly! McDonald's was very busy-it seemed to be one of the few fast-food (and therefore, lower priced) options around. After finally finding a seat, we sat down and enjoyed our dinner-while Kieran made a 2 new friends two ladies fell in love with his hair and spend a lot of time waving to him and snapping his picture!
We decided to visit a camera store near the McDonalds-we figured we had just enough time to stop in and then go see the Victoria Harbour light show. Unfortunately, we spent a lot more time in there than we initially planned...and of course, in true kid fashion, Brendan had a bathroom emergency literally minutes before the show started. By the time we found a bathroom and finished up-the show had already started and we missed a good bit of it. We decided to come back again another night-it was too impressive to not see the whole thing.
After the show ended, we headed back to the hotel and crashed-we were all exhausted-and Disney was the plan for the next day!
No comments:
Post a Comment