Yet another sleepless night even though we were so tired. Our biological clocks had not been fully adjusted to Asian time yet. We had lost as much as 4 hours sleep nonetheless we still woke up at 8.30am. We had an important task to do in the morning, that was to pay our package costs to Taipei booked previously in London with China Airlines online. In such an advanced century they still do not have the facilities to accept payment online, so we had to arrange the payment in Hong Kong as they have a branch here. No choice, they were the cheapest we could find.
We got ready by 9am and walked down to Canton Road again to see where we could have our breakfast this time, and within minutes we saw this New Island Cafe, which looked not bad and some more packed with customer so decided to try it out.
We were made to share a table with a lady. The staff gave us a menu with choices for Menu 'A' or 'B', and one of the choices was ham macoroni (in soup!). Apparently it was a popular breakfast as we saw a lot of customers ordered that, the lady sat next to us was one of them! We didn't like them so we ordered something else from the normal menu.
So I ordered a bowl of fish balls and 'Ying Yong' - a mixture of tea and coffee.
I didn't like the Ying Yong drink and found the taste a bit weird
Frankie ordered the usual Wantan Mee, and it came with soup. He should have ordered it dried because we read somewhere when we did the research that dried Wantan Mee tastes better.
According to Frankie the wantan were good
After breakfast we then made our way to the China Airlines office at Quarry Bay. The staff served us was helpful and we got our tickets at the prices agreed without any question. We were also lucky because they were having a promotion at that time to give away gift coupons for a local supermarket called 'Park and Shop', totalled HK$200! Not bad huh!
With the tickets to Taipei in hands we could look forward for our next trip to Taipei in 4 days time. Hooray!!
But first we still had to continue our holiday in Hong Kong. So we started our day by visiting the Stanley market. The easiest way to go there was by bus because it cannot be reached by the MTR, of course you can take taxi but at a price. We boarded a mini bus and it took us more than 30 minutes to reach there.
We find this notice displayed on the bus quite funny
Stanley is located at the south coast of the Hong Kong Island, so the scenery is nice.
Scenery on the way to Stanley market
After a long bus ride we reached Stanley market, safely. Stanley market isn't that big actually but it is situated next to the ocean.
We didn't spend too much time here and only bought two miniatures dim sum in the bamboo steamers fridge magnets, one with 'Char Sao Pao' in it and the other one with 'Siew Mai'. Quite cute.
To go back we had to take another long bus ride again. Probably not so worth the trip if you don't have sufficient time.
Nonetheless we still managed to go back to Admiralty station around noon. From there we proceeded to the next destination - Ocean Park. Ticket to ocean park costs HK$185 per entry. And from Admiralty we had to take special bus there so we each paid HK$10.60.
It was a mistake not to take lunch first at Admiralty and we only bought some cakes to eat on the way.
My mango love-shaped cake - taste a bit sweet
Spotted a bunch of kids taking photos in front of the entrance.
Tai Shue Wan entrance
Once passed the tickets barriers I couldn't stop photographing.
Luckily there are escalators in this park. Otherwise we both would find it very challenging to climb up the stairs!
Up the escalators there was a cafe selling food so not to starve ourselves we went in and got a pork chop rice. Again it was a mistake not to look around first. Worst pork chop rice I have ever tried!
After that we came to the Pacific Pier, the home of California sea lions and harbor seals. We were just on time to see their performance.
We continued our way downhill and saw people queuing to take a ride on the Ocean Park Tower which is a seated rotating platform that allows tourists to have the bird's eye view of the park.
Quite a fascinating view from the top.
See this photo of next will know that we came to the shark aquarium.
'Atoll reef' is next to the shark aquarium. This is one of the best aquarium in Asia, one will feel like walking into a deep ocean and getting close to nearly 2,000 colourful and spectacular fish.
We were more interested in the individuals species leaving in the small aquariums at the side.
Nemo!!
This is called 'Weedy Seadragon' 草海龙
This is 'Leafy Seadragon' 叶海龙
'Nautilus' 鹦鹉螺
'Garden eel' 花园鳗
Time was very precious and limited, we had to bypass some of the places and moved to the next park because we wanted to see the giant pandas! To get there we had to take the cable car, which was fine. But when we saw the queue our jaws almost dropped!
While waiting, I noticed this... so cute!
Apparently the Sea Jelly Spectacular is just beside the cable car terrace.
It took us more than one hour to actually see the cable cars, you can imagine how terribly long that queue could be. Anyway it was stilll worthwide when we were up there.
What an impressive view. This is the longest cable car ride I ever had.
By the time we reached to the other end of the park it was late afternoon. We had to run towards the giant pandas habitat before their closing time, otherwise we would regret not to see the pandas.
There are three giant pandas in here. They are housed separately.
Ok, please meet Le Le 乐乐, a male panda born in 08/08/2005. Err... we could only see his rear.
Next is An An 安安, another male panda. He is older than Le Le born in 1986. He was hiding in the 'house' and we could only see him from far. Look like he was having dinner.
The only female panda, named Jia Jia 佳佳 was no where seen. I guess she won't look any different from her male companions?!
Disappointingly we left the real pandas but found many other 'pandas' a long the way, so more photographs.
Coming out from the panda's world, we saw this giant balloon and Frankie quickly jumped in the basket and took a photo.
At this time the sky was dark and they announced that the park was about to close for the day. The next incident was the only part that I have let myself and Frankie down as I didn't do a proper research how we would be going to the Jumbo Kingdom from here. We were a bit lost at first as the area was quite isolated and we didn't know the nearest bus station. Nonetheless this won't be the end of the world. After asking for a direction we came to a busy road nearby and waited for the bus to come.
Jumbo Kingdom is very famous among tourists. This is a must-visit attraction in Hong Kong. The best time to go there is of course at night where the boat is lit up.
The shuttle ferry service is free and will take you to the floating boat.
Some of the internal decorations
We were seated at the second floor and after careful read through the menu we placed our order.
Slowly our food was served.
First, it was this century egg with pickled ginger. We didn't order this actually but was served, part of the cover charge I suppose.
Frankie ordered this 'melon with snail soup' 毛瓜炖响螺
While I had this normal seafood tofu creamy soup.
Next, the char siu
And not forgetting the crispy roasted goose
We had a very unpleasant moment here actually. This is a must-see attraction but not necessary a must-try restaurant!
The service was very bad and lousy, even though it was the service from the captain! First she forgot to bring back the teapot after refilled, secondly she brought back the cold teapot instead of a freshly refilled one, and the last one was something I really cannot accept. We ordered a seasonal vege with crab meat. We asked what type of seasonal vege was served on that day and she told us a type of vege which we didn't actually know but sound ok so we ordered. When it was served, it was brocolli!! Brocolli is an expensive vege in Asian but I have had enough of it back in London and when we asked her she said the seasonal vege was somethin that will change everyday... hello!! we did ask you before we decided, didn't we? and you as the captain can't even make it right! She even said if we haven't touched it she would change it for us!! How could we tell what was the vege beneath it since it was almost covered up with the crab meat sauce, we didn't realise until actually picking one up.
Not intending to create a big hooha we continued our meal. The quality of the meal here were not up to our standard actually, the roasted goose meat were too tough, possibly cater for one-off tourists like us so not really bother too much.
This meal was one of the expensive ones we had in Hong Kong. Total cost HK$552.20 including 10% service charge which really wasn't worth paying. That plate of century egg costed as much as HK$16!
Anyway, we became Emperior and Empress for a few second, without the costumes. Otherwise a costumed photo would set you back around £10 per person.
On the way walking back to the hotel we saw a dessert cafe, known as 'Tang Chow', what a nice name and went in immediately for a supper.
This photo was taken the next morning if you wonder why!
We ordered three type of desserts.
The sesame seed dessert.
and both Taufu Fah - normal and with black pearls! Yummy yummy
Only after this supper we finally called it a day.
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