Getting close with the sea creatures at Ocean Park Hongkong 🌊🪸

As much as I really want to savour this food, time is not my friend. 

Well, it's either time isn't being exactly cooperative or our family is not the best at being on time, because as of now, we're one hour late to go to the sea-themed amusement park called Ocean Park, slurping on spicy traditional Chinese noodles. 

"Sophia? How late are we?" Tita Pretty asks me.

I catch a quick glance at my watch. "Uh... 1 hour and a half late." 

There's this silence that even without anybody uttering a single word, I can tell that everyone is getting concerned by how much limited time we have.

"I think we should head to the train station now." 

I quickly slurp the remains of my bowl of noodles, and have just one goal in mind, nothing else. 

We must get on that train.

*

Hauling the stroller with a hyper toddler on it, Mamu remarks how the wind and its currents is being especially strong today. "Sophia, aren't you c-cold?? It's so strong." She shivers.

I am dying. "No, not really." I shyly grin with a shrug.

Ushering the family to the ticket collector, all of us hustle and merge into the crowd that's slowly beginning to form. Luckily, the crowd isn't that big compared to the ones I've seen and been through in Disneyland. 

And finally, we've entered the park's grounds. Lively music, similar to Disneyland's, blares out through speakers in the background. There's chatter, excitement, astonishment within the tourists, and how I can tell is how loud the conversations are being. 

Tito Ram briefly informs us that in order to get to the "amusement" side of the park (where the rides are, shows etc.), we need to hop on a cable car, but, I consider, that also means...

Another series of walking to go through. This is giving me flashbacks from Disneyland. I sigh with defeat. 

I immediately notice that on my way to the cable car, this whole place is overboard with the sea theme. There's endless amounts of photo opportunities, with Sanrio themed backdrops, stands of sea creatures you could snap a quick photo or two, heck, the signs for the souvenir shops are images of coral and typical underwatery colours. This place is literally a mini-sized Disneyland. 

We finally reach the queue lining up for the cable car after what's felt like ages, and wait it out.

*

 

We finally reach the "amusement" side of Ocean Park, which mainly consists of thrilling and daunting rides hundreds of feet up in the air, or chill  and slow rides for younger children. Navigating through the tourists, we eventually find a ride that is suitable and perfect for all of us. 

A water-involved ride.

And how I know is that the people who came out of the ride were soaked in their provided raincoats from Ocean Park. "Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!!" I excitedly perk up, putting on a raincoat over my head.

We discussed a bit about who would go to the ride and who would stay with Cubby, and we'd come to the conclusion that Tito Ram, Tita Pretty, Ninang, Mum and I have all decided to take on this ride, while Mamu supervises Cubby.

One by one, we all enter the queue for the ride in a single file, and  without having to wait long, it's our turn. 

People in this photo (left to right): Yasmin (Ninang), Mum, me, Tita Pretty (aunt) and Tito Ram (uncle)

"Are you guys ready?" Tita Pretty says.

"Yes!!!" I yell over the flowing water in the background. The amount of overflowing water in the background is literally how overflowing my adrenaline is.

Each of us gets on the circular vehicle, below is a lazy river type of water, and without knowing what to expect... 

The ride has begun.

Taking us on a journey to the array of sprinklers and water, we all grip onto the metal railing for safety. You never know, they might do a scary drop at some random point like at Disneyland. "Sophia, I'm so scared!!" Tita Pretty yells over to me and squeals.

"Same!!" Tito Ram responds.

All of us laugh so hard I start tearing up. 

Nearing the end of our ride, so far we haven't been through any scary drops yet... 

A sprinkler activates as I process this thought. I lean forwards in my seat, trying to see if I could catch any predictable drops that might come our way. Until we stumble upon a ramp that leads to upwards. The vehicle slowly but surely climbs up this ramp, and I cling onto the railing as securely as I can, tightly closing my eyes, expecting the worst...

But past the upward part of the ramp, it still leads us downward, but ever so slowly once more. 

And we're back to the starting point, to where we were. "That's it??" says me. 

"Yeah... that's it." Ninang says it in a way that she also expected a scary ride.

This has the first "scary" ride where I haven't screamed my head off...

Photos we took at Ocean Park!

Dolphin show!

Aquarium and its sea creatures

People in this photo (left to right): Yasmin (Ninang), me, Mum, Mamu (grandma), Tita Pretty (aunt) and in the stroller is Cubby (cousin)

Thank you for reading! I'll update next week!