Spectacular Cable Car Ride @ Ocean Park

Our panda gazing done, we lined up to ride the cable car to reach The Summit where all the rides are located. Since I’m traveling with our Mama who’s no spring chicken, and my sister who has asthma, I decided not to ride any of the roller coasters (as if I’m that brave, haha!).

The cable car is still a “ride” though so we did not feel too bad about missing out on all the other rides the park offers. The view from the cable car going up the Nam Lang Shan Mountain was a feast for the eyes. The unparalleled view of Hong Kong Island and the South China Sea was spectacular.

You should not miss this when you’re here, it’s truly wonderful. We took a gazillion pictures from the cable car, it seems. I truly didn’t mind that I missed rides on The Abyss and The Dragon.

Panda Gazing @ Giant Panda Adventure

"I'm cuddly and I know it..."

I just love giant pandas! My fascination with them started when I got hooked on “Shirt Tales” when I was a kid. I had lots of fun with Pammy Panda’s adventures on that cartoon show and was heartbroken when it was cancelled. I even had a beloved dog named "Panda", how's that for devotion?

So when I found myself unexpectedly at the Ocean Park, dropping by the Giant Panda Adventure at the Amazing Asian Animals exhibit was a priority. I told my sister that I can accept not doing anything else in our afternoon there, as long as I get to spend time with the pandas.

To the giant pandas we went… they were the absolute cutest! Le Le and Ying Ying were just too cuddly and at their playful best, it seemed. Splashing and gamboling around their air conditioned enclosure, even playing around with a bucket, making people go “awww!” at their antics.

 I swear, everything a panda does is adorable. I was so happy to finally see them up close. It was definitely worth the price of admission. By the way, the Giant Panda Adventure also houses the red panda (part bear, part raccoon) which whizzed by me so fast I only got a picture of its butt, haha!

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Ocean Park Hong Kong is one of the world’s most popular amusement/marine mammal parks and it was a thrill to visit its attractions. It was not on our original itinerary though. We were traveling with our mother (who’s in her early 70’s) and were cautious about tiring her out by doing too much on this trip, so we didn’t have anything scheduled upon our arrival.

 Luckily, we shared a coach with other Pinoy tourists who were headed to Ocean Park from the airport and Mama was a bit peeved that we thought she could not keep up with us. So my sister Maris quickly bought tickets (Yay, my birthday present!) from our tour guide and after checking in at the Silka Seaview hotel in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, we headed straight to Aberdeen.

This park is really huge so it’s important to grab a free map at the entrance to figure out where to go. Since it was 2pm and we haven’t had lunch yet, we bought some spaghetti and drinks from a food kiosk and it was surprisingly, pretty good.

Our hunger problems solved, we started taking in the sights and wandered into Aqua City where the souvenir shops are located. My sis had to buy a shirt because she didn’t change at the hotel and was feeling overheated and sweaty.

 Predictably, that’s not the only thing we ended up buying. We just had to buy cute panda stuffed toys, refrigerator magnets and key chains galore  and dear mama had to be talked out of buying shark hats and the like so we just tried everything on instead!

So after all the eating and buying and walking around, this self-proclaimed “panda groupie” went to the pandas first… be ready for cuteness overflow on the next post.

Ocean Park

Aberdeen, Hong Kong

opening hours: 10:00am - 7:00pm
general admission price: $280 (adult), $140 (child)

@ Hong Kong International Airport (Chek Lap Kok)

The 2-hour flight from Manila via Cebu Pacific was uneventful and after eating overpriced noodles and chips on the plane, we were fortified for the day ahead. At 9:50 am, we arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), Chek Lap Kok.

 This airport is one of the busiest in the world but the directions and signage are excellent so just follow the arrows and you wouldn't get lost. HKIA is so huge you would need to hop on a train to get to immigration.

We breezed through immigration here. There were no extra queries like in Manila (even asking for our company ID, ridiculous). The HK immigration officer just checked our arrival cards, looked at our faces, scanned our passports on that reader thingy, stamped it and voila! We have a 14-day permit to enjoy Hong Kong to our hearts' content.

 

The door to the baggage claim area is right behind the immigration counters so we went through that to pick up our bags. You have to remember the baggage carousel number announced by the flight attendants before you disembark, so you'd know where to go--but if you forget--just look it up the digital signage for baggage reclaim information.

We got to explore the airport a bit and it is really impressive how transportation from this airport is so seamless. You can purchase an Octopus card to pay for the MTR and bus fare. It can even be used at 7-Eleven’s and McDonald’s. I hope the “common ticketing system" that DOTC Sec. Mar Roxas is planning would be implemented in the Philippines soon.

There are free maps everywhere, so we grabbed some just in case our travel agent does not show up and we needed to wing it. Luckily, she was waiting for us at bay 9 of the tourist pick-up area of Arrival Hall B. After checking that we were who we said we were, we waited for a few minutes for other people in the tour to show up and we hopped into the comfy tour bus and got ready to rumble. 

NAIA Terminal 3 to Hong Kong

Finally, after rearranging our schedules, my dream of traveling together with my mother and sister to Hong Kong for my birthday is now a reality. Mama needed some persuading since at 72, she’s not up for all the walking and rushing from one place to another but after promising her she would have ample time to rest between all the sight-seeing, she relented. 

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has been bashed to high heavens as the worst airport in the world but if you’re flying out of NAIA Terminal 3, you won’t understand the brouhaha. This terminal is clean, spacious and thanks to the bad publicity, they now put undiluted liquid soap in their wash room soap dispensers, which for some reason, makes me ridiculously happy.

One thing that annoys me about leaving the country though is the ₱1620 travel tax one has to pay before you’d be allowed to check-in, add to that the ₱750 terminal fee and you’ve spent ₱2370 before you even pass through Immigration. Anyway, there’s nothing you can do but grumble that that money could have bought you more pasalubong etc.

The travel tax counter is on the right of the NAIA terminal 3 entrance, beside the Cebu Pacific ticketing office. So after paying for the three of us, we immediately proceeded to the Cebu Pacific web check-in counter to drop off our bags. It’s the first time I’ve tried checking in online and it’s really convenient because the line is shorter and you can show up at least 45 minutes before departure time without getting in trouble.

                                      

 Off we went to pay the terminal fee and fill up the departure cards before lining up for Immigration. It makes me sad to see some Pinoys get denied to board their planes just because the officers were not convinced they were leaving just to tour. 

A friend of mine (who is paid more than I do) got offloaded just because she was traveling alone and wasn’t in her best attire. I wish Immigration agents won’t be so arbitrary in denying people’s right to travel. I know there are a lot of human trafficking cases, but not everyone’s a prospective TNT either.

Rant over. We passed through immigration without incident and trooped to gate 109 to wait for our flight. It was raining heavily before we left so we were a bit apprehensive but it cleared up enough for our flight to leave on time. So goodbye for now, Manila.