Tiger Talk: Fun at Ocean Park

Presently we are hosting a visitor from Downunder: Jessica Willingham. We had grand plans today to take her to one of the home grown adventure park here in Hong Kong called Ocean Park. However we awoke today to fog in Hong Kong and low cloud that looked particularly miserable, so we went anyway. Glad we did as the weather on the other side of the island was sunny, cloudless and almost perfect. The added bonus was that most folks in HK thought the weather was lousy and so they didn't come and we had the park to ourselves and overseas tourists!

This being Jessica's first trip to Honkers, we started with the tourist bit and visited the Giant Panda Habitat. Those Panda's have a great gig, just lay around all day and then chomp on some bamboo shoots. We then visited caught up with some Hollywood stars (see picture), before catching the cable car to the far side of the park.

Then the action really started, with rides on the Flying Swing, the Dragon roller coaster, the Crazy Galleon, and finally: THE ABYSS! (a turbo drop from 20 floors up -- bring it on).

Lunch and time for the stomach to settle, before it was time for more rides: the Eagle, the Mine Train roller coaster, the Raging River rapids, and finally (so we could dry off) the Space Wheel.

Ocean Park is actually a not-for-profit with a mission to provide visitors with experiences that combine entertainment and education. To the latter, they have many fine animal exhibits, and we closed out our afternoon by visiting the aviaries. I would try to describe the behavior of the Flamingos, but they really are a little too weird for words.

So we left Ocean Park and the sun, and headed back to our apartment (about 5kms as the flamingo flies) to find it still shrouded in cloud. So the fine people of Hong Kong suffered through what looked like a miserable day, and we found out why the folks that founded Ocean Park built it where they did!

Bear's Blog -- Poetry Time

The Key

A magical breath of wind stirs
It rustles the trees
Along the way it wakes the King of Fairies
He knows it's time

A little girl is looking
She finds a golden key
So beautiful it shines
A shadow moves behind here

The Fairy King moves out from behind the bushes
"Young girl, you have been chosen.
The key has chosen you.
Now you must come
There is work to be done."

The little girl looked around
The wind blowing her hair
The forest is below her
She loves flying with fairies

When they get to the palace
Shimmering in the heat
She lands

There is an iron gate
A massive padlock secures the gate
The king points to the key
Slowly the little girl puts the key in the lock

She turns it once
A million griffons flying high come soaring in
She turns it twice
The trees grow massive fruit
She turns it a last time
The gates dissolve into a beautiful grove

"Little girl,
You are now the Queen of Utopia.
For a million years that gate has been locked.
Now you have unlocked it."

The griffons pick her up
She soars into the sky
Queen of Utopia