The Case of Ocean Park and the Blah-Tastic Burger
Ok, so that is a bit of a stretch, since our visit to Ocean Park and the saga of the blah-tastic burger are two quite seperate things, but this way it sounds like a fantastic five adventure!
The last few days in Hong Kong have been very hard on my poor feet. Monday and Tuesday was spent slogging around the Hong Kong shops, and on Wednesday Mark and I made the trip down to Ocean Park, Hong Kong's long running theme park. Originally we had planned to go to DisneyLand, but frankly it just looked too damn lame, and it was a nice blast from the past to go back to Ocean Park.
We caught the MTR up to Admiralty, and then a bus to Ocean Park. The park is split up into two sections connected by a cable car, the highlands and lowlands. Unusually, we actually got dropped off at the Highlands, which is basically the back of the park. Normally, you would start in the low lands, and if you drove that is where you would park.

A big Budda from the Middle Kingdom
We had a quick stroll around the Middle Kingdom (a 'classy' recreation of ye olde china) and then went on a few rides. Started off with the Rampaging rapids, where Mark got absolutely soaked, and I escaped relatively dry and then went onto the Space Wheel, an old favorite of mine! The other rides in the Highland included a mine cart ride which was fricking scary, going out over the mountainside, the "Abyss" which was basically strapping you into a seat, taking you up 100 meters and then dropping you again, the "Dragon" which is the longest rollercoaster in Hong Kong (umm, not exactly a big claim!) and a few other smaller and lamer rides too. There was also a big aquarium called the Atoll Reef.

The amazing Space Wheel!

A picture from Atoll Reef
After awhile in the highlands, we grabbed the cable car and headed over to the underwhelming lowlands. We caught the park mascot Whiskers in a show, and then headed over to "the Amazing Bird Theatre", to watch some trained birds and shit. Or so we thought! We are sitting there waiting, and some chick comes out with two guys in big mascot suits, and has a little pantomime for the kids. Then some guys dressed as savages come out, do some dancing and some juggling, followed by some group dancing because now everyone is friends. And then it was over... WHERE THE HELL WERE THE AMAZING BIRDS?

A small boy being fed to Whiskers for giving us a great show
Ocean Park was great fun, and it was cool to go somewhere familiar (since obviously we used to go there a lot as kids). Mark and I even came back with tropheys, as we both reigned supreme on the throw-beanbags-at-ridiculously-well-spaced-stack-of-cans stall. I don't think the Carny folk were happy, they were shaking their tiny hands at us as we staggered away under the weight of our stuffed toys!
Hmmm.... I actually have to run out for the start of the rugby now, so the story of the Blah-tastic burger is going to have to wait!
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