Although we really had very little time, and no plans, we managed to see a surprising amount over the weekend.
Friday afternoon Michael and I went to Ocean park, as I was busily avoiding Wincy before Jana arrived so as not to blow the surprise.
We took the double decker bus there and back, managing to excitedly elbow and shove our way to the top front seat both times… well, to unintentionally get to the bus stop at the front of the line both times at least.
I was a little disappointed with Ocean park, I don’t remember much of it, but I remember it being better than it was. There were far too many people in the aquarium to enjoy much fish-watching, and after walking past the chairlift once and seeing no-one there, we returned about 30 minutes later to find an unmoving queue of hundreds lined as far as we could see. No chairlift ride for us this time.
Saturday afternoon in Stanley was much more enjoyable, possible because it involved eating things and buying things. After we had spent the last 24 hours being laughed at when we bought things (including train tickets!!??) we came to the decision that we should probably be bargaining. We left the market feeling very impressed with ourselves after each buying one item at a knocked down price.
Saturday evening, our bad luck with queues continued and we ended up taking a taxi up to the peak rather than the tram, and our hard work bargaining in the afternoon was all undone when we bought tickets to the new observation deck.
We found it a little odd that when we bought the tickets to the observation deck the girl immediately told us there would be no refund, but weren’t too worried by it at the time.
After a short time enjoying the view from the observation deck, we headed back inside to find a coffee. Eagle-eyed Wincy spotted an outdoor seating area at Pacific Coffee, where we discovered that the view was just the same as the observation deck, but there were no crowds and we could sit and drink coffee while enjoying the view.
The reason for the ticket girls insistence that we wouldn’t get a refund became clear when we found that in addition to the comfortable and free view from the cafe, the old observation area is still open and also free to enter.
Just a little annoyed about that.
Despite our few small annoyances, the whole experience was hugely enjoyable. We walked through Kowloon park each day, visited the waterfront in the daytime and at night, saw the lighting show over the city twice, had drinks at Lan Kwai Fong in the evening, and generally enjoyed how easy it is to get about in HK. ..
So forget all that negative stuff I wrote. It was good.
