Hong Kong 16

A Spring Trip to visit family

Getting through jet lag with kids is an adventure. When the kids were young you could count on them jet lagging about an hour a day - first waking up at 2am, 3am the next day, 4am the day after that. The kids are older now and they can adjust faster, but they aren't superstars and they weren't on quite the same schedule. Claira tried her hardest but at 4am she was awake and could get back to bed. We went for a walk to the Fruit Market and looked for market cats.

Nara was awake by 6am (amazingly, Helen was still sleeping) so we took the bus to the ferry terminal and then took the ferry over to central. The kids have been to all of these place before by they don't remember a lot of their earlier trips. We weren't the only early morning tourists on the boat as it made it's way across the harbour.

We arrived in central and walked the covered walkway up to where the trams (Ding Ding's) travel. The kids have ridden these in the past, but we generally avoid them because Google Maps rarely uses them in telling you how to get place. This trip I had AI (Google Gemini) and it had no problems giving me directions to get to Sogo by Tram. The tram isn't the fastest way to make this trip (the MTR is way faster) but the tram is cheap and second floor seats have great views.

The trams are quite old (they started riding more than 100 years ago) and they are made with what today looks like antique materials - mostly wood and flat glass windows. The windows open more than any modern safety window would and let the wind into the cabin. Claira made her best dog out the window impression - Nara was a bit more stoic.

Ocean Park

Before Hong Kong had the smallest, least profitable Disneyland in existence, it had Ocean Park. This theme park has loosely an Ocean theme, but they also have 6 Pandas and a bunch of other interesting Chinese fauna. The park is split into two regions - the base near the MTR line (which itself is pretty new) and the end of the peninsula that you get to by Gondola, or by simulated submarine (they was under maintenance the day we visited). Remembering long lineups, we got on the Gondola early, but we were anticipating crowds that were never going to arrive. Our last trip this park was saturated with tourists from mainland China - this trip we saw almost none.

The kids wanted to ride on the roller coasters immediately. They took a river rafting ride (getting soaked) and then Nara declared she wasn't feeling well (she gets motion sickness easily) so she had to stop riding.

Ocean park had a "popup" My Melody photo booth. I think this is very clever as My Melody is very popular in Asia and I think connecting with IP is an important part of a visit to a theme park. The popup was focused on Kuromi who is a bit more of a modern character and even though my kids are in North America, they seamed to know who this character was.

Ocean Park is an Ocean themed destination so there are a lot of wildlife viewing opportunities. Being that it is Hong Kong, it can also get quite warm in the sun so going inside with cold water can be quite refreshing, The penguin area is nearly below zero so the walk around goes from refreshing to almost unsustainable. We were lucky enough to get there just at feeding time so we watched the more active Gentoo penguins fly underwater to pick up the thrown fish.

We had lunch at the adjoined restaurant. There are multiple aquariums so we next tried the shark exhibit called Shark Mystique. This is a donut shaped tank where sharks can circulate for endlessly. The sharks are all large and must be fed well because you don't see scars on them.

It's more of an art show than a a marine biology exhibit. There was a wide variety of species and lights but really there are only so many ways you can take photos of jellyfish.

Nara Photographing Red Jellies With Mirror

There were also marine mammal exhibits - showing sea lions and seals, just like what we have on the west coast of British Columbia.

The day was getting on so we took the Gondola back to the entrance area. There is a "subway" experience you can return on, but it was down for maintenance today.

We didn't realize that the Panda exhibits shut down quite early in the day (4pm) so we had to rush when we got back to the base area. Right now Ocean Park has a total of 6 Pandas in two buildings and a number a Red Pandas. The Red Pandas and young Pandas were done for the day so we went to the older building just before it closed.

Hand Feeding Sichuan Golden Snub-nosedMonkey

The kids did see the Pandas here last time we visited but have no memory of them. Pandas are quite spooky - they really do look like a human in a Panda costume and it takes a while to really let it sink in that these are wild animals.

Dinner Out

We aren't normally fancy eating out people. Tsim Sha Tsui has a lot of very nice restaurants with amazing views and Alan knows his way around the city. Tonight's destination is called Eyebar in iSQUARE. The restaurant is on the 30th floor and the bar has a deck with an amazing view of central. We had a table and dinner service but many people come up just for a drink and to take in the view. We took two runs out to the deck to watch the city lights.

We didn't stay for desert - Claira wanted Ice Cream so we went to HeSheEat and she ordered a Hokkaido Milk 5.0.

Hong Kong Disneyland

We visited Hong Kong Disneyland on our last trip Hong Kong 15 Trip (November 21st) and plenty of previous trips like Hong Kong 14 Trip (March 2023) , Hong Kong 13 Trip (March 2019), Hong Kong 12 Trip (March 2018), Hong Kong 11 (March 2017). Amazingly, for the kids it's still substantially new - they do vaguely remember areas but lots of details are new to them on this trip.

Dragons Back

"Mostly flat with a few downhill sections" really was my recollection of this hike from the last time I hiked it, but sadly those words will live in infamy. The last time I did this hike was Hong Kong Trip 3 (November 2008) and I remember great views and a pretty good quality trail. Nara was keen to go for a hike and Claira was a reluctant joiner. We took the MTR to Shau Kei Wan and then waited for the bus to got to the trail head. Being Sunday, there was a long line up of people who went up visit grave sites. Our bus stop was the same as a large facility so the bus stopped for a long time to let us all off.

The trail starts in the forest and follows the ridge. This is a dry forest - we didn't see any running water while we hiked around.

Eventually the trail does go up hill and you walk onto the ridge edge with views out to the ocean. It was a hazy day so sadly we couldn't see all the way to the horizon.

Even though there was no water (that we could see), Claira did spot a fairly large skink hiding in the bushes.

The actual ridge top does have amazing views.

The original plan was to take the bus into Shek O to have lunch, but we got started later that I wanted and we had dinner reservations. We got on the bus back to Shau Kei Wan and got snacks and a nice cool ride on the MTR back to Kowloon.

Dai Pai Dong

We mostly stay in Mong Kok. The next major neighborhood north is Sham Shui Po and it is quite distinct from Mong Kok. There is a outdoor kitchen (Dai Pai Dong) named Oi Man Sang that is a small kitchen on a side street. The restaurant has rented a number of spaces in the block where there serving staff will take your orders and bring your food out. There are bathrooms and sinks to wash your hands.

The food is tasty but a bit salty and a bit rough. It's a fun environment because all sorts of people are in the restaurant - young people just starting to drink and works having a drink after work.

Day Trip to Shenzhen

I have wanted to go to Shenzhen ever since I saw it from the Mai Po Marshes in Northern Hong Kong. It was amazing to me that another city twice the city of Hong Kong is just 45 minutes away from Hong Kong. It would be like driving out of Vancouver and discovering Toronto is at the other end of Howe Sound. China and Canada have had some tough times and until this year, Canadians required a $150 visa x 4 people to go visit. This year, Canada and China got over it (free visa on entry) and we got on the KCR.

The border crossing was just after a walk on a bridge over a river. First you exit Hong Kong (lots of bakeries selling Hong Kong style tarts) you walk over the bridge (which looks like a section joining a mall) and then you walk into customs just like at an airport. Almost everyone here is a Hong Kong or Chinese national and they flash their card, go through a gate and they are done. We went to a large hardened computer, filled in a web form, received an e-mail for a Visa and then we can go through. The customs agent was nice and fast (and maybe spoke some English) and then we had a real stamp in our passport. (Hong Kong doesn't stamp your passport when a Canadian arrives - you get a tiny printed receipt). You then walk into a mall and everything is 40% off.

I'm comfortable with Uber in Hong Kong but that doesn't do much in China (neither does Google Maps) so I already had DiDi on my phone. There we enough signs to figure out where the ride hailing area is and we got into a very nice to drive us to more central Shenzhen (Futian District - Seg Electronics Market). The kids wanted some drinks so we first dropped into the underground mall to find drinks and shopping!

I was hungry so I dropped in to a 7-11 for a sandwich and slurpie. The kids wanted to look into the underground mall and of course found bubble tea.

I wanted to see the SEGCOM market. Before there was online markets like Alibaba, Ali Express and Temu this was ground zero for exporting technology bits from China. With modern internet, you can order samples and shipping containers full of product, but it can still be handy to have a show room to show product and negotiate contracts. The building has hundreds of shops, some of which represent a whole factory somewhere beyond the city.

Having a bunch of tech geeks walking around allows for secondary sales - stuff tourists need like memory cards and hobby electronics. Even consume products like hair driers and ear buds can be found if you look in the right booths.

You can still find basic electronics here. Hauling around two kids and two woman did make this entertaining, but I did have a great time.

Our original plan was to take the High Speed Rail back to Hong Kong, but traffic is heavy so we decided to go back to the KCR station, had dinner and then took the train back to Hong Kong. The mall at the train station had a ton of knock off products like fake shirts, sweaters and jewelry. Everyone

Shopping in Hong Kong

We stay in a hotel in Mong Kok and there is a ton of local attractions from specialty markets to street scenes. Just wandering around you will find little glimmers of beauty.