Sarah was due to write the blog today, but she has retired early for the night due to a very sore eye. I’m sure people won’t be too upset that Alan is writing it instead. The things I have to fake to get away from writing the blog.
We awoke this morning to the heaviest fog since we’ve been here in Hong Kong. We could barely see anything from our hotel window. Since today was our last full day here, we had planned to travel to nearby Macau for the day.
Sarah’s dad decided that he needed a break from us today, so he stayed behind to spend the day by himself. By the time Sarah and I had got ourselves organised, it was already after 10 am. We set out for the China Ferry Terminal which is supposed to be a 9 minute walk from our hotel. We’re kind of slow, so it took us closer to 25 minutes, I’d say.
Once we arrived, we went in to buy ferry tickets. What we discovered was that most of the morning ferries had been delayed or cancelled. It was 10.30, and the first ferry we could buy tickets for was 11.30. We did so and found somewhere to sit down and hang around. Finding places to sit down in Hong Kong can be rather difficult, by the way. They don’t seem to like the idea of providing seating areas for some reason.
A short time later, we noticed on the departures board that another ferry had been cancelled and ours had been further delayed. Sarah was getting worried that once we made it to Macau we may not be able to get back today due to the heavy fog. This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem except that we fly out to China tomorrow and must not miss our flight.
So we made the decision to refund our tickets and give Macau a miss. I was disappointed since I had really wanted to visit there, but it might have been a blessing in disguise as there’s every chance I would have lost a bucketload of money in the casinos. Unlikely you would have seen the inside of a casino with the itinerary I had planned for us.
We were now onto our backup plan of going to Ocean Park for the day instead. It’s an amusement park which we had driven past while on the bus tour yesterday. We went back to our hotel room as we no longer needed to have our passports on us.
Sarah’s dad still wasn’t interested in coming with us, so we tried to figure out the best way to get there. Unfortunately there are no trains to that area, so it had to be either bus or taxi. We took the ferry across the harbour and then got in a taxi. Not long later we were at the park, for a very reasonable fare.
By now it was starting to heat up and our jackets were off soon after we arrived. The fog had dissipated on this side of the island and it was blue skies overhead. We thought we’d head straight over to where the rides were since it was already afternoon.
It’s a strange amusement park in that part of it is built at the foot of a mountain, while the other half of it is built way up on the side of the mountain, overlooking the sea below. Whichever bright spark came up with that idea must have a screw loose.
Anyway, we made our way onto the cable car which links the 2 areas of the park. It’s long and high, but you get spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, bays and beaches. Pretty scary actually so I had done my scary ride of the day.
Once we reached the other end, we checked our map to see what was what. The nearest ride was the Hair Raiser roller coaster. Sarah isn’t one for riding the scary rides, so she took the opportunity to sit in the shade while I queued for it. It was a fairly standard floorless coaster. Fun, but not particularly scary, given some of the monsters I’ve ridden in America.
Next to that was the River Rapids water ride thingy. Water rides are usually the only ones I can get Sarah on. We were both happy to get on there today since we were pretty hot. It was quite tame, but we got cooled off a little.
By now it was about 2 pm and we still hadn’t eaten yet today so we thought it might be a good idea to get
something into us before we pass out from starvation. Straight after finishing our lunch I went on the Dragon roller coaster. Probably not the best idea with 2 burgers barely digested, but luckily I kept them down. That was a pretty rough ride and my shoulders are looking somewhat worse for wear tonight.
By this stage we were suffering badly from the heat. We definitely did not wear appropriate amusement park attire, but having been such a foggy morning, we didn’t think it would turn out so sunny and hot. It also didn’t help that the park is very hilly due to it’s location and there is not a lot of shade or places to sit and rest. Seems to be a different world there as when we got back to the ferry it was still foggy on this side.
We decided to walk down the steep hill to where a couple more rides were situated and then catch the shuttle bus back to the park entrance. I went on the Mine Train coaster and then both of us went on the Log Flume water ride.
Neither were anything more than average, but the redeeming part of this park were the magnificent views while sitting high above the cliff on a coaster.
So we went and got on the shuttle bus and after a very slow trip due to traffic and roadwork, we arrived back at the park entrance. By this time we were both very tired from the energy sapping heat and humidity, plus Sarah had a very sore eye and I had once again hurt my ankle while getting out of the log flume ride. So we decided to give the animal exhibits a miss and go back in only to buy a magnet for our collection. What a pair we are.
After that, we left the park and queued for a taxi. Eventually we got one and he took us back to the ferry terminal at Central. Sarah could barely see by now, or open her eyes, so I had to lead her. Not the best situation given I had a bad ankle, plus I’ve been known to sometimes be slightly clumsy. But we did manage to make it back to our hotel room unscathed.
Sarah’s eye is no good so she didn’t feel like going out to dinner anywhere. She ordered room service while her dad and I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant. It was the first time we’ve been there and we had the buffet. It was great! There was a huge selection of food to choose from. I think I might have had one bowl of banana cream pudding too many for dessert however, as I’m now not feeling particularly well. Oh well, I had to get our moneys worth, didn’t I?
Tomorrow we fly to Xian, providing the fog isn’t too thick for the planes to take off. And they let someone with an eye like mine get on the plane. When we did the online check in we found that there were only four free seats and we aren’t anywhere near each other. That will make the trip even less fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment