Hong Kong with buddies - Part II

(Daddy recounts)

Part II, also known as The one-that-kids-went-wild post

Erm, it has been a good 2 months since our holiday to Hong Kong and I'm still stuck at Part 2. Blame the huge amount of photos amassed during our 8-day trip and more importantly, procrastination.

(You can read PART 1 here.)

We alternated the adults' shopping time and the kiddos' playing time during our trip. And it helped that we shared our itinerary with them so that they knew exactly when it was their turn to have their share of fun. 

Believe me, managing 5 kids and 1 infant wasn't exactly stuff that Disney fairy tales are made of - even for 6 adults. But as soon as they knew what was in store for them, they kept their behaviour in check. Well, most of the time anyway.

And the first treat of the trip was Ocean Park!

It has been 4 years since we last visited Ocean Park and now we return with 2 slightly older boys and 1 additional imp.

Throw another 3 kids into the mix, and one would have something potent enough to even send those cute pandas scurrying.

Well, not that they were ill-behaved. Yet.

But in any case, what struck me was the huge changes that Ocean Park had underwent during these few years. I believe the layout of the park has changed somewhat- and one thing that was certainly changed was the play area meant for kids. It is now known as Whisker's Harbour.

Back in 2007, it was as creative as one could get - Kids World. Heh.

But whatever name it goes by, the kids weren't in the mood to know. They only had ONE thing on their mind - FUN!

The kiddie rides certainly hadn't been revamped. There were the usual all-time faves like the choo-choo train and flying bugs.

Which never fail to elicit squeals of laughter from the kids.

But the one thing which ranked as their top-most fave ride there had got to be the Frog Hopper.

It was a ride which slowly goes up and then brings one down fast.

Of course, since it was a ride for kids, the thrill factor was tuned according to their threshold for excitement. And from the looks of it, it was exciting enough.

But kids are actually highly adaptable beings, sometimes even more so than us adults. 

So after just one sitting, ALL 5 of them spent the next 15 minutes or so going up on this ride. Many many times. 

I was amazed they could still derive so much fun from it after the number of times of going on it. They were that easily contented. Perhaps we adults would do well to learn from kids sometimes, no?

As for Ale, she was easily contented with her merry-go-round ride as well. In fact, she made her mummy go on it with her for more than 6 times!

The kids then decided to call a timeout and head for the 'Sea Lion Fun Time' show instead.

Which even got Clara up on stage to act like a sea lion!

But if we had thought that the kids had enough of the Frog Hopper rider, well... we were utterly wrong.

This time, they coerced us adults into 'hopping' along with them!

Funnily enough, the ladies seem to be more scared frightened horrified cautious than the young ones. Heh.

In the end, all 3 adults fell prey to their constant egging.

I would have gone on it too. But I was worried that the ride might experience too fast a descent.

Either that, or I was secretly afraid the safety bar couldn't be pinned down securely. No thanks to my belly of course.

Finally, the kids grew tired of that ride and went in search of forms of fun. Like this playground.

The good thing about Whisker's Harbour was that it had more than enough rides, activities, play areas (including a bouncy house) to keep the kids occupied.

We must have spent more than half of our time at Ocean Park there. But we parents didn't (and wouldn't) complain, since it allowed us to sit down and chill over some piping hot coffee and hot dogs.

And when we did eventually step out of Whisker's Harbour, it was already late afternoon. But everyone was still obviously still in high spirits!

So we took their spirits even higher, by going up onto the cable car ride.

The kids were undoubtedly very much excited about dangling high up in the air, since they were able to go up higher than the Frog Hopper ride. I had to remind them though, that the cable ride was unlike that froggy ride, primarily because the descending portion would be catastrophic, not to mention splattering if they were the same.

Still, they took in the spectacular panoramic views and enjoyed themselves on-board.

Even Ale thoroughly enjoyed the cable car ride.

Truth be told, there wasn't much for young kids to enjoy at the other side of Ocean Park once we disembarked. 

Almost all of the rides at Adventure Land, Thrill Mountain & Marine World had the minimum height requirement of 1.22m and were clearly targeted at the older park-going crowd. Not to mention these rides were where the really long queues were. So at least we made the correct decision to let the kids spend as much time at Whisker's Harbour.

The notable attractions that were suitable for the 5 kids were mainly the aquariums, like the sea jelly exhibits.

Another one we would have loved to go was the Expedition Trail which showcased some of the rarest animals and plants in the world. Pity that it was turning dark and we had to make our way back to the main entrance.

And this time, instead of taking the cable car, we decided to take the Ocean Express. It was really a train ride, but made to look like a submerged watercraft so that we had the feeling like we were travelling under water.

I thought it was pretty neat, and more so since the queue was significantly shorter than the cable car ride!

And with the Christmas season fast approaching, it was not surprising to see every corner of the park being illuminated ever so enchantingly.

Definitely all very Christmas-y... with some very tired kids to show for at the end of a theme park day.

But we all had a great time of course!

Now for Disneyland - the ultimate source of fun that all the kids had been eyeing!