Ocean Park, Tea Class, Banquet

It's pretty awesome that there's a regular bus (Citybus 629) from Admiralty to Ocean Park every 10 minutes. We took it this morning, and arrived to a Disney-like theme park, complete with overly orchestrated theme music blaring at the main gate. Admission was reduced by 10% as I was able to redeem our ticket stubs from the Wetland Park. Our first stop was the Grand Aquarium, where a tall cylindrical tank filled with milk fish was a highlight for me, as well as the giant tank with a massive viewing window.

 

Here are animals from the panda exhibit: a red panda (aka fire fox) and a giant panda.

 

We skipped most of the snack kiosks (don't even bother with the roasted corn, disgusting) and held our hunger at bay until we took the cable car to the other side of the mountain. There, we had an excellent meal at Cafe Ocean: Vietnamese-style vermicelli for me, and a mushroom-vegetable and rice dish for Sarah. Good quality ingredients, good size portions and reasonable prices. Highly recommended if you're visiting the park. The far side of the park has mostly rides but there's a few animal exhibits and another aquarium too.

 

After returning back in Admiralty, we met up with my parents and headed over to the Lock Cha Tea Shop (next to the Museum of Teaware in Hong Kong Park) for a Tea Appreciation Class. I called to reserve a space for this last week, and we spent an enjoyable hour sampling Chinese teas, and learning about the classification based on the colour of the brew. Another important take-away was that not all teas should be made with boiling water: some, like green tea, require cooler water. With our class came a 10% discount on tea purchases. They serve vegetarian dim sum during the week too.

 

Our dinner plans for the evening were courtesy of a longtime friend of my uncle's, Vivian, who hosted us at the Kiangsu Chekiang and Shanghai Residents (HK) Association Restaurant. This members-only establishment is not unknown to me, so I was excited to try it again. I don't remember any of the dishes we had, but Vivian made sure to specially order vegetarian items for Flick. It was a long night for Gabe, and we feel torn about having to keep him up so late, but feel obligated not to leave too early as we're the guests of honour.