Finally on my own

I woke up ready to explore by myself. I was thrilled to have had the time with BJ and Charlie but I was ready for some 'me' time- especially after the bore of a night I had.

I decided to go to the largest aquarium in the WORLD! We all know how much I love them! What I didn't realize was that Ocean Park, as it was called, was not only an aquarium but a theme park. The place is massive- it is on two mountains connected by a gondola or a free shuttle bus.

I was only interested in the aquarium. I started out in the shark tanks. It was pretty standard nothing stood out to me yet. They did have zebra shark which were really cool looking. I also saw a sting ray and a shark sleeping next to each other, touching. I never thought that the two species would do that. I wonder if that happens in the wild too. I learned that there are over 344 species of sharks- wow, who knew?!

A couple of other things that stood out... the Jelly fish exhibit. By far the coolest I have ever seen in any aquarium. It was most impressive. They had some really big guys, which reminded me of the ones I saw in Brazil as well as having deadly box jelly fish that kept us out of the water in the northeast of Oz. The jelly fish area was pitch black with a lot of mirrors and changing glowing lights to show the jelly fish... it almost seemed like a fun house... sometimes I walked into the mirror!

They also had the biggest sting ray I have ever seen. It was massive probably like 5 feet wide (okay maybe 4). Remember the toy light bright? Well they had a food chain map that was basically made out of light bright pegs, it was hard to read but looked cool.

The Aquarium was huge. I now realize that the largest aquarium claim refers to the actual aquarium where the fish are housed- not the entire offering as a whole... because Baltimore is still way better. BUT... the aquarium tank was enormous and seemed like so much fun for the fish. The coral was amazingly bright and I would have thought it fake if I hadn't seen similar stuff in Thailand.

I was pretty much ready to go when a huge storm hit! They closed the gondola as the lightning storm was right above us... I got soaking wet trying to find shelter. I was getting annoyed, but didn't let myself and you just have to go with it. I made it to their crappy Chinese restaurant and got some soup and waited out the storm. I left when it was drizzling. The gondola was still shut down but I had to make it back to my bus which I thought was at the other end of the park. I therefore had to take like 6 escalators to the exit of the top portion to catch the bus to the main entrance. I made it practically to the top exit when I saw a tent with a sign for an ice skating show. This place is wacky- an aquarium, ice skating show, hot air balloon rides, carnival games and rides. I guess it is perfect to bring the family to- but all I really wanted was the aquarium and what a hassle it was to get around! The place is to big!

It was raining a bit harder so I figured might as well check out the skaters. I took a seat in the back, one of the last left and was stuck in front of this guy that was sucking his teeth... ahhhh. It drove me crazy! I have to say the Chinese really do spit, pick their nose, burp and suck their teeth whenever and wherever. The skaters were all westerners and this was cheesy as could be expected. It was a great laugh! It was silent, just to music, but had a demented magical story line. The magic was actually really cool and fooled me.. I just still don't get the disappearing act- how do they do it?! I was ooing an ahhing to a lot of the tricks... just fascinating to me! One other cool act was an acrobat with two long strips of fabric he did all kinds of twirls an lifts with them, showing off his very fit body! He also sailed across the audience holding onto the fabric and came back and pretended to run over them as he swung... it must take unbelievable strength to do what he did and it was so graceful! I enjoyed the show much more than expected.

I exited the top of the park and realized that another bus was going to take me back to Hong Kong Island from there... it was an easy commute back. I even found a travel agency and booked a ticket for Kunming for the next day. I decided to get the most of my time and see China. My brothers co-worker happens to be in China, so we decided to do some travelling together!