Our birthday comes only once a year and we always wanted it to be celebrated memorably and happily. It's been my 5th time spending my birthday here abroad and this year was the happiest one since it falls on Sunday. The 2nd day of January on Sunday only happens two to three times a year, and lucky I was to experience it here in HK. And I guess there was a purpose for my contract extension, one of them is to experience the free water world adventure at Ocean Park.
Hong Kong is probably one of the best places to spend your birthday as there are a lot of things to do for free, such as free admissions on some of the top tourist destinations like Ocean Park and Madame Tussauds Museum, free and discounted coupons in dining in some famous restaurants and some offers free cakes. But since one day isn't enough to experience them all, what I chose was one of my dream places to visit here in Hong Kong, the Ocean Park Resort.
Luckily, my journey wasn't alone since I knew someone with the same birthday as mine, the person who worked before me in my current workplace. And the main reason why I was chosen by my boss, was because we have the same birthday and attributes, the Chinese Feng Shui thingy.
After registering our names online and receiving the tickets, free birthday coupons, and entry pass wristband, we started our water world adventure by passing through a beautiful underwater animal theme alley. The architectural designs were, of course, inspired by water world creatures, from jellyfish, octopus, coral reefs, and other underwater creatures.
We sat down on vacant seats under the umbrella sun shade tent by one of the outdoor restaurants along the alley and ate our lunch before visiting the main attraction of the park. We only eat the burgers I take out from KFC as the food inside the park was so expensive.
After eating our food, we visited the main attraction of the park.
The Grand Aquarium
Prior to entering the grand aquarium, a staff member was taking photos of the visitors and we never thought that it was for souvenirs. If I had only known in the beginning, I should have had a solo photo as well.
The Grand Aquarium is the main attraction of Ocean Park HK, especially for those who love underwater adventures and sea creatures lovers. There are a lot of water tanks, pools, aquariums that house thousands of fish and other sea creatures. There were different parts of the Grand Aquarium.
The first part was the Rainforest of the Ocean where a lot of small to medium size aquariums are found that house different school fish with cute coral reef fish. There were starfish, wolfish, baby seahorses, lionfish, tropical fish, yellow tangs, and other colorful and cute coral reef fish.
This was the shallow part of the grand aquarium. While heading to the next part of the aquarium, we saw a giant grouper being surrounded by cute clownfish. There were more aquariums for baby seahorses and sea dragons.
Strolling through the reef tunnel, I was marveled upon seeing the stunning ocean gallery. On the lower part, visitors could see different spotted eagle rays and other manta rays in different sizes, as well as sharks. And that was my first time seeing a shark in person in my entire life.
Heading through the deeper part of the grand aquarium, thousands of sardine fish were swarming inside the giant cylinder tank. And a few steps away from it was a spectacular panoramic viewing dome where we saw more large fish, manta rays, and sharks, swimming above us.
At the darkest depths lies one of the world's largest aquarium's viewing panels. We had a breathtaking glimpse of a school of small to large-sized fish, a group of eagle rays that seemed like dancing to entertain the visitors, along with the sharks that were gliding by alongside, and some manta rays lazily resting on the side.
That was a fantastic view of marine life, and those were the parts where I felt like I was really under the ocean. Adjacent to it was Hong Kong's only restaurant inside an aquarium. We were lucky to choose the time of visiting the grand aquarium as there were fewer visitors inside and we had better shots of the aquarium and the sea creatures in it.
At the exit, was Ocean Park's souvenir shop and the staff handed our photos to us. It was not free though as we paid more than HK$500 for the two sets of souvenirs consisting of photo frames and crystal balls with our photos in them.
Thanks for reading.
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