A day to remember

Today I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I saw, not one, but 4 pandas, this is An An, the biggest show off of the gang.

Sis and I set off early for Ocean Park

Ocean Park is a theme park with a difference. It's intended to be a fully educational experience, but is handled in a fun way. It's a not for profit organisation and is very big on conservation and on protecting endangered species like the giant panda.

It still has the fun bits of a theme park, cable cars, roller coasters, go-karts and even a McDonalds food stand, but the main aim is to let people see pandas, dolphins and jellyfish to name but a few, in a protected environment, much kinder than a zoo.

We headed straight for the Pandas
Ocean Park has 4 pandas, the original oldies are An An (above) and Jia Jia, they have their own individual areas within the enclosure.
Next door to them are the new kids on the block, Le Le and Ying Ying, who were gifted to the park by the Government to celebrate 10 years of Hong Kong's 'hand back'
The pandas live very happily in this environmentally controlled area and An An in particular seemed to love showing off for the crowds, including carrying out the amazing feat of doing a handstand, a wee and a poo, all at the same time!
(A panda's way of marking their territory)
They even have their own Panda page and blog on the website!

We eventually tore ourselves away from the amazing bears and headed off on the chair lift to the rest of the island to see the Jelly fish, sharks and other fellows. It was way too hot though (mid 90's) so we headed back after a while to the shade of the panda enclosure to watch them some more before heading back to Kowloon.
After dinner we went off on a drinks cruise round Victoria Harbour, it was nice to see Kowloon from the Hong Kong side at night, especially with a cup of wine in our hands!

Home to rest with a big smile on my face, today was really really special and I still can't quite believe now that I've been lucky enough to see not one, but four of the most beautiful, surprisingly agile, playful, funny creatures in the world.