Oh Hey, Stanley.

So, one of my biggest regrets from our holiday to Hong Kong was not being able to get out to the seaside. It wasn't really our fault, it was mainly due to the last few days of the trip being awful.


Sadly, Hong Kong's blue flag beaches remain elusive to me, that said, we did make it out to Stanley.




Never in my life have a seen a dog in shoes, other than in this great video, obviously, I thought they were a joke...


There are Goods of Desires all over Hong Kong but of course I had to stop in each one we encountered. They have so much nice stuff and do so many great collabs, it was hard not to come away with something every time.









I would argue that Stanley is one of the most westernised parts of Hong Kong, at least of everywhere I've ever visited. A lot of ex-pats live there and there are quite a few Brits-abroad-style pubs. We did get it on a cloudy day so I probably would have had more fun if the sun was shining but there are some great shops there and we had some amazing food at Xia Fei Shanghainese, even if it was served with a slight snarl, rather than a smile.

The market in Stanley is must-go but due to its windy, enclosed paths, it can all become a bit samey and it's not too dissimilar to the kinds of things you can pick up in Mong Kok.

Never Too Many Pandas.

You can definitely never have too many pandas. As an animal lover I'm really conflicted about zoos, on the one hand there's the happiness of the animals and on the other, there's the conservation side of things. I feel that Ocean Park probably does do a lot to conserve China's native animals and actually, most of the enclosures are nice and big, and that's despite the huge theme park expansion they've been working on since I last visited.





I did actually lug my DSLR along for the ride for this excursion but my new snappy little Canon did a pretty swell job too - I'm actually thinking about getting my butt in gear and talking about my cameras in an upcoming post, and it's that little camera that had me inspired.

I just felt like my blog needed more pandas and more animals, it's been a while since my goat-crazy phase of the summer.




This monkey's weird, human-like face creeped me out a little, sorry little guy.


Making like a panda.



Making like a dancing panda.




Panda selfie, can you tell I like pandas?




Red pandas are an acceptable panda substitute and these guys were much more boisterous than they were when I visited in 2011.


So pretty.





Weirdly, and probably second to pandas (obviously), I think the goldfish exhibition is my favourite thing at Ocean Park. I think it's because it reminds me of my mum and it's actually pretty neat as they include the history of the goldfish too - bit more exciting than it sounds (only a bit).




The Ocean Park cable car is still one of the quietest places I've been in Hong Kong, gives you time to think.




It's days like this one where Hong Kong is a completely under-rated holiday destination, look at that sea!




Saw my first arctic fox, so that was neat.






Sloths: not as slow as you think.


For more panda-related fun, I would recommend David O'Doherty's 100 Facts About Pandas, the most accurate panda book I have ever read.