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.

Mong Kok Afternoon.

These are from an afternoon wander around Mong Kok after we slept in late. We decided to head to Goldfish Street (Tung Choi Street), it's honestly like nowhere else, they would never have animals for sale in the same way they do here, I'm not saying it's good but it's very Hong Kong, and wild, and interesting, and photogenic.

My mum has since said she doesn't get how they can have so many fish surviving in such small bags, my mum's a goldfish fan so it's certainly not something she would condone but even she is fascinated by it.




Terrapins are available for as little as £1.50, they're great for feng shui and people often put them in the ponds in local parks.

Central Adventure.

Hong Kong already feels like a lifetime ago, this year has swept over me so quickly it's hard to even think about everything that's happened but I thought it would be a shame to have so many photographs from such a great trip and not get around to sharing them with you. At first I put it off because I didn't have time, then it was because my old laptop was too slow, now, I guess I haven't really got an excuse.

Because I have so many pictures, I always had an idea to blend these posts in with other content but when I didn't get around to writing much else, I just put them on the back burner.

These are from a long day in Central, the main part of Hong Kong island. It included a visit to a temple, discovering my new favourite place in Hong Kong, the PMQ, taking in street art and hiking up to the Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens before taking it all in again by boat.


[Man Mo Temple, 126 Hollywood Rd, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong]
There are lots of Man Mo Temples across Hong Kong but the one on Hollywood Road is the largest. It houses hundreds of huge incense coils which were great to photograph, we did have to mind the falling ash though!









I love that despite being so dense and urban, there are still nods to Hong Kong's almost-tropical roots and rather than chopping some trees down, they're still there, making themselves known.