We’ve planned about this trip 3-4 weeks in the making. Since we’re all busy at home we really can’t find the right time to go out and spend time together. Finally, November 2, 2012, we decided to give it a go. Mama, my brother Danilo, my nephew Kharl and myself.
We checked out the sea lion first. We all enjoyed watching the sea lion swim to and fro inside his big aquarium. We even saw someone cleaning sea lion poop underwater. Kharl enjoyed watching it, his first time to see a sea lion.
Then we checked out the famous Oceanarium where we saw different kinds of fishes. Big, small, very small, tiny ones, sea horses, sharks, sting rays.
After that, we headed to the penguins, according to Mangki, the penguins were the newest additions to the park. I would have wanted to try the “feed them” part but there’s a separate fee for it which will cost me about 500 pesos but can admit up to 3 people. Nah, I had to say no to it. I was contented seeing them inside that big aquarium. About a few weeks ago, I saw an episode on MARS, where Camille Prats went to Manila Ocean Park with his son and they fed the penguins. It was fun watching, and as I’ve said, I was contented seeing other people feed them penguins. My 500 pesos goes to feeding.. myself. Ha! Ha!
After that Antarctica experience, we entered a medium-sized room called The Snow Village. We were given winter jackets as according to the staff, the temperature of the room we’re about to enter dropped to -20degrees. Yes, that cold. So I was ecstatic, we were all excited to enter The Snow Village. True enough, the place was beyond cold. Snow everywhere. We sat on a bench there, took picture on that side. We saw Snowman on one corner, a funny-looking vehicle on that part of the room. We even saw Santa Clause. I personally enjoyed the experience, remembering our trip to a similar theme park when I was in grade school. I was with Danilo then. But it was an entire theme park then, so we did a lot of things then. So we had to go out as Kharl was already freezing and Danilo’s hands were already shaking. I think we were inside that room for about 10-15 minutes only.
We went out and did a short carbo load. Donuts and sodas. Then went to see other stuff inside the huge park. We entered the Jellies room where we saw different kinds of jellyfish. It was fun to watch them bounce up and down but it’s boring, for me. Mama enjoyed watching them, though. We also checked out the Penguin Talk Show – don’t ask what happened, we left after 2 minutes. Hahaha! I thought had I stayed for a few more minutes, I would have died of boredom. I realized then Kharl’s already grown-up when he agreed it was boring. Not even funny for a 9-year old kid.
We would have wanted to stay a little more but Danilo needed to go back to his office. We drove away from the place and went to Market Market to buy food for our cats. And since it was almost dinner time, we headed to Bonifacio High Street to eat at Bon Chon, Mama’s favorite. While walking past these restaurants and boutiques, we saw Ginebra’s Willie Wilson and Mark Caguioa. Ginebra, in case you don’t know was on a four-game losing skid then, I knew in 2 seconds, a hug tight will help. I hugged Willie, also my kumpare — I am his daughter’s godmother, by the way. Mark on the other hand gave Kharl a high five. We moved on and ate at Bon Chon.
I would consider that day one of the funnest days this year. I got to spend time with my family (although we’re not complete), visit Manila Ocean Park, ate at a restaurant I love and hey, bumping into my favorite basketball players do not happen everyday and it’s a beautiful thing! Come December, when our schedule at home gets a little sweeter, we will go back to Manila Ocean Park. I’m sure our little princess Thalia will love the place.
thatgirlthania's Blog 