Hong Kong Wetland Park

Hong Kong, China - February 13

We arrived early in the morning and breezed through customs & luggage pickup.

Next, we found an ATM and bought our Octopus Cards that can be used for transportation and for purchases in some stores.

We grabbed a taxi to the Sheraton Kowloon. (turned out to be just a couple of buildings down from the YMCA Hotel (no affiliation with ours in the States) where we stayed last time.

Sheraton Kowloon

We were too early to check in and they stored our luggage until we returned.

We planned a pretty chill day and visited the Hong Kong Wetland Park. Our Octopus Cards were used to go by the Metro and then connected to their light rail and then walked the short distance to the park.

The 61-hectare wetland reserve and ecotourism park are home to a diverse range of wetland plants and animals, from mangroves to rare species of birds.

We started with lunch which was good. I had a pork cutlet in curry sauce and Greg had chicken curry.

Greg took this in the men's room - they had an area for the kids

pork cutlet curry

chicken curry

They were doing a lot of renovations, but what was open was very well done. Lots of birds and it was pretty peaceful except for the many young school children on outings from school.

Great Cormorant

Egret & Grey Heron

Taiga flycatcher

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Black-collared Starling

many school children picnicking

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Grey Heron

Green-winged Teal

Common Greenshank

Northern Shoveler

Chinese Pond Heron

Black-faced Spoonbills

Marsh Sandpipers

Great Cormorants

one of many viewing areas

workers renovating the area

Asian Tit

Great Cormorants

Spotted Dove

Northern Pintails

Great Cormorants

Northern Shovelers

Common Kingfisher

Little Egret

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Black-collared Starling

We saw 32 species of birds here today. 6 were new birds for us. (Taiga Flycatcher, Black-collared Starling, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Common Kingfisher, Black-faced Spoonbill, and Garganey)

Asian Tit, Black Kite, Black-collared Starling, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black-faced Spoonbill, Black-winged Stilt, Chinese Pond-Heron, Common Greenshank, Common Kingfisher, Eurasian Moorhen, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Eurasian Wigeon, Garganey, Gray Heron, Great Cormorant, Great Egret, Green-winged Teal, Large-billed Crow, Little Egret, Marsh Sandpiper, Medium Egret, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Pied Avocet, Purple Heron, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Spotted Dove, Swinhoe's White-eye, Taiga Flycatcher, Tufted Duck, White Wagtail

We scrapped going to Nan Lian Garden as it was in the opposite direction, and we really didn’t have time. (plus, we were jet-lagged and wanted to get checked into the hotel)

We were staying on Marriott Bonvoy points at the Sheraton. We were upgraded to a harbor view room. It was a nice room, but the bathroom was weird. The cruise ship bathroom has more space in it. Most of the room was taken up with a huge shower area that also had a separate tub & shower behind it. The sink was probably 3 feet long and took up all the space on the counter so there was no room to put anything. Then, the fun part was how to flush the toilet. This 3-or 4-inch disk on the wall that took both hands while standing to push it and then angle it at the same time so it would flush. What were they thinking?

Since we have been doing more land trips we often comment on the oddities in rooms around the world. (Cathy, I know you are smiling) 

Dinner tonight was in the Bonvoy lounge where they had phenomenal happy hour food and free drinks. 

Tomorrow, we plan to take the HOHO bus. We've done that before but thought it would be fun to do it again. 

Full photo album: Hong Kong Wetland Park https://photos.app.goo.gl/2xHhz2jDcfEKFDQW7