Saturday 30 November was the day before Halloween. Not having participated in this pratizan American tradition before, I was left wondering what one could do to commemorate this day (Please don’t scream from the rooftops to tell me it is: costumes, sweet and “trick or treat” – I know this. I mean: I am in Korea surrounded by a large contingent of Americans, thus I wonder what we will do to commemorate it)?
As it happens, Courtney, Sam, Sandy, Colleen, Ashli and her friend Cote, as well as Tarrick, Brandon and myself decided a trip to a Korean theme park was in order.
We went to a place called Wooribang Land – in Deagu. Grabbing my camera we rush out the door on Saturday morning to meet up with the crew from Pohang who are on the same train as us, just in different cars. Rather than bore you with the details the journey, the long and the short of that section was that we got to see Sam’s awesome make-up artistry as she had crafted a gash on her arm out of various make stuff and techniques, and we went to have lunch at a place just outside the park. Recently I have had a pension for Udong noodles in broth so that was my lunch. It was a very pleasant way to start our day of riding rides! For the visual representation please do watch the video below :)
We went to a place called Wooribang Land – in Deagu. Grabbing my camera we rush out the door on Saturday morning to meet up with the crew from Pohang who are on the same train as us, just in different cars. Rather than bore you with the details the journey, the long and the short of that section was that we got to see Sam’s awesome make-up artistry as she had crafted a gash on her arm out of various make stuff and techniques, and we went to have lunch at a place just outside the park. Recently I have had a pension for Udong noodles in broth so that was my lunch. It was a very pleasant way to start our day of riding rides! For the visual representation please do watch the video below :)
As we walk up to the park entrance we all grad a little light dessert following lunch – well I grabbed desert – Pohang Crew grabbed a drink each. At the entering handing out the day passes we characters dressed as Wizards in glass boxes. We saw this and knew today would be a lot of fun.
After entering the park I wondered around the gift shop for a little while and then went in search of some rides. HOWEVER – the 1st ride that was chosen was a spinning swinging, turning thing called The Cancan. I was not at all keen on this ride as I had only just eaten lunch so I skipped out and took photo’s instead. The ride after that though was great fun – it was the water log ride, though standing in the queue Myself, Brandon and Tarrick were not at all impressed with the amount of spray from this ride. You go on log rides to get soaked. This was not happening. The water was barely making it into the log!!! We 3 guys decided to go in one log together to add some weight to ours and try to get some spray. It worked to a degree, though we still didn’t get soaked :-P
Disappointed at the log ride we decide to try one of the rollercoasters...
...it was like a 40sec ride so again we were disappointed, HOWEVER that disappointment was alleviated when we were not let off the ride and were instead given a second go because there were no other people in line. A trip to the batting cages brought a welcomed sight... while I was waiting to have a go in the cage I saw a giant kiddie pool filled with water. Nothing special right. WRONG! On the water there were these giant plastic bubbles. In the bubble were little REAL children. They were like bubble boys/hamsters in balls – it looked brilliant!
After I had my stint in the cages I looked at Brandon and Ashli and we deiced to try and have a go in one of the giant bubbles. We get to the ride and the operators were not keen at all. We were too big and would hurt the little ones apparently. Luckily we had a Korean lady who spoke great English lobbying for us (until she saw Sandy and said – “Ah she can help you now” assuming Sandy was Korean). Eventually we paid our Won 5000, took off our shoes and had to promise we would not be too rough and the let us in. I TELL YOU THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF ALL WE DID THAT DAY! It was so so so so much fun.
...it was like a 40sec ride so again we were disappointed, HOWEVER that disappointment was alleviated when we were not let off the ride and were instead given a second go because there were no other people in line. A trip to the batting cages brought a welcomed sight... while I was waiting to have a go in the cage I saw a giant kiddie pool filled with water. Nothing special right. WRONG! On the water there were these giant plastic bubbles. In the bubble were little REAL children. They were like bubble boys/hamsters in balls – it looked brilliant!
After I had my stint in the cages I looked at Brandon and Ashli and we deiced to try and have a go in one of the giant bubbles. We get to the ride and the operators were not keen at all. We were too big and would hurt the little ones apparently. Luckily we had a Korean lady who spoke great English lobbying for us (until she saw Sandy and said – “Ah she can help you now” assuming Sandy was Korean). Eventually we paid our Won 5000, took off our shoes and had to promise we would not be too rough and the let us in. I TELL YOU THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF ALL WE DID THAT DAY! It was so so so so much fun.
You got slipped into this plastic bubble that had air pumped into it and it was then zipped up. They pushed you onto the water and then you were on your own.
All you could hear was the sound of your breathing/any talking you did and the sloshing of the water. No matter how hard you tried no other person could hear you as the water was pretty loud. I took the challenge of trying to balance and stand upright in the bubble.
NOTE THE FACE PLANT IN THE VIDEO! ;)
However when I was getting it right the guy who was monitoring our time in the bubble and making sure no-one fell out of the pool, decided to push me over. It was so incredibly fun and what a workout! I was so tired when I was finished, that’s for sure.
A LIFE LONG DREAM FOREFILLED - I got to be a Hamster in a ball (if only for 5min)
NOTE THE FACE PLANT IN THE VIDEO! ;)
However when I was getting it right the guy who was monitoring our time in the bubble and making sure no-one fell out of the pool, decided to push me over. It was so incredibly fun and what a workout! I was so tired when I was finished, that’s for sure.
A LIFE LONG DREAM FOREFILLED - I got to be a Hamster in a ball (if only for 5min)
Bubble experience over we decided on another rollercoaster. This one went backwards and then forwards, man it was quick. I even got the guts to stick my arms out as we were going around. It was getting dark so we started to think about going home but before that I got goaded into going on the circle of death. For more info refer to:
It was actually not as bad as was described, so much so that we all decide to go again, which was a mistake as the operator had changed and he was a little more sadistic. I was sitting next to Tarrick and he was in no position to be on this ride.
The Operator saw this and made it is mission to try and get Tarrick to let go of the pole that was holding him in place. Tarrick the trooper that he was, lost his glasses in the process but hung on for dear life and made it to the end (even though he seriously damaged my leg when he landed with his full weight on it after one of his bouncing escapades. At one point we all decide to just hold on with one hand (which I was doing anyway) and wave the other in the middle. We thought we were so hard core and we were even joined by 5 Korean who that we were AWESOME. All this paled in comparison to the little girl we saw who held onto nothing at all. She was out circle of death idol! Now don’t get me wrong – the ride is very silly and in some ways rather dangerous, however we all couldn’t stop laughing while on it. Maybe it was because of nerves but I think it was mainly because one person was laughing at Tarrick predicament and then whenever I looked at that person or Tarrick I had to laugh as it was incredibly funny.
The Operator saw this and made it is mission to try and get Tarrick to let go of the pole that was holding him in place. Tarrick the trooper that he was, lost his glasses in the process but hung on for dear life and made it to the end (even though he seriously damaged my leg when he landed with his full weight on it after one of his bouncing escapades. At one point we all decide to just hold on with one hand (which I was doing anyway) and wave the other in the middle. We thought we were so hard core and we were even joined by 5 Korean who that we were AWESOME. All this paled in comparison to the little girl we saw who held onto nothing at all. She was out circle of death idol! Now don’t get me wrong – the ride is very silly and in some ways rather dangerous, however we all couldn’t stop laughing while on it. Maybe it was because of nerves but I think it was mainly because one person was laughing at Tarrick predicament and then whenever I looked at that person or Tarrick I had to laugh as it was incredibly funny.
One more go on another (and the best) rollercoaster (we could see the whole of the park skyline as the sun was setting) and then we slowly made our way back to the entrance. On the way though, we got distracted by a series of performances on the main stage - presumable telling fairytale stories/ talking about the different cultures around the world. ONE WAS EVEN ABOUT AFRICA! - I recognised that fact because this is what I saw:
We all (with the exception of Ashli and Tarrick who were staying in Deagu) had trains to catch but wanted supper first. Tarrick said he knows an awesome burger place. Little did we know that he actually was not 100% sure how to get there. It took us 30min of walking to get there and then we waited for 20min for our food and as a result we missed out train and had to catch a bus. Sigh. The sandwich I got though was really tasty!
We all (with the exception of Ashli and Tarrick who were staying in Deagu) had trains to catch but wanted supper first. Tarrick said he knows an awesome burger place. Little did we know that he actually was not 100% sure how to get there. It took us 30min of walking to get there and then we waited for 20min for our food and as a result we missed out train and had to catch a bus. Sigh. The sandwich I got though was really tasty!
So that was my first experience in a Korean amusement park. Would I go back... HELLS YES!!!
Stay tuned to Geoff’s Asian adventure for more things to come...
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