What is an Indonesian Amusment Park Like?

Like Seaside at the Jersey Shore minus the Guidos, and with a lot less skin showing.

People riding the water bike

On Sunday morning we all met at McD's.
We = Ms. Katherine, Ms. Miming, Ms. Dewi, Ms. Windy, Mr. David Canada and me.
A driver also met us there with his car and he drove us the 2 ish hours to the place. WTL or something like that. I have a real issue remembering Indonesian words. To me they just seem like jibberish. Its not like I am usually bad at languages. I did alright in French and I can pick up new Spanish words fairly easily, but Bahasa Indonesian is hard for me. I just have the survival stuff like: left, right, yes, no, I want, thank you, maybe, and several items of food. But back to the real story at hand.

When we got there the parking lot was a sea of tourist buses. Most schools here are on holiday now and it was a Sunday so the place was busy. We paid 70,000 Rp ($8 CAD) to enter the park. This included most rides, entrance to the zoo and the caves.

First up we went into a haunted Pirate attraction. It was actually kind of hilarious and scary at the same time. I kept thinking that there was going to be a real person at some point jumping out at us. But no. It was just these mechanical people pirates going back and forth on their rails. It was dark, so that was the scary part for me.

There was also a Texas part of the place that was playing legit American country and western music. Not sure what totem poles have to do with Texas Native Americans, but yeah....

After the pirates we went on a ride that span around and around and would periodically bounce you up and down. The seats were really hard and you weren't strapped in so it was more uncomfortable than anything and Ms. Dewi banged her head and has some bruises today because she slipped off once.

Then there was the exact replica of the crazy mouse ride or whatever its called that they have at Playland. I have never ridden the one at Playland because the line is always like 1 hr wait. But I rode it at WLC. Scariest. Ride. Of. My. Life. I am not even joking. I was actaully legitimately scared. At every sharp hairpin corner I thought the car was going to careen off the edge and take Ms. Windy and I to our deaths. I screamed at every loop and turn and dip. It was really fun though, I felt like I was 12 again... I guess that is the point of amusement parks though, right?

Me at the sea-wall part of the amusement park

One thing that was missing from the Indonesian amusement park was "The Big Bag of Little Doughnuts" and other North American carnival food like hot dogs and fries. I was actually surprised by this because the Indonesians are all over American food usually, even if they do put their own twist on it. (ie. putting an egg on a hamburger for example). Anyways, there was good food though, like coconu water straight from the coconut, cheap Indonesian food and all sorts of Indonesian snacks and of course Ice Cream.

So as a few of our group went for a "flying fish" and "banana boat" ride Dewi and I stayed behind and sipped from a coconut while swinging on a "porch" style swing on the shores of an artificial beach (the ocean was real, but I suspect the sand was hauled in from elsewhere). I was in the shade and I was sweating just sitting there, it was a hot day. I didn't get burned though as the Indonesians are obsessed with not being darkened by the sun so there is shade everywhere AND I applied sunscreen. I wastched this video http://youtu.be/_4jgUcxMezM and it really made me think about my self skin care. My goal is to wear sunscreen everyday while I am outside, wear my UV shirt when I am in the water for a long time and not get burned once on my travels... stay posted...

After lunch and an attack by a feral cat on Ms. Miming (the cat just wanted some food but she was freaking out so it looked like she was being attacked), we walked to the zoo which was across the street.

Is that a tiger?

At the zoo there was a hippo, camels, primates (orangutan, spider monkey, baboon, howler monkey), cougar, tigers, lions, bears, birds, wildebeast, oryx, deer spp., prairie dogs and much much more. Can I just say something. I guess I can because it is my blog. I think zoos are awesome because you can see things really close that otherwise you might never get to see in the wild especially if you don't live in the Congo, but I haven't been to a zoo with mammals in many moons and I found it sad especially after doing an animal behaviour course last fall. Having primates in captivity should be made illegal in my opinion. There was one little fellow who was all alone in his cage and he reached through the bars just for a handshake from a human. That is how much he just wanted to be touched. Also there was one in a cage (alone again) swinging back and forth, going ape. I would go crazy too if that was me. And the big cats, also not cool to keep in Captivity....

I got what I deserved... the bird pecked the camera seconds after this photo was taken.
Monkey just wants some love... or food.

The caves were neat. I think they were natural, but all sorts of stalactites and stalagmites. Very very very humid though. My bubble gum went all soft.

The Caves... (Goa)

After the caves Ms. Windy and I went into a big cage, like the ones they had at Merazonia, an aviary if you will and we got to feed birds from our hands which was really fun. Reminded me of the wisky jacks in Strathcona Provincial Park....

Ms. Windy and the birds eating out of her hand.

I gots one too.

After the zoo we went home. But not before Ms. Miming fell in a puddle of puke. Ah yes, nothing completes a day at the amusement park like a vomit incident. There were bricks and someone had vomited on them. There was a slope and flip flops involved. Anyways, she didn't have a chance, slipping in the vomit and landing on her but. Gross. But the perfect end to a perfect day? I felt bad because I had successfully navigated the pile of puke, but also glas because it wasn't me with an unidentified persons puke on me...