Korea + Japan 08/18 – E-World

Is everybody in?

Here we go, back to my favourite part of the world.

Flew into Seoul with Asiana Airlines, who from my previous short haul experience with them could have been world beaters but they were a bit underwhelming this time around – the entertainment selection was miniscule and the default offering of beverages was a whole 2 times in 11 hours.

Had a Seoul 밤 (night) in the old faithful hotel from our last trip with the heated floor that nearly killed me.
Then took the morning Train (not all the way) to Busan, no zombies included.

Daegu KTX station was a bit of a spite, having less big boy lockers than the nearby metro station which, with a lot of luggage in tow, managed to save the day for us.

Day 1 – E-World

Thought we were immediately screwed, as there was what looked like a closed ride sign at the ticket desk with pictures of a couple of creds. Too early for that disappointment, but what choice do we have other than to proceed.

Hmmm.

Magic Castle was a laugh. Always start strong on these trips with something high quality. It actually was, as they were sticking to the Korean tradition of female ride operators singing while kid’s rides are in action.

Highlight: Dangerously low clearance on the spiral lift hill.
Lowlight: Somehow ended up with grease on me.

The welded Boomerang was up next. Hiding well in the foliage makes it slightly less of an ugly sight.
The most unpleasant part I find on these is when the train does a hideous stopping itself dead within the length of the station when you reverse back in, which seems to be a more modern feature. The ones that overshoot the station again and come in forwards are fine, which this one did.

Highlight: Surprisingly smooth.
Lowlight: Just another Boomerang.

Poor operators.

Some intense swearing in dance music was occurring in the queue for Camel Back, which was somewhat amusing. Where’s the K-Pop though?

I liked this thing. It has the common features of a Jet Coaster but packed a bit more of a punch than usual, with some sharper than average dodgy transitions and a rather significant layout. Might have even been some air time in there.

Highlight: Somehow being run like Tivoli Rutschebanan, with crazy locals on their feet and leaving the train while it was still coming into the station. Not something you’d usually see out here.
Lowlight: No singing.

Final cred in the park is Hurricane. False alarm on that sign out front it seems, everything running as expected.

The common Asian loop screw layout from an obscure manufacturer. It rode alright but it’s even more overgrown around here and I actually took a tree to the face during the ride.

Highlight: Tree to the face.
Lowlight: Tree to the face.

This isn’t usually my sort of thing, but for some strange reason (seeing it on a Korean reality show) we decided to give it a crack.
It was both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

I don’t do well with being held upside down for long and on the odd swing it just hangs there for what seems like forever while I’m shouting “please stop.” When it clears the top at a pace the result is quite intense and it’s a long old cycle. Sort of enjoyed it, could have been far worse.

Hit the log flume for some fun. The splashdown effect from the boars looked pathetically weak offride, but it had better theming than Tiger Rock.

Grabbed some food and headed up towards the big tower at the top of the hill. It’s situated outside the park as a separate attraction, where there’s a secondary entrance/exit gate, but they gave out a set of vouchers with the park tickets that can get you in for dirt cheap.

For the benefit of tourism branding, Korea like to stick an adjective in front of all their cities to give them a bit of a buzz.

This is ‘Colourful Daegu’, and that does actually make sense. Look at all those rooves.

There’s a 400-odd foot fall on your face in a harness attraction up here but it costs ~£50 and after watching someone else, I managed to tell myself that it looks a little overly controlled rather than freefall, like one of those shot and drop towers. Perhaps the most intense part is the fact you have to make the leap yourself, the moment of truth isn’t done for you.
So no. SCAD was enough for me.

Took the cable car back down over the park just as it started to rain. Bit of a lucky escape.

I liked E-World enough, it had a general degree of charm to it, even though the rides aren’t anything to write home about. Not a bad little place for a cred run.

Pago Land?

Jumped back on the metro and headed to a reasonably nearby station before taking a leisurely half hour stroll in search of a powered dragon.

Some sights on the way.

It was a wasted journey in the end though. The ‘park’ was a weird little place on the side of a road claiming to be part of a major tourist resort and a complete ghost town. There were a couple of staff milling around the area giving us the usually Chinese look of ‘wtf are you doing here?’
Undeterred as always, we walked up to the cred, money in hand. The guy sitting on a plastic chair with his feet up on a second plastic chair in the station indicated something along the lines of ‘why should I bother getting off my arse to run the ride?’
And that was that.

Up next – more rain.

Day 2