Nrthwnd

And now that we're done with pandas for now..... more parks! And it's another Happy Valley park! This one is named what else?... Happy Valley Wuhan. HVW is the home of the newly built "Dauling Dragons" which may or may not have anything to do with racing, lol. Apparently, the staff don't run both trains that often, if at all. It looked like the ERT we had riding and (ahem) "High-Fiveing" each other from both running trains, was more than they had ever been run since getting the coaster! Hmmmm. But - it was a great time riding the coaster and getting oh-so-fingertip-close from a side angle. Much fun. And although two of their other coasters were still "in maintenance mode" (or in one case, still being built and finished!) the rest of the park had enough flats and stuff to keep us busy till leaving time. And then - we rode a very sick and twisted little coaster, that shouldn't have been built in the first place! Or "added to" I guess would be the better term. And a few other s-a-p coasters along the way, to dinner, the hotel and then the next morning..... flying to Shanghai! So this is Dauling Dragons at Happy Valley Wuhan - which has the (now) TPR famous "High-Five" in it....if and when they run both trains together! Then there's this lovely thing, we got to ride after DD. Also note the green "IV bag" attached to the tree? Wierd and they were all over the park's trees. A view from the Dauling Dragons station. It really is a well laid out coaster. Purty. The coaster was called Hidden Anaconda... which really wasn't that hidden, lol. Bjorn gave me this shot of himself .... uh..."saying Hi" to those passing by in the raft ride. Great Bjorn... I have no idea what we were trying to do in this shot - but it's after our turn on the raft ride. And Bjorn got the 'wettest' of it, heh heh. This shot is from Bjorn, too. I "think" this better explains things. Uh, maybe not. Bjorn is so...um...silly. Bjorn also got this shot of those of us in the shoot-the-chute boat, getting water blasted by those "on shore" ha ha. I'm there, trying to use Jon as my shield, lol. Not much success I can see there. After Happy Valley Wuhan, we headed to parks with trees and sculpted landscaping...and a coaster or two, of course. This park had some really nice sculpted trees through-out it. Very nice. A looping coaster, at this park I cannot remember it's name, sorry. Blurring memory, hmm? And THIS is that coaster (an old Toboggan) that should NEVER had this loop added to it! But we rode it anyway.... At Fishermans Wharf park, I am pretty sure. Something about the back area of this one restaurant we ate at - very creepy. And I happened to snap a pic of this McDs from the bus. And then a few of us came back to this, wanting a bit of a change from the Group Meals. And it was good. And Bjorn gave me this shot he took of me with both of us on A Coaster in "A Park". Which one(s) I do not know. But I thought I would end this post with it. I'm happy, I'm on another coaster, I'm In China!, life is great!

Dippin' Dots Clusters. Yummy.

Hmmm. Christmas Cards very tempting... (It looks really great, all the snow on and around it.)

"Intellectual Property Complaint"? Great way to put it, lol.

Twist 'n Splash with pirate ships! Very awesome.

^ LOL Great shot! Here's a recent one of Stella. A common sleeping position, lol. With Cheshire looking over our sleeping beauty.

Harvest Moon Neil Young

That happened to me and Neil too, when we rode together on the same slc. For some reason, I had a bit of wriggle room, but Neil thought he was going to stop breathing, or pass out altogether! Fortunately, it didn't come to that, but it was scary-close all the same.

Mitsui Greenland Sept.2007 - not so good, even with walk-ons. Mitsui Greenland June2011 - much much better. Crowds and temp-wise.

Actually I wish i could make it a three-tour year, including that awesome-sounding Texas/Midwest Tour! The museum alone would make me want to do it - test my strength, ha hah.

Well guys, I decided enough is enough. Between my fawning over cute and cuddly RED PANDAS, and then Elissa comes barging in, calls them the Devil Child of whichever ugly animal two-some she can configure in an immediate post.... Well, it goes on and on, deopending on which tour it is, where we are, which zoo, etc. So - its a choice between two kinds of pandas. Pick Black & White. Or Red. Maybe if you can post why you like one over the other, that would be Awesome. Of course, posting a fave photo as well would add to the important diwscussion we are about to undertake. And it will run until my TR on China is finished. Or three weeks. Whichever comes first. Like I said - this bunch of beauties.... Or this sweet Thing of Evil?

^ I can honestly say, that I never was interested in the first place to do this, even before knowing how much it would cost, etc. That said, I REALLY enjoyed the surprise of being able to hold a Red Panda, at Happy Valley Chengdu; totally unexpected, and a neat surprise making that park's visit all the more special for those of us who held The Devil Child, lol! (EDIT To Add: And Jon in Ontario? How did your devil child photos turn out? Please post and share!) I think this is my fave of the bunch taken of us with...... It.

Texas is hot. But Japan is HOTTER.

And so, moving right along... PANDAS! Or rather, the Panda Research Base, in Chengdu. All dedicated to keeping those cute, adorable, black and white bears, that look and act like they're stoned most of the time, and eat as much to prove it so, LOL! All in the atmospheric themeing around us of... you guessed it... bamboo trees! It - was - everywhere. This is what really happens if you let your little bamboo plant get out-of-hand in the yard, heh heh. It was all lush and green! This was also The Place where one could fork over a couple hundred+ US $ and then be made up like an extra on "Grey's Anatomy" (blue smock, footcovers, cap - all BLUE!!!) and THEN have the fun of actually balancing one of these hefty bamboo suckers on one's lap. Get the pic taken and....and you're done! Most of the tour did this. I chose not to, as did a few others in the group. And we hung around the building where the "lap action" took place, people-watched, and enjoyed ourselves - doing nothing and relaxing - while the rains came down on us. A good day for poncho-wearing, lol! Here we are at the Research's entrance. And speaking of blue... it's Poncho-Wearing time! This one was from Nagashima Spaland, Japan. Rained pretty good that day. Interesting way to use the bamboo that grows all over the place. Like a cathedral archway, it was. After walking round and up and through a variety of wet leafy pathways, we finally came across... The Group Meal! As perfected by this group of slow-moving, overweight....cuties. Litter slobs, too. I think the bottom one was trying to 'mate' with the top one. Interesting ritual, hmm? Neat what one can do with an umbrella, eh? And none of the locals I saw, even looked at her once, while the rest of us snapped and snapped (pix) away, lol. Also - YAY - My Kind of Pandas! I love devil children! There was a lake there as well, with tons of koi fish swimming around and acting (feed me! feed me!) freeky as usual. A few black swans got in on "the feeding frenzy" as well, and fared pretty good I decided to try some self-taken pix and Bjorn decided to be cute. I see you there, Bjorn. And this was on the bus to either A) another park with sad and pathetic coaster(s), B) lunch or C) to the airport for our second internal flight...to Wuhan!

^ Just this.... at the Great Wall... Ha ha. (o; Other than this, and some cats running around here and there, nothing 'wild' that I remember. And everything else was either at a zoo, or in a 'habitat" somewhere.

^ Ooooo, very cool EB! Does it have a name? I mean, it's your mother's pet, yes? (Sorry to sidetrack, but This Is Cool!)

^ And which one would you rather have on your lap, hmm EB? (Not to mention being done up like a ~fake~ intern to hold The Big Thing.) Although I "suppose" it could be true, of Cheryl 'catching something' from this adorable cutie!

"Welcome to Jackson" from the broadway musical BRING IT ON

As to the topic's question --- Not if I can help it! Too much world-travelling to do, lol. Here's where I wanna be - if and when IT happens.

^ I'm not too great with heights... But that was a great video! And ooooo....Scandi Tour in 2014?

I like Disney Parks-related stuff. Go figure. This was the Hong Kong Disneyland Haul from the recent TPR China Tour I did.

^ I have never seen the english ones, and I still loved what I saw and heard at Universal Osaka. The Hostess was very funny and.... ...limber. She was great, even if I didn't understand a word she said... at superspeed!

^ Looks like a very laid-back "orgy" to me, lol. Or this might be afterwards, and the bamboo is the smokes!

^ Well that took all the fun out of it... Good information to know, thanks Jason. Another reason not to go over $30 US, anywhere in the world, lol.

Hmmm. Well, why not? I'm in. And I will send International, too. Is it time for "eggnog" yet?