Schwarzkopf

^ Haha, true. It was the humidity that was the worst really. It just adds like, 10 degrees onto what it actually is! We did get used to it, but the first few days in HK were vile... Part 3 - Chimelong Paradise After Hong Kong we moved over into the actual People's Republic of China. The border crossing was a lot smoother than we expected, but the difference between Hong Kong and the mainland does hit you like a truck to be honest. It's fine after a couple of hours, but the initial faff was foul. Chimelong Paradise (and Chuanlord Manor, another random park near Chimelong with like, 9 creds) are in Guangzhou, and we were staying in Shenzhen (where most of the parks were), so we decided to get it over and done with first as a day trip. Luckily, when we rocked up at the station in the morning we took our passports with us, cus the witch at the counter wouldn't have flogged us a ticket otherwise. The journey was about an hour and a half, in a fab bullet train, so we were fooled into thinking that Chinese trains were fab... more of that later though. I think at some point in the journey Ben had to do a runner to the toilets due to an early Chinese stomach. Just thought I'd throw that in there. So, Chimelong... (Chimelong pics are all Bens because I CBA) First we minced to the B&M Dive Machine with the innovative name 'Dive Coaster' It was pretty much walk on at first, and they only had ONE train, so it did get a bit putrid later when we went to re-ride it. This doesn't REALLY need reviewing, as it's basically Sheikra. It was fab though <3. Love how the front is just empty... Chinese people are so weird. After that we headed over to the other side of the park towards the Colossus Clone and the Booster Bike, stopping off for our Intamin Half Pipe cred on the way. It was actually VILE. So uncomfortable, so painful, just UGH. The one in Finland wasn't anything special, but this one was actually offensive. Next up was Colossus. Well, '10 Inversion Roller Coaster'. Meh. It was better than Colossus, but only because it's not quite as old. It'll probably be disgusting in a few years too. Next, Motorbike Launched Coaster! It was awful. Velocity is actually better. It was just really rough and vulgar, which I didn't expect after riding the Intamin looper, which was in a fairly good condition. Kiddie coaster <3 Love these... The Final cred (I think...) was the Mack family coaster thing. It was pretty good actually, and had some amazing notices <3. Such an Intamin... Baboosh <3 As we needed to leave and get to Chuanlord, we only did one flat, the Giant Frisbee. It was quite fab, but not as good as the huge Intamin Gyroswing we did in Shanghai. That'll come eventually... We then rerode the Dive Machine and left. Chuanlord up soon!

... Hong Kong <3 Ocean Park I didn't realise how much I failed to take photos at some of the parks... The day we went to Ocean Park it was BOILING, which didn't help my 'ugh' mood at taking photos. The cable car gets you from the entrance/zoo bit to the top bit, where the credz are. Is that a cred? I think so... The mine train thing was fab, if a bit random. The location was stunning though... The other (open) cred was Dragon, an arrow looper. I wasn't the biggest fan, but Ben seemed to love it. Asians and their bloody umbrellas. It was funny at first, but by the end of the trip was VERY irritating. We got stabbed in the head so many times that the phrase 'I just got UMBRELLAD' was born. After some other rides (Rapids, Log Flume, S&S Tower etc) we headed back down to the entrance/zoo area, via the new 'ride' which is basically a train which cuts through the hill back down, and had a date with Pandas <3 Aww <3 Hong Kong Disneyland Again, hardly any photos, but I always find it hard to capture a Disney park in photos anyway... Disney has its own 'line' on the HK Metro, which is basically an extension line of an existing line, just one station from the main part of the other line. The trains were fab <3 The park is quite small, so seemed rather packed, although when the new areas open it'll be a lot better. Small World <3 Tomorrowland... BTW, Space Mountain here is AWESOME. I think it's quite similar to Cali's, but seemed so much faster and was just totally insane. Loved it. Last photo (I really did take like, NONE), of the castle. Other stuff we did: The train, which goes around the edge of the park, which did our OCD in. The seats all face inwards (as in, you're sitting sideways looking in at the park). It sounds like it makes sense, but they've already started building beyond the original boundaries of the park, so you don't see everything. PLUS, all you see for most of the ride is trees anyway. Pointless. Lion King show <3 Stitch Encounter, which was pretty funny considering I hate Stitch (sorry Mark!)... Jungle Cruise, which was poo. Winnie, which was pooh. The Golden Mickeys show (a compilation of random characters and scenes). This was quite dissapointing due to the fact that it had too many burdenous characters, and hardly any fab ones 3. Uhhh... yeah. There really wasn't much here, but I still really liked it. Like I said, it'll be fab when the new stuff opens. Other HK stuff... This was fab. Getting darker... There we go. Mincing on the left. The towers on the right have had a few fingers <3 We had cocktails at the International Finance Center: Oh, also, someone told us to go and see this Buddha. She forgot to mention how expensive the cable car was, but we'd gone all the way so had to do it. It was :dontswear:, fake and touristy. Thanks! It did have some fab views of the Airport (built on reclaimed land), though... The Burdenous Buddha: The last Major thing we did in Hong Kong was go up to Victoria Peak, which we ended up calling 'Vicky Peak', then 'Vicky P', then 'Vicky Pollard', then 'Pollard'. Yeah, it's not funny at all, but it was at the time <3. Stuff on the way to the Vicky P tram... The tram had a burdenous queue, so we ended up sharing a cab with some randomers. I think it was a couple of quid each, so wasn't any more expensive really. The view <3 We had to wait a couple of hours for it to get dark, which was burdenous as you wern't allowed to smoke anywhere /////3. It eventually got dark, but my camera sucks at night photos so this is all I could salvage //3. So yeah, that's it. Hong Kong is fabbb <3.

OK, This summer Ben and I (not very regular posters, but we both did East Coast 2008 and West Coast 2009!) did a huge China trip, stopping off in Qatar and Hong Kong on the way. Whilst in China we did the parks in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing, as well as some touristy stuff <3. I'm using a mixture of our photos. First couple of days - Doha, Qatar There are hardly got any photos from Qatar because we were only there a couple of days, and it was too hot to do ANYTHING, let alone take pictures. It's amazing what oil & gas can do... Beach... We took some frames <3 The Cred is the only coaster in Qatar. It's in a shopping mall, which has the typical 'fake Italy' theme. The cred: It's a spinner, but they must've given up on that because the cars were locked facing forwards. It was pretty disgusting... It gave ben a black eye <3 Such tack... Sunset... So yeah, Qatar was interesting, but it was Ramadan so we couldn't eat (or smoke 3) all day. Probably won't go back, but it was a nice stopover and worth it for the country cred! Hong Kong (Ocean Park, Disney and Sightseeing) up next...

Home - United Kingdom (you can't count them individually...) Andorra Austria Belgium Canada Cyprus Czech Republic Egypt Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Malaysia Monaco Morocco Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal San Marino Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United States Vatican City I make that 40, but it's going up by 3 in August (Qatar, Hong Kong, China)...

OK - Rest of the park. My camera battery was playing up so I didn't take that many, but Raptor was the main focus of the day, of course. From the nearby station there's a free shuttle bus to the park, yay! It was quite empty. Firstly we did Raptor, which had a 5 minute wait (one train). See previous page! After that we did the SLC, Blue Tornado: It was well presented, but of course it's just an SLC. It did have the extra helix though I found it very rough. Not the worst, but far from the best. We then did the Mine Train, Mammut, which was fab <3. Although, we had to wait 10 minutes because they only had one train running, which is silly for such a long ride (3 lift hills), but I guess they didn't need the capacity. You can't really get any photos of it because of the theming, but it's hugggeee. Then we had some lunch, and proceeded to the other 'cred corner': I'm not ashamed to admit that I like Vekoma loopscrews. The ones I've ridden have always been fairly smooth, with this one in paticular having fab restraints that made headbanging impossible! It was walk on, and like I just said, it was fairly decent. I was quite excited about the Screamin' Squirrel, not because I thought it was going to be good, but because it's so strange. It wasn't as uncomfortable as I was expecting, paticularly the hang time, which wasn't as bad as I expected. I really don't understand why they crammed it in where it is, possibly because of it's height? It's not like the park don't have any space... But yeah, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly good. Some of it was rough (the bit where you go back up hill slightly), which is an achievement of S&S I must say! The Log Flume was nice... not much else to say really. The park is gorge <3 As we were in the Area, we did the kiddie cred (which I neglected to take photos of) and the girls rode the Top Spin, which I bag ladied for because they're vile. I think after that we did the shooting dark ride and the walk through, both of which were decent. I had no idea they had either of these! The drop tower was fabulous, even though it's tiny. I was suprised by the willy lift, but it might just be because I haven't done a drop tower for ages. I <3 Flying Islands A non-park view: This made us venture over to the other water SECTION: The rapids were fab, but Fuga had died, was testing, but didn't open again. Gutted, it looks fab and it's SUCH a cred too When they finally spited it and turned the water off, we minced into the kiddie section to the fab excessive tree: I'm glad the girls forced me in, as there's an actual Vekoma madhouse inside! Well, underneath it, but make sure you check it out. Then we did Raptor again, and left. Oh, and is this real coaster track? So, all in all Gardaland is a great, well-rounded park with something for everyone, and great theming (paticularly on the water rides), however they're lacking in the coaster department. Most of them are clones, and obviously Raptor could be better, but without Raptor it's a VERY weak line up, so it was a good addition in that respect.

^ I'm guessing it's because of the trains. Conventional heartlining won't work because the trains are so wide, so it's better to do more of an Inline Twist. It's the same on Baco.

I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure changing just the seatbelts will eliminate (well, reduce) the problem. The restraints have 'unlimited' clicks, so are locked safely as long as you physically fit in the seat. But, if the belt doesn't reach then obviously they can't let you ride. Having longer belts that you can adjust (like on most other rides) should solve this. Hopefully . Obviously there's always a cut off point with really large people, but I feel that the cut off point on Raptor isn't very fair.

Yeah, usually B&Ms are quite fat friendly. It'll be interesting after there's been a big trip there to see how many enthusiasts get rejected, seeing as we're quite a rotund community . As for the theming, there isn't REALLY that much. Apart from the structures around the last twist, and the jurassic-esque fencing and entrance, there's not much else. What's there is nicely done though! I didn't really notice the near misses as much as I thought I would... they look better from an offride perspective.

So, I'm nearing the end of my year in Italy, but was waiting for Raptor to open before I went to Gardaland. I'll start off with Raptor, as that's probably the only thing anyone is interested in, then I'll do the rest of the park... Firstly, I'll start off with the major problem I have with this ride. The seatbelts. OK, I'm not exactly a size zero, but I had to take my wallet out of my pocket in order for the seatbelt to do up, even though the restraint was locked comfortably. The seats and restraints are great, sort of like air, where there is a seperate bit that moulds to you. However, the seatbelts are only about 5cm long and are not adjustable. When you combine this with the fact that the restraints (like Colossus) head straight for the tops your legs, I saw several people who I wouldn't class as fat having to do the walk of shame simply because they had chunky thys/big hips. More annoyingly, I saw a couple of old men with big beer bellies coming off the ride fine simply because they had skinny legs. Is there a reason for this? Why should such a major ride with large, comfortable seats that could accomodate even the largest of people, and lock safely, eliminate so many people because it doesn't have a bloody seat belt that you can adjust a couple of inches? I really hope they learn from this, and the one at Thorpe is different, because in the UK especially I can see tons of people not being able to get on it, let alone in the states. Anybody who is planning on going here and feels like they need to lose a bit of weight, start now, as you may be in for a shock! It's for sure given me a kick up the arse, being that close to being rejected from a major coaster really worried me. Anyway, apart from that, i'll give my review of the ride, followed by photos. So, It's pretty dull. It was walk on all day and I only rode it twice (front and back, inside and outside). The back is better, as you actually get a *bit* of a drop, but to be honest, it never feels like you're going above 30mph because there is such a drag on the huge trains. It honestly feels like you're going a constant speed throughout the entire ride, apart from the first drop in the very back. Regarding roughness, I thought it was fine. It was slightly bouncy, but not like on rides such as Baco that give you a headache, more of a gentle bounce. It kind of feels like there's suspension or something. Plus, with the restraints, even if roughness does develop there won't be any headbanging at least. That's really all there is to say really. It's quite meh, but at least it's pretty smooth and an 'easy' ride. I didn't find it very fun, because I felt that I was always expecting some sort of acceleration or something, but (especially at the front) you just feel like you're dragging the burden of the rest of the train around with you the whole time. However, the GP seemed to like it, and it's a good addition for the park blah blah. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask. Photos: Messed up... So yep, that's it. I'll post the rest of the park later, just thought I'd get this up ASAP .

^ We had it arranged for us by the owner of the hostel... but all they did was reserve us places on the daily public tours. The tour we went on was by Solo East, and is supposed to be the best one. http://tourkiev.com/chernobyltour/ Prices are all there. We did the regular tour, which is a minibus that they fill with random people. The other ones are more expensive because they're private tours. Part 3 The only photo I have from our hostel is of the weird bog roll. It made me realise how much I take toilet roll tubes for granted. Sure, it's annoying when the bathroom is cluttered with them because nobody can be arsed to chuck them, but still. Love you toilet roll tubes! <3. The hostel was only a short walk from Independence square (the very centre of the city). Along the way was this phunky looking building <3 Independence square 'look, five identicle buildings have come to meet here' This would never happen in the UK... At weekends they often have events/concerts etc in the square, and the main road closes every weekend regardless of what events are on. This provoked a nice atmosphere. They had some weird 'Ukraine and India' concert going on... Like most places, it also gets dark in Ukraine. In the distance I spotted a huge fake rainbow, which was quickly named 'gaynebow'. We wandered over in an attempt to find the pot of gold. Sorry for the quality, my camera is a homophobe. There were yet more rides here... a Miami, dodgems and THIS It was like a kiddie version of a Booster/Top Spin hybrid. It looked horrible, and inverted about 100 times (no joke). The cycle was excessive. The last couple of days were spent sightseeing, and generally roaming around whatever looked interesting on the map. Metrooo Eggz I see the beach. How soviet. She's 350ft tall. So butch! She was nicknamed: 'pork-sword' 'the dyke' 'the dyke with the sword' 'vadge' ... at some point or another. Gay tank intercourse <3 There was so much gold in Kiev. Newer buildings over the river, complete with gun (L) Venomous CREATURES! We then climbed a bell tower, which I annoyingly don't have any photos of. There are plenty of the views though... First level Bendy-Brams! Gold. Same view, but from the top: Hazey photo looking towards independence square. The stairs were actually quite putrid: Go me. We then minced down the road towards another religious church thing, whilst bitching that it's silly that churches are always nice buildings, when religion its self is such a load of poo. Interior Literally a stones throw away was more gold (the one you could see from the bell tower) church action... Although this one was fab because it had a funicular behind it <3 Looking downnn Looking uppppp Looking goooood (hehe) Traffic For our last meal we inhaled a disgusting amount of pizza, and absorbed enough beer to drown Michelle Mcmanus. I love how ILL he looks <3 We did polish it all off in the end (L). The following day we hopped on our gay pink plane back to Luton and said our goodbyes. (this was taken on the way, not the way back, but fakk it). Thanks for reading etc . x

Thanks for the comments everyone! It's always good to know that people appreciate my efforts, hehe. Anyway... part 2. After two early mornings we decided to have a lie in and go to the beach (complete with credz). We didn't set an alarm expecting to wake up at about 10, but overslept massively untill 12:30! We got the fab metro complete with huge escalators: after 3 stops on the (red?) line, we arrived at Hidropark (an island in the middle of the river) for an afternoon of creds and beach. We decided to head to the creds first to get them over and done with (well, I decided ). Something is telling me the park is a bit run down... the round up doesn't look too open either... or this thing... complete with fallen tree shame, it's clearly a cred The creds didn't look too promising either... Rust... Lack of restraints... The kiddie cred looks a bit dead too... However, I noticed a notice that implied the rides opened at 14:00, and it was currently about 13:30, so we decided to have some lunch and then head back later on. The beach was nice, considering it was on a river in a capital city... (notice the box, talk about public changing rooms!) Touriste. Kiev has lots of gold stuff... more of that later though. This thing was amazing. We thought it was a lifeguard tower, until they moved the inflatable thing infront of it. The idea is that you sit on the end, and your mate jumps off the tower (sending you flying). Martyn got some great flip-book style photos of this which he'll hopefully post soon. I think he's doing a topic in life outside. Right, time to go back to the creds in a vain attempt to get them. We took pictures, and got shouted at by scary gypsy fair people. Staff being around was a good sign I guess. I see an op in the station who doesn't speak a word of english. He just points at the cred, mutters something and points towards a token stand. OMG, is it actually open?!?! I nervously buy a ticket and wait for other riders (theres no way i'm riding that DEATH trap on my own. People arrive, and we are diverted away from the seats without restraints, and sent on our way. Naturally, the op was too busy smoking a cigarette in the booth to check the restraints that were actually in place. Photos of the death trap courtesy of mr hoyer. May I add, this was the most scared i'd EVER been on a cred in my life. It was rough from start to finish, and made some pretty horrendus noises. and WTF is up with that train?! I wanted to sit at the back, but, it doesn't look too safe to me. The worst transition ever The second worst transition ever... the force it flipped over that hill spike was insane. I then rode the kiddy coaster, which literally LAUNCHED the train into corners. The op even made me hold on at the side because the lats were so ridiculous. I thought it was going to derail. . I was actually really shaken up after riding the coasters (as they were clearly unsafe), so after chaining a couple of cigs we headed back to the beach, sat at a beach bar and had a few drinks (only one beer, it was too damn hot for alcohol)! Martyn liked the women. But they didn't like his sweaty back after a day in the 40 degree heat To be fair, he was wearing a rucksack. I personally find it sexy!

The North Korean credits. For sure.

Mr Hoyer and myself embarked on a venture to ex-soviet europe last week. The main reason was for a Chernobyl tour, which used the capital, Kyiv (Kiev) as a base... so we made 5 nights of it and also spent a day at Hidropark (an island on the river through the city, complete with beaches and CREDZ). As per, I'll do this in parts rather than days... Part 1 - Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Part 2 - Hidropark (beach and cred stuff) Part 3 - Kiev city stuff. Part 1 We arrived at Kiev airport and got picked up by our taxi dude (complete with sign), he couldn't speak a word of english so put me on to the hostel owner. We originally wanted to do Chernobyl on the sunday, but they only had places for the thursday (which was the following day). It all happened quickly but it worked out in the end. The Chernobyl power plant area consists of two exclusion zones. We reached the first zone after about an hour and a half, got out of the bus, showed our passports and were allowed through. This exclusion zone is roughly a 30km radius around the plant, and still poses higher radiation levels than normal. However, these levels are still tolerable. Once inside the zone, we were hearded into a meeting room where our tour guide gave us a bit of history about the Chernobyl disaster, and we all signed a disclaimer which removed any liability to the tour company or staff for 'further deterioration of your health after the visit' or something. The guide was quite funny... if a little whacky. Our first stop was a couple of military vehicles which had been cleansed for human contact. The signs are just there to make it look better in photos, which hoyer found hillarious RADIATION! First abandoned building of the day... After a bit of a wander we were back on the bus again and at the chernobyl river harbour. Boats! Momument to the firefighters We were now on our way to Pripyat (the city which housed the workers of the plant). Pripyat is a lot closer to the plant than Chernobyl itsself, and is a lot more contaminated. Shortly before arriving at Pripyat, we passed the 10km exclusion zone, and visitors are only allowed in here for a short amount of time. To our suprise, we were allowed in ALL the interesting buildings. Health and safety was non existant on this tour (disclaimers <3), as is evident in the following photos. Hotel From the top The reactor which melted down Safe! Trees growing on the 6th floor... showing how much nature has claimed the city back from humans! This place was like a snapshot of 80's soviet life. I think EVERY photo of martyn I have is of him taking a picture... We then wandered into the library (and had to walk over all the books to the next room) which was a sports hall of some discription... more health and safety! Kids swimming pool ...and the part I was most excited about, the fairground! Supermarket The adults swimming pool, complete with diving board! I spot a hoyer... Changing rooms There was some cool graffiti around the city... this one was in the pool Last up was the school, before a quick stop at the reactor (my camera died spite, but hoyer grabbed a few snaps), before we had dinner and returned to Kiev. Schooooll Map from when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union Books in the corridor (the woman in the green and purple was british... she was soooo amazing). and a final photo, of a classroom. On the way out of the exclusion zone we were tested for contamination by standing in this machine, and putting our hands on two metal pads. If you were clean, the gate popped open and you were allowed to leave. We all passed, but god knows what would have happened if someone had failed! Thanks for reading, more to follow later!

Part 7 This was my last proper day in Malaysia, and it was being spent at the Genting Highlands resort. I had already booked my bus/park entry for an amazing £10. The bus took about an hour, and went from KL Central The bus drops you off at the foot of the gondola lift called 'Genting Skyway', which is neaely 4km long! This sign was chilling out in the station; Every time you reach the top of a hill more and more just appears... it lasted about 15 minutes. Once at the top, I appeared to be in a cloud. The pattern of being able to see fine and not being able to see more than a few feet changed throughout the day... more of that later. I'll start with Flying Dragon, which was closed all day spite. It didn't look hopeful. They gave it a colonic and it still wouldn't budge! Shame, as it looked fab in a messed up way... Nearly in tears from missing a cred, I cheered myself up on the Volare, which was an upcharge (the outrage!) of about £2. Naturally, it was HORRIBLE. Although, it broke down shortly after me riding and was closed for the rest of the day, so I'm lucky in a twisted, perverted way... What's that coming over the hill, is it a vekoma? is it a vekoma? Again, it was putrid. Next up was the Pinfari. I think it might have been the first cred in malaysia or something? Then suddenly... clouds passed through and I couldn't see any of the creds! Once it had cleared and I could see again, I grabbed my mine train cred, which was actually pretty cool. Although, the park was designed badly and I had to walk through a shopping center to get to it! I had all the creds from the outdoor park, so headed into the indoor park. The theming was actually REALLY good in here, and was themed to various global cities. London Paris Venice In this one I can spot New York amongst other things... The coaster was called 'euro express', and oddly enough goes around the european section. They had their own petronas towers! Near the coasters entrance area there were big windows with views across the park; Time for some random park photos... ^(do you think energizer batteries are a sponsor, by any chance?) Dark ride, which I didn't bother with, although it's probably fab... Entrance plaza It started pissing it down, so I got the cable car back down to earth, which was TERRIFYING. I then spent the last night in my hotel (which I stayed in after checking out of the hostel after one night, as it was foul)... the view: After a good lie in, the whole day was spent on a bus back to Singapore, for my flight back to Heathrow the following day. It was quite luxorious for a coach <3 COMING HOME My a380 <3 The route So in all... this trip was amazing. It's the first time i've travelled on my own, and I was slightly anxious beforehand, but it really isn't difficult at all. There are moments where you want to talk to someone, but if you stay in hostels you are free to natter away and go off with people if you want to, but also have some 'me' time if you're not in the mood. Note: Singapore is a great place to start in Asia, as the british influences prevent it from being overwhelming. It really isn't that different, but it is at the same time... <3. Thanks for reading!

^ I have no idea, but thinking about it it is pretty huge... but a bit bland. Although it is in shrek i guess... Part 6 I was meant to do this the day before but overslept, so, here it is. Sunway Lagoon is about 30 minutes from where I was staying in central Kuala Lumpur, and because taxis in Malaysia are so cheap, and it was hot, I was lazy and got a 30 minute taxi ride . It was less than a fiver, on the meter, although you have to ask for the meter or you'll get ripped off (even though there is a sign on every taxi saying that haggling is prohibited). Sunway Lagoon is a giant resort including hotels, casino's, a large shopping mall, an amusement park, a water park and a wildlife park. Of course, I headed for the amusement park, to my annoyance that I had to purchase a ticket for all 3 'parks'... it was about £15 though so i'll survive! You have to get a giant escalator down to the entrance, but have to go back up on the other side to get to the creds... The scenery and theming was pretty good here, although it was pretty run down in places. I gave the inverting ship a miss... First cred (because the other wasn't open yet) here was the powered coaster, which of course was distinctly average and doesn't need a review ... the log flume looked pants too... Map-porn The map specifically for the amusement park I then proceeded to the other cred, which had opened. Soquet <3 It's american adventure all over again... It was dodgy but FAB Strange supports that don't touch the track... It ACTUALLY had some quite fab airtime! Good but run down theming Exclusive-taken-without-permission-but-they-don't-care-here photo: Photo of a carousel with post spite... I got bored of the amusement park and headed for the wildlife park, seeing as i'd paid for it and all... I want one <3 Exoticness I especially like the next two plants... Everyone says this is nice, but I think it's REALLY tacky: Across the lake, more run-down-but-good-once-upon-a-time stuff... This isn't cruel/irrelevant whatsoever; After an hour or so i'd had enough and headed to the batu caves, and took a couple of pics of the waterpark on the way out. This slide looked cool... I PROMISE I don't take photos around semi naked children very often! I walked through the mall on the way out. Naturally, I walked through the M <3 Ice Rink ...and the most pointless ferris wheel EVER View from the carpark/smoking area: As the park was on the very south of the suburbs and the Batu caves were just outside the city, but the north, the taxi ride was nearly an hour, and only cost about a tenner! If taxis were that cheap here my life would be complete... According to the taxi driver this is the parliament building... not very impressive. The caves look great as soon as you step out the cab/bus/limo/caravan or whatever else you may be travelling in. As monkeys like food, and tourists have food, the steps were littered with crazy wild monkeys that would do anything in their power to gain ownership of whatever you had on you (I even saw someone get attacked for a bottle of water ). Thus, I made sure I had nothing interesting on me as I don't want diseases... (don't ask what that white stuff is... i'm not into beastiality so have no idea!) baby monkey <3 From behind. (your minds are filthy, these caves are religious!) I then did a bit of caving myself... religion On the way out I managed to capture action photos of a monkey LUNGING at some people <3 It's looking... they're looking... Attack! You can see them almost crapping themselves too <3 I'll end this part with the view from the top of the steps, looking towards KL Fin

Thanks for the comments so far! Some of you may find this the most boring section of the TR, but i'm really into my skyscrapers and views so this was one of my favourite days. Plus, i've always had a secret obsession with the Petronas towers . Day 5 I was supposed to visit Sunway Lagoon and the Caves on this day, but I massivley overslept so figured an afternoon/evening wandering around the city was a good idea. I'll also throw any random KL city photos from other days in here to pad it out a bit . I got RapidKL (the metro) to KLCC (which I assume stands for Kuala Lumpur City Center, although the transport system here was confusing and poorly designed IMO, but I won't go into that!). You are greeted by a cute park... ... then you turn round... <3 <3 <3 It was BOILING so I couldn't hang around to take many photos, and planned to return in the evening. From here, the KL Tower is visible, although the walk seemed like miles in the heat. I opted for the 'nature walk' way of getting to the tower, which was on a hill (rather than the free shuttle bus). Monkeyssss... but more of them in the next part So, to fill the awkward moment of me being the only person waiting for the lift up the tower the guy started telling me about how this glass was from Iran... 'it's not crystal or anything, just normal glass' way to excite me and pimp up where you work... LOL The lift took under a minute to get up 1,000-odd-ft, resulting in popped ears. Petronas towers from an angle (the building which looks like twin towers but are connected lower down is Times Square, where Cosmo's World is). By the time I got back to my hotel it had started to get dark, so I had just enough time to freshen up for some night-time petronas time. Expecto Petronas! moooooooonbridgeee (not pig) Fin.

Day 4. The cheapest way to travel between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is by bus. I paid £15 each way for the 5 (but 7 hours with immigration checks, rest stops and general bus faff) hour journey. There were cheaper buses, but I got the more luxury ones as I didn't want a long journey with no aircon or leg room! After getting off the bus twice for immigration (leaving Singapore and entering Malaysia) you are greeted by this sign: Jungleness taken from the bus: 6 hours or so later I was in Kuala Lumpur. I was tired and it was about 6pm so I thought i'd get Cosmo's World done and dusted (it's open till late). I used the KL Monorail to get around quite a lot, although the trains aren't nearly long enough for the amount of people that use them (even though the platforms could clearly accomodate longer trains...) After getting lost in the gigantic berjeya times square shopping center......... .....I eventually heard screaming and stumbled across this! I'll post a load of photos of the coaster (Supersonic Odyssey) and then write a very small review... (This transition was fab!) ^ As some lifts are right next to the ride, I attempted to get some exclusive shots from inside them It isn't top ten breaking (obviously), but for an indoor coaster it's incredible! I like ride interaction, so loved how it snaked around the shopping area during the prelift. Like colossus, it was rather rattley, but MUCH more pleasant than Colossus (even with the older trains). It was short, but long for an indoor coaster, and had some pretty intense moments (such as the turn through the mouth after the loop). Photos of other rides... I'll post this again as you can see the tower ride and mini top spin thing in it... They also had bumper cars and a double inverter style ride, but I failed to take photographs! The theming throughout the park was pretty crazy/drug-induced; I then got the monorail heading towards TITIWANGSA (hehe) and headed home for some food, wifi and an early night Fin.

I'll do day 3 now as it's about time some credz were featured! Day 3 - Universal Studios Singapore Firstly, I had to get the monorail back to Sentosa from 'mainland' Singapore; Again, the park was sold out. However, i'd pre-booked this time so it was all systems go! A photo of this has to be included really... The queue to get in 3 Mappage %5Bimg%5Dhttp%3A//sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs160.snc4/37345_10150228335500054_743580053_13365807_3657649_n.jpg As it rains a lot in the region, lots of parts (not just in the park, but in the whole city) were covered like this: I knew battlestar galactica was closed (as it has been since march) due to the major fault, so headed straight for the shrek area for my kiddie cred, 'Enchanted Airways' To get to the shrek land you walked through Madagascar... which had a few cafe's and a few kiddie rides. More Madagascar with the Shrek castle in the distance So, onto Shrek land and my first cred of the trip. Obviously it's just a rollerskater, but as usual with Universal it ran 2 trains and has some decent theming. Despite the park hitting capacity, the queue was only 15 minutes (generally the park didn't feel THAT busy... perhaps they're stricter with capacity laws in Singapore?). I know those photos are a bit repetative, but meh, might as well post them all! General photos of the Shrek land... There was a 4D show in the castle which I didn't bother with, as I hate 4D shows... Terrible photo of the castle 3 More nice theming, which will lead onto photos of Battlestar Galactica. Even though it was closed and I was bitter, I was nice and got some photos to share The areas were REALLY close together as the park is tiny (you can see mummy theming right next to it on the other side... Sci Fi city and Egypt just blended together carelessly... I'd have liked the transition to be more subtle but heh. So... as you guessed... Revenge of the Mummy! As Universal Studios Japan doesn't have a Mummy, i've now ridden all of them (Florida, Cali and Singapore) and Singapore's is my favourite of the three. I'm not going to spoil for anyone, but It took my favourite bits of both Florida's and Cali's and mixed them together. Having said that, I loved Cali's whereas most people hate it... so maybe don't trust me so much. It's definately better than Cali's though ! Last up was the Jurassic park area, with the third and final cred. Canopy Flyer. This Jurassic park area was bizzare, as it had many rides (rather than just the chute ride). Not much to say about this ride really... it's just a batflyer on crack. However, it did fit in really well with the area. The cars were fab, and very colourful. Plus, the op is loving life <3 A twist on the other Universal parks is having a rapids ride instead of a boat-chute ride as the 'Jurassic Park Tour' sort of attraction. I'm in two minds about this because: Good - It makes the observation bit more interesting, rather than just floating around Bad - As the boats are spinning, it's a real effort to actually look at the dinosours without straining your neck, lol. Overall I think I prefer it. As you can see, there is a drop at the end, but i'm not going to do an ollie and spoil anything. It's quite predictable, but really well done. If you want to know just ask me! Random theming... After that I got the monorail back to the mainland and got pissed with Suze. On the whole I think USS is a good park. However, it's very small and there isn't actually that much to do. With Battlestar Galactica it would be a LOT better, but a park shouldn't have to rely on just one ride. Also, I'd have liked more dark rides (such as Men in Black, ET, Twister etc). As, as you can see, there is a severe lack of them. Hopefully as the park matures more additions will be made, although where they'll find room I don't know! Fin.

Day 2 I woke up to horrendus rain, so waited until it had calmed down a bit before I braved going outside. I opted for Chinatown for no apparent reason . Rain. Fab temple <3 Chinatown shop bit... I then wandered around and took some crappy urban photos. My camera hates dark conditions... New buildings in the Marine Front development; They were near the fab boat building. CBD from a weird angle... I went on a date with a girl from my hostel This is the area our hostel was in... red light district <3 Random shop As the sky was starting to clear by nightfall, we headed to the CBD to see what it was like at night. It was gorgeous! FIN

Got 500 last week at Cosmo's World, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

I took a little trip to South East Asia for an end of exams/birthday sort of thing. Rough outline: Day 1: Singapore - Beach and Chinese Gardens Day 2: Singapore - Chinatown and RAIN Day 3: Singapore - Universal Studios Singapore Day 4: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Cosmo's World Day 5: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Petronas Towers & KL Tower Day 6: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Sunway Lagoon and Batu Caves Day 7: Genting Highlands, Malaysia - Genting Theme Park and First World Plaza Day 8 was spent on a coach and day 9 on a plane, so I won't bother including them as there were no photos . Day 1: I First full day after arriving late the night before. Luckily, I managed to avoid jetlag, however kept getting up really early... although this was a blessing in disguise as i'm usually AWFUL at waking up (just ask Vadge ) Walking down the street... I see a wheel! It's called the Singapore flyer. It's currently the tallest in the world but is getting spited by Beijing soon... Phunky bridge and phunky building: The bridge had cute little observation points with a view of the CBD... Singapore is famous for being clean and safe, due to harsh punishments for relatively minor offenses (huge fines for littering and lashes for graffiti/vandalism). More fabness It was a nice day, and Universal Studios was sold out, so I bought tickets for another day and headed to the beach. The nicest beaches in Singapore are on Sentosa, the same island as Universal (only a short monorail ride from the main island). Cable cars... The beach was nicer than I expected from Singapore. Although you could see ships in the distance (hundreds of them), they were well hidden by the small islands directly opposite. There was a bridge (and a zipline coming from a hill behind) over to one of the small islands. The water was boiling! They had a flow rider <3 After the beach I got the MRT (mass rapid transit) to the Chinese gardens, as it was still sunny and I wanted to cram in as much as possible. On the MRT they had these fab stickers on the windows <3 What a FINE city. ...and at the Chinese/Japanese gardens, more fines! At least it was clean... I won't bother captioning these as there isn't much to say.... The dragons were paticularly fabulous <3 Turtles <3 They had a huge pagoda in the middle, which I went through the effort of walking up just to get these photos, so be greatful The steps were putrid in the humidity ///3 One last photo of a tree on the way out to conclude the photos for today! Part 2 to follow soonish. x

Bonjour. Richie et moi just got back from a 10 day trip which saw us Visit 5 cities across 3 countries. This is the order; There was a small park in Lithuania, but as it was closed (and I only managed to get 2 photos of the place), I won't put this in the coaster section! Tallinn, Estonia (The Capital) Riga, Latvia (The Capital) Vilnius, Lithuania (The Capital) Elektrenai, Lithuania (The only park on the trip is here, so you'll have to wait for CREDS) Kaunas, Lithuania We flew with Sleasyjet to Tallinn, Estonia (the most northern country). The first noticable thing was the HUGE piles of snow at the side of the road, which is crazy for easter, for us. They're used to it, though; The park didn't look very inviting, TBH: All the cities in this area have an 'old town' area, and then a 'new town' area. It's kind of like the Arab world, but, European. The Old town in tallinn had a wall all the way around it. The Main Square in old town; We noticed a few of these around the city. Estonia's answer to banksy, perhaps? This is FAB; From old town you can see the contrasting new city. Tallinn, although extremely small for a capital city, had some cool buildings; I like this one, coz the trams fit perfectly <3... The hostel was a proppa' stoner place... Bit of acid... Free BJ to the first person who can tell me which film we're watching?... The next day we wandered around some more, with slightly better weather. It was still FREEZING though... Sunny old town! I swear this is stolen from outside Duel... Cuteeee More cuteness! The turrets are part of the walls, meaning we're now out of old town... and heading towards..... SNOW! This was supposed to be a shortcut, but, it backfired; see how deep the bottle is... We ended up on the other side of the city, spite! The next day, we got on our bus to Riga, Latvia. Part 2 to follow.

^ Ahh poo. It was probably open on the Saturday then! Ah well, theres always next time! Part 3 Buildings on the beach, right near our hostel: A few pictures of the Azrieli Center... Bridgeeeee One of the transport routes into Tel Aviv, with more buildings in the background... Kir shortly before the airport security the following day... having every single item RIPPED out of your bag and tested wasn't exactly fun! Just before the 5 1/2 hour SleasyJet flight back to Luton; ... and finally, back at Luton, feeling like poo! Part 3 was shorter than I thought it would be, but meh, thanks for reading!

^ Haha yeah, it took HOURS. Walked through Bat-Yam too, which was bigger than I thought. It seemed like more of a 'locals' tourist resort, we were the only non-Israeli's there! SuperLand is open saturdays, but Luna Park's website said 'weekends', so I thought that seeing as Sunday is at the weekend it would be open! No biggie though, I want to go back anyway... and when I do i'll give you a shout

Part 2 We visited SuperLand on the Saturday (the only day the park is open every week, except holidays!), and unfortunately this was the only day out of four that the weather was a bit crappy. It was cloudy, but very humid at 26 degrees. The photos didn't come out very well, because for some reason my camera can't cope with dark conditions! We got up quite late, and due to no busses running in the day due to the holiday Shabatt, we decided to walk. It took us about 3 hours to walk to the park, so we didn't get there until about 3pm! The beaches in the Slums of Tel Aviv aren't exactly luxury... It was VERY windy, so we were doubtful that rides would be running, but luckily everything was! The park is literally in the middle of nowhere, and we were greeted first by the SLC 'Kumba'. Blurry photo of the lake and ferris wheel... The park had a sky coaster, and some pretty cool, random themeing. Hadn't done one of these in years, so gave it a spin. Pretty meh. We gave the SLC a spin, and it was actually pretty good, well, for an SLC anyway. I guess the fact that it only operates one day a week makes it ride like a newer coaster... The theming was good for an SLC too! Victims/riders coming back towards the station: Crap photo, but the eyes are fab so i'm posting it! If you can walk under this without banging your head you're too small to ride! OldSkool inverter ship, with the shortest cycle ever... Swans through a waterfall <3 Second CRED, a fab pinfari looper! Big wheel again... Ghetto Log Flume, which got us SOAKED //3 They also had rapids, which I failed to take a photo of! Although, I HAD to get a picture of the most amazing carousel EVER <3 Palm tree speakers <3 Strange... Kiddie CRED <3 <3 <3 Not a PHONEME. Rockin-Tug Kir and the Mascot. ... and the Exit/Entrance, with added floodlightspite. Leaving the park, we spotted a H&S claim oppertunity <3 Night picture cred So yeah... that's it for SuperLand. Sorry about the picture quality... although NOTHING would look nice in that weather haha. The next day, it was nicer, and we headed to LunaPark, but it was SHUT! SPITE! Boomerang SPITE ... and the new cred being built. Crap photo because we didn't even BOTHER getting out of the taxi when we realised we'd been spited. It looks like a rollerskater. On the way back we got dropped off at the Marina, which was right by the domestic/millitary airport. Planespotting <3 Marina Part of the city... Sunset ... and finally some art, illustrating how GAY tel aviv is. Some guys, one with a bumcrack out, peeking into the toilets/changing rooms on the beach! Part 3 to follow soon/eventually.