So I’ve been in Gold Coast for a few days now. What have I been doing?
Well according to the tourist guides there’s shopping, surfing, extreme sports stuff and theme parks. Lots and lots of theme parks. So for the past few days I’ve been waking up to this beautiful view.
Having a nice home-cooked breakfast. Sandwiches and ham mostly. And then my afternoons are spent in theme parks. I have sat on quite a lot of rollercoasters the past few days. I think I must’ve counted 7. Now here’s the deal with me and thrill rides. I used to be extremely chicken-shit when it comes to roller coasters. Wouldn’t go on any of them. Until one day somebody told me all I had to do to have fun on a roller coaster is shout as loud as I can. So I did it and now I enjoy it. While I love roller coasters, in my books there are…. roller coasters… which are fun.
And there are … what I call “sick sick rides”.. which many other people probably find fun but not me.
Let me tell you how.
Roller coasters are like this one that I just went for today at Seaworld.
And a really good one would be the Lethal Weapon one I blogged about in my previous entry. You know…. some loops, corkscrews, drops and a lot of speed. That’s lots of fun!
In my definition… sick sick rides are like … this one that I saw in Dreamworld.
See that tall tower. That tower must’ve been some… I don’t know… 12 storeys tall or something. One of the rides there is called The Big Drop. It’s something like the Solero Shot in Genting where they take you up all the way to the top and drop you. Unlike Solero Shot though, I think it’s a LOT friggin higher… and it drops all the way down. It doesn’t even stop. The worst part about this ride what I call the “Point of Regret“. You know when you’re sitting up there with your friends and looking down realizing that’s where you’re going in a few seconds. Then you ask yourself “WTF AM I DOING HERE?!?!?!”. Then before you can curse your friend for talking you into it… they drop you.
Now when I go on roller coasters, I hate the drops but I love the loops, the corkscrews and everything else. So as a package I love it. These kind of rides though take away everything else and just focus on what some say is the best part… the DROP. That’s too much for me so I avoid them.
Another sick ride is this one… suggested by thetaggingmonster. On the same tower is this ride called the Tower of Terror 2. What happens is that you sit on a roller coaster that catapults you backwards through a tunnel and all the way up this tower. Then you vertically fall down.
Now I was seriously considering that ride though. I mean the drop doesn’t seem so bad but I thought twice about it because of the catapult. You see there are two types of roller coasters. One that pull you up a track and then let gravity slide the roller coaster through the track. And another one… that uses a catapult to shoot you so that you pick up speed really fast really quick.
I’ve been on two rides in my life with the catapult. Both in Europe and I don’t like the way it made me feel. Being shot from a catapult makes your stomach feel like you’re being dropped… only worse. So I guess I can never been an Air Force pilot 🙁
Here’s another sick ride. This one was the first one I have ever seen of its kind.
You basically sit on this long bench with others and this robotic arms turn you around upside down, left right whatever. Its only purpose seems to make you dizzy!
The most sick ride that I saw this trip though was one they called The Claw.
You guys seen this kind of ride before right? Where it swings you up and down like a pendulum. The point of regret for that is the minute you sense that the dropping back and forth is making you sick in the stomach. Only that.. unlike other drop rides, this ride gets much much worse after the point of regret.
Now whats worse about The Claw is that… it not only swings you but it turns you around while you’re swinging. So sometimes you’re falling sideways and sometimes you’re falling backwards.
Now let me tell you what in my opinion is the MOTHER OF ALL SICK RIDES. Watch this video and you will understand why.
As much as I love roller coasters… I WILL NEVER DO THIS RIDE!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space