I just got back this morning after a 2am flight, so thought I’d get this started now in an effort to stay awake for a while and get back into a normal routine for work later.
India has never really been on the cards as a place I wanted to visit all that much, but I needed somewhere to go for the Christmas holiday, wanted to try somewhere new and preferably somewhere warm enough to have some creds open. It was a bit of a toss up between India and Myanmar since I’d been to neither, but India edged it out thanks to there being at least a few parks to hit as part of the trip.
Mumbai Day 1
My flight landed in Mumbai around 11pm on the 23rd, so I just went straight to the hotel and slept. I’d pre-booked a car and driver for the next day to hit a couple of parks in the city. I knew I wouldn’t have phone data for a couple of days at least – Indian sim cards are a pain since you need passport photos and colour copies of passport pages and visas and it takes a while to activate – so I figured the best bet would be to have the driver sorted.
Before we set off, someone at my hotel took me to a little phone place around the corner to get a sim card, which was activated by about 9pm that evening and proved to be a bit of a life-saver later.
There were some pretty big distances involved, and getting to these three places and back to the hotel took about 10 hours altogether.
Tikuji-Ni-Wadi
It should’ve taken about an hour to get here, but soon after setting off I realised that the driver was a bit of an idiot. Admittedly, he’s unlikely to ever have needed to come out here. It’s a small place kind of out in the middle if nowhere, but I expected that since I’d paid for a “premium” company that there’d at least be a sat-nav or something. It seems that the company just hire free-lance drivers. The guy spoke next to no English and got lost loads of times during the day, constantly having to stop and ask for directions.
I’d thought ahead and printed off a basic map to at least show the general area the places were in for that first day, figuring that I’d just use my phone later for maps etc. I’m glad I did or this guy wouldn’t have had a clue.
Anyway, it ended up taking about an hour and a half to get here.
There was a small water park and amusement park section. It was about £7 for a ticket that got both, but I wasn’t interested in the water park. It was actually kind of pricey when comparing to some other stuff later, especially considering it was a bit of a dump with not much to do.
My first Indian coaster then!
A f**king Golden Horse spinner. Seriously. Whenever I do these trips I’ve usually got an idea of how many coasters I should be looking out for in each place, but I tend to forget which park actually has what. Annoyed.
The only other coaster here was a Big Apple type thing. It was all surrounded by trees and stuff though, which made it feel slightly more substantial.
I didn’t do this. Defs not a cred.
Skipped these as well. Bit of a cheek that they were an upcharge as well.
Didn’t bother:
There was some other stuff like a swinging ship and kiddy rides and s**t, but I was pretty keen to get out of there since I knew the next place was a more major park and I’d want/need more time there. I went into Dinosaur World before heading out though.
30p upcharge. Thieving bastards.
I must’ve only been in there about half an hour then went back out to the car since I knew that the next place would take over an hour to get to. Again, the driver was a retard even though this next place is much better known.
It’s not actually all that far in terms of actual distance, but there’s a huge national park between the two places with no roads going through, meaning that we had to drive all the way around the top of it. It was a decent drive though I guess, and weird to see warning signs about leopards considering the park is pretty much in the middle of Mumbai. Apparently there have been quite a few attacks on people/animals living around the outskirts of the park.
Oh, to add to the travel time, there’s also a river/estuary between the park and the main part of the city, but no bridge in a convenient location. There are ferries that run across, and if I were to go back, or recommend anyone else to get here, I’d just get a taxi/Uber to the ferry since the drive around takes f**king ages, especially with a f**kwit driver who doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and continues to stop every five minutes to ask for directions even after we’ve hit the area where it’s constantly signposted. Anyway…
Essel World
The car park was just a pile of dirt a few minutes away with a shuttle bus that ran to the entrance. Again, there was a water park which looked decent, but I didn’t go. I think I paid about £8 for just the amusement park. I think the water park was separate this time, or with part of a combo ticket, but I can’t remember.
There were a couple of crappy rides on the way up to the main area. Most people seem to use the entrance at the other side of the park though, where the ferries drop off.
These polyp things were at a few Indian parks. I didn’t try this one, but rode one a bit later. Quite old-school but decent enough.
Some weird dinosaur display.
This was my favourite “dinosaur”:
The first coaster was a Pinfari looper. It was fine for what it was. It was a definite step up from the two coasters at the first park at any rate.
One ride was enough though.
Another old-school flat. I can’t remember the last time I’d seen one of these. Probably Blackpool back in the ‘80s or ‘90s or whenever they got rid of theirs.
The next coaster was clearly just a +1.
The next one was more interesting, if not all that good.
Zipper Dipper was built by someone called Blackpool Leisure Amusement Consultancy, who have also built a clone of Pleasureland Southport’s old Cyclone in another Indian park, but these are their only two coasters. No idea how they’re actually connected to Blackpool at all.
I think this was a clone of Zipper Dipper/Blue Streak at Blackpool, but someone else might have to confirm that since I can’t remember that Blackpool one well enough. It has no restraints other than some straps that you kind of slide over your shoulders but can easily not bother with.
I didn’t do the shot/drop tower since it had a fairly big queue. It looks like one of those Huss things anyway, and they’re gash.
This next coaster was wetter than Amanda Thompson at a fountain convention.
It looked nice though with all the trees and the waterfall. It was definitely the best spectator ride at the place. I’m not really a fan of getting drenched on rides, and I’ll usually skip most rides that do it. It’s a cred though. There will be a few more of these later, but this one was the “worst” because they’ve attached that weird shovel thing to the front of the cars – the others didn’t have it – which just directs so much water right into the car.
Luckily, it was warm enough that it didn’t take too long to dry off. The water was really clean as well.
I couldn’t find Bob. Shame.
I think this was the longest queue I had to wait in all day at about half an hour. It was a pretty decent ghost train.
The other people in the queue, mostly teenagers, kept themselves entertained by coming to get pictures taken with the white monkey.
The strangest attraction was this actual warship which is now a kind of walk-through/museum with not much to look at.
The mirror maze was new for this year. Well, last year now I guess.
Behind the park was this stupa/temple thing which I thought about going to have a look at properly, but didn’t really have time because of idiot driver taking too long to find everything.
Top Spin. No thanks.
I didn’t try this, but I’ll take them at their word that it is indeed the world’s best 7D cinema.
There was a row of buildings with, I think, ice skating and/or bowling. I didn’t go in anyway.
They’d turned an area into something called Santa’s Chocolate World. It was weird, but loads of people were taking selfies and s**t in there.
The Huss Rainbow broke down as I decided I wanted to give it a go. I remember it scaring the s**t out of me at Blackpool when I was a kid.
Not a cred:
Cred:
The final coaster here was set apart from most other rides down near the ferry entrance. Just another Pinfari.
Hmmmmmm…
I doubt it to be honest.
The Rainbow was back up and running as I was getting ready to leave.
It was cack really.
I actually quite liked this place. Obviously, for us lot there’s not a lot that stands out, but for what it is it was decent, with enough to keep people occupied for a full day if they want to ride everything and take in the water park for a bit.
Operations were really good as well. They had two trains running well on the looper and woodie, and about 4 cars going around on the water splash thing even though they could’ve probably got away with less since it wasn’t too busy really.
I had one more place to polish off. I should totally have ditched the driver at Essel World and got the ferry across into the city instead of having to drive all the way back around again.
I’d paid for it though, so f**k it. Plus I didn’t’ know the city at all and didn’t have a working phone, so thought I’d play it safe until I had more of a clue what I was doing. It’s only when I got wifi at the hotel that I looked at the mpas properly and worked out that it would have been much better. Knowing what I know now, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all.
Back to the car then and the same f**king rigmarole as the muppet driver who couldn’t find his own arse with both hands tries to find a massive shopping mall in the middle of the f**king city.
Planet Infiniti
This was just a shopping mall amusement park with one coaster.
The coaster cost about £2.50, but you got two circuits. There’s a really slow, curved lift hill into a drop and “airtime” hill, which probably would’ve been better at the back of the train, then another lift hill into the loop and helix.
The loop was decent really. Often these small, tight loops are awful, but this one wasn’t taken too fast and was really smooth.
It was much better than the usual kiddy crap I find at these kinds of places at any rate.
I had to get a kebab here. Because.
Then it was back to the hotel, which, again, took longer than it needed to thanks to the driver not having a clue. In a way the huge amount of driving on this day was good though as I got to see quite a lot of the city without actually having to go out in it. I was staying in a relatively decent area and had no intention of doing that poverty-porn s**t that people do to make themselves feel more worldly.
Just to give you an idea of what the day should’ve looked like: Hotel – Tukiji Ni Wadi – Essel World – Infiniti Mall – Hotel. I’m guessing it didn’t look like that at all though.
The hotel I was staying at was a 10-minute walk or so from the train station that I’d need the following day, so I had a quick walk down to see if I could buy a ticket in advance and try and work out what I’d be doing. It wasn’t possible, but turned out not to be a problem. All about that in the next part.
The station is stunning though, so I took a few pictures and just headed back to the hotel. Ill just leave some of those here to finish off this part of the report.
India has never really been on the cards as a place I wanted to visit all that much, but I needed somewhere to go for the Christmas holiday, wanted to try somewhere new and preferably somewhere warm enough to have some creds open. It was a bit of a toss up between India and Myanmar since I’d been to neither, but India edged it out thanks to there being at least a few parks to hit as part of the trip.
Mumbai Day 1
My flight landed in Mumbai around 11pm on the 23rd, so I just went straight to the hotel and slept. I’d pre-booked a car and driver for the next day to hit a couple of parks in the city. I knew I wouldn’t have phone data for a couple of days at least – Indian sim cards are a pain since you need passport photos and colour copies of passport pages and visas and it takes a while to activate – so I figured the best bet would be to have the driver sorted.
Before we set off, someone at my hotel took me to a little phone place around the corner to get a sim card, which was activated by about 9pm that evening and proved to be a bit of a life-saver later.
There were some pretty big distances involved, and getting to these three places and back to the hotel took about 10 hours altogether.
Tikuji-Ni-Wadi
It should’ve taken about an hour to get here, but soon after setting off I realised that the driver was a bit of an idiot. Admittedly, he’s unlikely to ever have needed to come out here. It’s a small place kind of out in the middle if nowhere, but I expected that since I’d paid for a “premium” company that there’d at least be a sat-nav or something. It seems that the company just hire free-lance drivers. The guy spoke next to no English and got lost loads of times during the day, constantly having to stop and ask for directions.
I’d thought ahead and printed off a basic map to at least show the general area the places were in for that first day, figuring that I’d just use my phone later for maps etc. I’m glad I did or this guy wouldn’t have had a clue.
Anyway, it ended up taking about an hour and a half to get here.
There was a small water park and amusement park section. It was about £7 for a ticket that got both, but I wasn’t interested in the water park. It was actually kind of pricey when comparing to some other stuff later, especially considering it was a bit of a dump with not much to do.
My first Indian coaster then!
A f**king Golden Horse spinner. Seriously. Whenever I do these trips I’ve usually got an idea of how many coasters I should be looking out for in each place, but I tend to forget which park actually has what. Annoyed.
The only other coaster here was a Big Apple type thing. It was all surrounded by trees and stuff though, which made it feel slightly more substantial.
I didn’t do this. Defs not a cred.
Skipped these as well. Bit of a cheek that they were an upcharge as well.
Didn’t bother:
There was some other stuff like a swinging ship and kiddy rides and s**t, but I was pretty keen to get out of there since I knew the next place was a more major park and I’d want/need more time there. I went into Dinosaur World before heading out though.
30p upcharge. Thieving bastards.
I must’ve only been in there about half an hour then went back out to the car since I knew that the next place would take over an hour to get to. Again, the driver was a retard even though this next place is much better known.
It’s not actually all that far in terms of actual distance, but there’s a huge national park between the two places with no roads going through, meaning that we had to drive all the way around the top of it. It was a decent drive though I guess, and weird to see warning signs about leopards considering the park is pretty much in the middle of Mumbai. Apparently there have been quite a few attacks on people/animals living around the outskirts of the park.
Oh, to add to the travel time, there’s also a river/estuary between the park and the main part of the city, but no bridge in a convenient location. There are ferries that run across, and if I were to go back, or recommend anyone else to get here, I’d just get a taxi/Uber to the ferry since the drive around takes f**king ages, especially with a f**kwit driver who doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and continues to stop every five minutes to ask for directions even after we’ve hit the area where it’s constantly signposted. Anyway…
Essel World
The car park was just a pile of dirt a few minutes away with a shuttle bus that ran to the entrance. Again, there was a water park which looked decent, but I didn’t go. I think I paid about £8 for just the amusement park. I think the water park was separate this time, or with part of a combo ticket, but I can’t remember.
There were a couple of crappy rides on the way up to the main area. Most people seem to use the entrance at the other side of the park though, where the ferries drop off.
These polyp things were at a few Indian parks. I didn’t try this one, but rode one a bit later. Quite old-school but decent enough.
Some weird dinosaur display.
This was my favourite “dinosaur”:
The first coaster was a Pinfari looper. It was fine for what it was. It was a definite step up from the two coasters at the first park at any rate.
One ride was enough though.
Another old-school flat. I can’t remember the last time I’d seen one of these. Probably Blackpool back in the ‘80s or ‘90s or whenever they got rid of theirs.
The next coaster was clearly just a +1.
The next one was more interesting, if not all that good.
Zipper Dipper was built by someone called Blackpool Leisure Amusement Consultancy, who have also built a clone of Pleasureland Southport’s old Cyclone in another Indian park, but these are their only two coasters. No idea how they’re actually connected to Blackpool at all.
I think this was a clone of Zipper Dipper/Blue Streak at Blackpool, but someone else might have to confirm that since I can’t remember that Blackpool one well enough. It has no restraints other than some straps that you kind of slide over your shoulders but can easily not bother with.
I didn’t do the shot/drop tower since it had a fairly big queue. It looks like one of those Huss things anyway, and they’re gash.
This next coaster was wetter than Amanda Thompson at a fountain convention.
It looked nice though with all the trees and the waterfall. It was definitely the best spectator ride at the place. I’m not really a fan of getting drenched on rides, and I’ll usually skip most rides that do it. It’s a cred though. There will be a few more of these later, but this one was the “worst” because they’ve attached that weird shovel thing to the front of the cars – the others didn’t have it – which just directs so much water right into the car.
Luckily, it was warm enough that it didn’t take too long to dry off. The water was really clean as well.
I couldn’t find Bob. Shame.
I think this was the longest queue I had to wait in all day at about half an hour. It was a pretty decent ghost train.
The other people in the queue, mostly teenagers, kept themselves entertained by coming to get pictures taken with the white monkey.
The strangest attraction was this actual warship which is now a kind of walk-through/museum with not much to look at.
The mirror maze was new for this year. Well, last year now I guess.
Behind the park was this stupa/temple thing which I thought about going to have a look at properly, but didn’t really have time because of idiot driver taking too long to find everything.
Top Spin. No thanks.
I didn’t try this, but I’ll take them at their word that it is indeed the world’s best 7D cinema.
There was a row of buildings with, I think, ice skating and/or bowling. I didn’t go in anyway.
They’d turned an area into something called Santa’s Chocolate World. It was weird, but loads of people were taking selfies and s**t in there.
The Huss Rainbow broke down as I decided I wanted to give it a go. I remember it scaring the s**t out of me at Blackpool when I was a kid.
Not a cred:
Cred:
The final coaster here was set apart from most other rides down near the ferry entrance. Just another Pinfari.
Hmmmmmm…
I doubt it to be honest.
The Rainbow was back up and running as I was getting ready to leave.
It was cack really.
I actually quite liked this place. Obviously, for us lot there’s not a lot that stands out, but for what it is it was decent, with enough to keep people occupied for a full day if they want to ride everything and take in the water park for a bit.
Operations were really good as well. They had two trains running well on the looper and woodie, and about 4 cars going around on the water splash thing even though they could’ve probably got away with less since it wasn’t too busy really.
I had one more place to polish off. I should totally have ditched the driver at Essel World and got the ferry across into the city instead of having to drive all the way back around again.
I’d paid for it though, so f**k it. Plus I didn’t’ know the city at all and didn’t have a working phone, so thought I’d play it safe until I had more of a clue what I was doing. It’s only when I got wifi at the hotel that I looked at the mpas properly and worked out that it would have been much better. Knowing what I know now, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all.
Back to the car then and the same f**king rigmarole as the muppet driver who couldn’t find his own arse with both hands tries to find a massive shopping mall in the middle of the f**king city.
Planet Infiniti
This was just a shopping mall amusement park with one coaster.
The coaster cost about £2.50, but you got two circuits. There’s a really slow, curved lift hill into a drop and “airtime” hill, which probably would’ve been better at the back of the train, then another lift hill into the loop and helix.
The loop was decent really. Often these small, tight loops are awful, but this one wasn’t taken too fast and was really smooth.
It was much better than the usual kiddy crap I find at these kinds of places at any rate.
I had to get a kebab here. Because.
Then it was back to the hotel, which, again, took longer than it needed to thanks to the driver not having a clue. In a way the huge amount of driving on this day was good though as I got to see quite a lot of the city without actually having to go out in it. I was staying in a relatively decent area and had no intention of doing that poverty-porn s**t that people do to make themselves feel more worldly.
Just to give you an idea of what the day should’ve looked like: Hotel – Tukiji Ni Wadi – Essel World – Infiniti Mall – Hotel. I’m guessing it didn’t look like that at all though.
The hotel I was staying at was a 10-minute walk or so from the train station that I’d need the following day, so I had a quick walk down to see if I could buy a ticket in advance and try and work out what I’d be doing. It wasn’t possible, but turned out not to be a problem. All about that in the next part.
The station is stunning though, so I took a few pictures and just headed back to the hotel. Ill just leave some of those here to finish off this part of the report.
