Photo TR: [Study] Abroad - The world and its coasters

[coastererI think Intamin should make a donkey!]

Hey guys - it’s good to be back.

Sorry, to those of you interested, that I never finished this thread. Things got away from me, and I never had a solid internet connection. But now I’m back at school, and as I should be studying, I find I have all this extra time to procrastinate with.

So I figured I’d kick this thread back into gear and try and see it out to its completion. For those of you wondering where I had got to, sorry to keep you waiting – and for those of you thankful that I had finally quieted down, I’d like to indulge your patience a little while longer, and ask you to forgive me. There are a great deal of pictures I have left to share.

If I’m not mistaken, I left off in Dubai. I’m going to break this up into a couple parts, starting with Abu Dhabi. I’ll get to the rest of Dubai in a little bit.

----------Abu Dhabi---------

As it turns out, there are quite a number of late-late-LATE flights and early-early-WAYTOOEARLY arrivals in Dubai International airport. I was on one coming from Istanbul with a late layover in Doha, due to land at about 3:30 in the morning. So I, along with a great horde of others, scoured the airport for that last remaining bench, and dozed off into an wonderfully excited sleep in a part of the world I had been dreaming about ever since I saw that ridiculous hotel on the discovery channel 12 years ago.

I pulled myself up around 7 and wandered out to catch a cab, depositing myself at the bus station without too much hassle. The plan was to go straight to Abu Dhabi today and come back that same night to meet the guy I’d be couchsurfing with. If you’re unfamiliar with couchsurfing, I’ll get to it next, but it was the best. I’d recommend it to everyone

The bus to Abu Dhabi was a little confusing, but if you ask enough people, you’ll eventually get shouted in the right direction. We made our way out of the city early enough that the roads were almost completely deserted, and landed in Abu Dhabi an hour and a half later. The thing that surprised me most about the trip was how little there was on the way. And by little, I mean there wasn’t anything. And by anything, there’s literally not a bit of that desert that has been touched in between those two emirates, and the whole thing just seemed very surreal.

Abu Dhabi was big. And as I understood it, it was still getting bigger. It was the type of place that wasn’t meant for real people. The buildings were all big and flashy, and the blocks were at least half a kilometer each. Even that early in the morning, it was blazing hot and walking outside was almost unbearable. The roads were pretty empty and everything was clean. It was hard to believe that people actually lived there.

I got to Sparky’s within 40 minutes – as you all probably know by now, the UAE’s reeeal big on their mall credits. And as far as operations go, they’re definitely hit or miss. This first one was a hit – but it was a close one. I was apparently the first and only person in the park, and they needed 8 to launch the coaster without it valleying. So, since nobody had anything to do, every employee in the park hopped in with me. Before everyone was in the car, let only safely seated with the lap bars down, the train was off and the employees were hopping in, jumping around, standing up and dancing, switching cars – everything you’re not supposed to do, they did it. And they sang while they did.

Despite the precaution for valleying, we got stuck anyway. The solution? A few people get out of their cars and climb to the back and out on to the track to push while the manager tries to lever the train forward from the ground with a big stick. Did it work? Yup! Twice. The best part about these small parks are the quick relationships you inevitably make with the people working there, who are unbelievably surprised to see a westerner with any intention of riding these things, and excited for the change of pace. But even without words or communicable sentences, these guys were just fun to be around, and it was an encouraging start to the day.

From there it was a quick walk to the beach, a short bask in the beautiful blue water, and then I hopped on one of the local busses to the next mall. This credit was unfortunately closed and would remain closed, but from there you can hop a bus to Ferrari World, so I didn’t feel like I had missed out on too much.

This place is freaking huge. Jaw-droppingly huge. And while sure, it maybe isn’t really a great park and there isn’t a whole lot to do, it’s one of the most impressive places I’ve ever seen. And Formula Rossa??? Goodness gracious, prepare to poop yourself.

For those of you skeptics, I have to say I was one of you. I mean I’ve been on TTD, I’ve been on Kingda Ka, surely 149 mph isn’t thaaat much faster right? Wrong. I wet myself it was that good. Words can’t describe. Front or not (I never rode the front, but I did ride row 2 and am tall enough that it might as well have been row 1), that much wind hitting you in the face without goggles is one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced. Your face will do things you didn’t know was possible, I promise you. And from there the pop of air over the top just rips your butt through your throat, and you cant breathe even more than you couldn’t breathe a second before! And the next few turns are pure joy as you’re just FLLYYYYYYING over the ground. I kid you not, there is no other roller coaster experience like it. Is it my number one? Noooooope I don’t think so, but did it disappoint? Absolutely not. Blasting out into the desert like that and being steamrolled by a wave of heat and more wind than you’ve ever imagined, flying over the sands at a billion miles an hour and popping up to kiss the sky at the end of each turn – there are few joys like this joy.

The dueling coaster was fine I guess – it was kind of like the lazy river of roller coasters. Like, “It went around a little bit over there, then did it’s thing over there, then like I don’t really remember… I was just more interested in laying out in the sun and trying to recover from the hernia I got from FRossa.” That kind of a thing.

I made my way back to the bus station by dinner time-ish and was back in Dubai to see the sun set. But I’ll pick that up in the next post. Keep an eye out for that mosque. Oh and that palace. But other than that, until they finish the entertainment thing island shindig, Abu Dhabi’s more of a ‘work’ city.

Formula One changed the way I thought about roller coasters. It was that. Good.
More to come soon, thanks for reading !! I’d love to hear back from you guys

-Danny

[XIII prefer to mate with donkeys over humans!]

Great Photo TR. I would love to make it to Dubai and Ferrari World someday, and your TR makes Dubai, as well as all the parks and cities you've visited really interesting. Keep the Photo TRs coming.

[giscoStarbucks Enthusiast]

Love the report and the pictures too. Can't wait to see this place for myself next year.

[coastererI think Intamin should make a donkey!]

Sorry these things get so long. There's just a lot of good stuff to say

So, Dubai gets a lot of criticism for being things like “not-the-true-Middle-East-at-all-not-even-a-little”, “a-gross-display-of-wealth-that-is-only-superficial”, and a place where “everyone’s-an-immigrant-getting-underpaid-and-they-can’t-wait-to-move-out-anyways”. And it was, it totally was. BUT if you can get behind the gross abuses of wealth and the lack of nationalistic identity in the face of materialistic supremacy, and the lack of attention to any humanitarian concern at allllllll… it’s just a really neat place to be. NOWHERE else in the world grew a city like this, and nowhere are the effects of an exploding, hollow, decayed, superficial capitalistic market more overtly displayed. What it lacks in functionality, it more than makes up for in obscenity of lavishness. And I guess it kind of failed as a project. So it’s interesting, more than anything, so soooo fascinating, and that’s why you should go there.

The buildings are unbelievable. The public transportation hubs look like space stations. The infrastructure completely dwarfs the human scale, rendering things like “walking” obsolete. There weren’t any real people. And to have all this on display as the manifestations of the most disastrous capitalistic investment ever, was just delightful. Dubai is not how cities should be made. Yet to see how far we’ve come, and how far people thought they could take it, was absolutely fascinating.

I got off the bus somewhere in the middle of the city while the sun was setting, with still a few hours left before I was set to meet up with the guy I was couch surfing with, who had spent the week in Doha for business. So, with nothing more than a couple fuzzy google maps I had printed out, I set out in search of some credits on foot, taking my best stab at the location of my whereabouts and just heading in the direction of the Old City.

Now, anyone traveling in Dubai looking to go coaster hunting should never do what I did. Never. This city was not made for walking, nor was it made for roller coasters, nor was it made for poor college students, nor was it made for backpackers, nor was it made to be walked around in at night, nor was it made for clear cut directions and a pristine orientation. It was made for the wealthiest of them all, which didn’t apply in any way to what I was setting out to do. I wandered through sand fields, I cut along back roads, I crossed major highways on foot and walked along shoulders. I hopped over fences, snuck through barbed wire fences, and cut through yards. I asked shop owners and restaurant owners and anyone out walking and I walked for miles and miles. I read and reread inaccurate maps and had to reorient myself way too many times due to inconsistencies. But I managed somehow, which leads me to the incredibly exciting reward of three parks that night.

My first stop was Stargate, a huge, beautiful public park area full of families enjoying the early evening together, with an indoor game center towards the back set in-ground as a bunch of planets. There was a funky coaster bursting out from one of them that looked like it hadn’t run in a while, and with my prospects low, I went inside to find out that, indeed, it hadn’t been running in a while. I did manage to find a torn up picture on the wall of a B&M invert, so.... hopefulthinkingfutureplans??? Actually the place was super sketchy and I got out of there as fast as I could. I had heard from previous reports that the coaster here was on its last legs, and I guess it had finally run its last lap. Of course, all this was in March, so I don’t know what Stargate’s been up to since then.

The next park took an awful long time to hunt down. I found myself in the backyards of the embassy strips, and in a rush to hurry away from the Pakistan place, found myself in a number of back-alley slum-ish backyards, climbing over fences, and sneaking around desert dumpsters and running away from dogs. The only reason I found Al-Nasr Liesureland at all was that I finally spotted the ferris wheel poking out above the houses. It didn’t help that NOBODY had ever heard of this place, and could offer me directions, even within a couple blocks of it. DubaiDave, if I remember his story correctly, had lived here for years before stumbling across the ferris wheel like I did, completely unaware that this place existed. And was it worth it?? OH MY GOODNESS hahahahahaha. When I met up with Dave a couple days later, all I had to say was Al-Nasr Liesureland and we both burst out laughing.

After making my way through the seedy entrance, and around the deserted, dilapidated carnival rides all themed to tropical fruits, there was a small, homemade looking Blizzard coaster in the back corner that looked like the most poorly assembled project of any kind I’ve ever seen, even in the dark! After minutes of scouring the place looking for an operator, I was told I needed to get tickets first. Where were the tickets being sold you might ask? Right behind the giant pineapple. Was there anybody there? Don’t be ridiculous, of course not. It was the same ride op who told me to go buy tickets who ended up coming 10 minutes later to sell me them, and then meandered with me on back to the world’s-worst-looking coaster to give me a couple laps. Now, normally I’d be quite grateful for the extra lap, but when this thing started going around again, my body started reacting very violently, a la werewolf trying to escape its inevitable fate. There is a something very, VERY wrong with the transition out of that first drop, making it the second most painful coaster experience of my life, just behind a ride in the middle of Turkey (see pages 3 and 4).

But wait, there’s more. Running out of Al-Nasr Liesureland as fast as I could, I still had one more park to hit before the night shut down around 10, and wandered the 18+ mile journey over to Wonderland. Now, this park is notorious for not having rides open, as a few of you may know, so I wasn’t really alllllllll that hopeful when I strolled in around 9:40. But, as luck would have it, since it was so late and they were trying to hurry me out, I got a personal escort to the two coasters, a janky old wild mouse, and a roller skater on the other side of the park. The ride op I was with would walk over to the deserted rides that looked like they had been abandoned years ago – seriously, I think we had to walk across grass to get to the wild mouse - and start them up for me. Tired, bruised, and hungry, I retired for the night to a huge Egyptian themed bar thing out in one of the malls for the local couch-surfing meet up, and met my guy, Erik, who I stayed with for a couple of days.

For those of you who don’t know, couch surfing is a great great network where you can offer your couch up to backpackers and backpackers can stay on it for a few nights, to save on costs and to see the city through the eyes of a local. You’re expected to contribute both ways if you can, and it’s really just a great way to meet other adventurous, interesting people, and have some help while you travel. I had a great time with it, and really appreciated everything Erik did for me. He was a great host, and it was so nice to be showed around by someone who knew what they were doing.

The highlight of the next two days was hitting up the fish market the next day to grab some stuff for a barbecue out on the beach with a bunch of friends who came from all over the place. We had people from the Philippines, from Iran, from Lebanon, from Egypt, from everywhere. It was incredible. And we spent the beautiful afternoon out on the beach under the shadow of the burj, on one of the greatest days of the whole trip semester. We went and got dessert later on in a little place right next to that big ol’ hotel, which was unbelievable, got denied from a place because we didn’t have a nice enough car and weren’t nationals, and spent the evening hanging out in the malls under the Burj Khaliffa, watching the fountains and catching the Sega credit. We ate a late dinner at a Karachi place out in the residential area, and turned in after a couple drinks.

The next day, DubaiDave was kind enough to pick me up and show me around the Sharjah parks, the easy highlight of which was the spinning coaster at Space City. That thing was wild. Dave’s car ended up spinning more than I’ve ever seen another coaster spin, and it was just great.

I also want to touch on the Burj, which I feel I’ve sorely underrepresented here. IT. WAS. SO. TALL. I just couldn’t get over it, it was so tall. I mean, we’ve all seen tall buildings before, but THIS!!! It was unbelievable. I mean, I’m studying civil engineering and architecture, this is the stuff that gets me going, and it was just…. It wasn’t real. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It was that tall.
Overall though, I had such a great time there, with everybody, and couldn’t be more thankful for the hospitality people showed me. The city was unforgettable. Thanks to everyone who made it that way! Enjoy the pictures guys

Your pictures are so incredible, that I always burst out laughing every time you make a ridiculous pose in a picture! Seriously, keep them coming. It looks like you're having a lot of fun!

[giscoStarbucks Enthusiast]

I have really enjoyed all the pictures. Can't wait to see this place for myself.

[coastererI think Intamin should make a donkey!]

Thanks for the comments guys!! I really appreciate it. Now in the first post I believe I had some UK parks scheduled up next, but I think I’m going to switch that up. Let’s go to Bahrain and knock out the last of my Gulf adventures.

Why Bahrain you might ask? Jungle Storm, straight up. One of the wildest coasters out there, having gotten a little bit of the spotlight in the last couple years with Dave and some of those super-human credit hunters Richard and George and the all them, I had my sights locked and loaded on this coaster. And let me tell you, the world had a lot to say to keep me away.

This trip was originally supposed to be to Egypt. But a few days before I booked the trip, the protests erupted, rendering that trip maayyyyybenotthebestideaatthetime. I remember thinking, “Welp, I guess that’s that, we’ll just have to save Egypt for another time, at least all these other gulf countries are still open and safe.” ….. and then wouldn’t you know, EVERYONE jumped on the protest bandwagon.

And here I’d just like to say, it very much looks like IIIIiiiii jumped on the protest bandwagon, and I guess I kind of did. But, I’m in no way trivializing these protests or the rights of the people behind them. And I’ll be the first to say that lamenting over coaster plans while this area of the world is erupting in civil reform is callous, selfish, and ultimately an insensitive display of western consumerism and egoism. I’m ALSO not going to sit here defending my actions in the self-righteous name of “a boost to the tourism industry of the struggling countries”. I had booked my trip before the protests in Bahrain started, and I did so choosing to fly through Bahrain, honestly because the double extended layovers in Bahrain and in London was the cheapest trip home I could find, after a looooot of searching. This also allowed me the opportunity to both stop by Chakazoulu, if it was open, and visit a friend who was studying abroad at Oxford. I had originally had my eyes on a connection through Baku that was a bit cheaper, that would have eliminated a trip to Bahrain and allowed me a full day in Azerbaijan, but there had been a change in the US entry policy a couple months back making it impossible for me to enter the country.

So I ended up in Bahrain a few weeks into the protests, fully aware and expecting that I might not get my way this time around. But I’m not one to sit around and hide from the dangers of the big, scary world. So I went through customs paying the ten dollar fee for the “exit the airport” visa, hailed a cab, and made my way to the Al-Dana mall, around backroads and road blocks and check points and armored tanks, and a bunch of empty streets, an amazing insight into history making itself, where issues and ideals manifest themselves in every facet of physical living. And while the mall was just about empty, the park was in fact open, and I had Jungle Storm all to myself. I paid for three rides but the ride op and I quickly hit it off and he gave me around 6. The ride itself is insane. It’s small, and funky, and does things no other coaster does or should, but man that thing is a blast. I think I remember Richard Bannister saying that if this ride were more mainstream it would be a top ten ride, and I think he’s kind of right. It is, in fact, in my top ten steels, but I think a large deal of that is its uniqueness. If it were mainstream, it wouldn’t be the same. It’s a testament once again to the fact that your response to a coaster is the summation of the entire experience, not just an objective angle on a single isolated lap. The ride explodes with airtime and power, and is just a blast. I’ve never ridden anything like it, and I would love to see more of these pop up in other places.

It was hard tearing myself away, but there were other things to do and to see, such as the military base camp right outside the mall, a huge razed area enclosed by barbed wire, where a bunch of tanks and armed officers were hanging out. This was also where I nearly got arrested. In hindsight, it was a dumb idea to be holding my camera out in the open at that point, after a long encounter from some guys in an unmarked vehical with guns, radioing in my passport number for a background check and scanning through my pictures. Whoopsiedoopsies. There was definitely a small part of me sure that I was gonna be making a call to my parents from inside a Bahraini prison, but luckily I got out of there with no harm done.

Now walking around a protesting Bahrain probably wasn’t the best line of attack. But being short on cash, I just didn’t have any other choi…. Oh wait, yes I did. Hello hitch hiking. I was picked up by a local right past another security checkpoint, and was driven to Adhari park through his home neighborhood, entertaining a lovely discussion on the horrible effects the protests were having on the economy in some horribly broken English, and waving at his house. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and while I certainly wouldn’t recommend it as the first option, it just goes to show how wonderful and hospitable the vast number of people in this world are.

Adhari park was another interesting story, as the park wasn’t open, simply because there was just no one to be there or to work there. The guy who owned the place met me at the gate and apologized for the inconvenience, to which I just assured him how blown away I was at his concern and hospitality, and that he shouldn’t worry about it in the least. In response, he had one of the security officers walk me around the park and gave me a personal tour of the place, which was completely unexpected. It was a decent looking place, with a decent number of things to do, impressively clean and well-kept, and quite a nice surprise overall.

From there I was picked up by an expat from Indonesia I had met through the couch-surfing network, who showed me around the city for the evening and made me dinner. I got back to the airport late that night before the curfew, and caught an overnight flight to London.

The country was in a critical state, and it was just unbelievable to see how they were managing through it all. It’s amazing to see real world problems, and real world conflicts working themselves out, and real people caught in the middle just trying to get by. I met way more wonderful people than I ever imagined I would, and am just so thankful for the experience. Thanks for reading, and if you ever get a chance, don’t pass up Jungle Storm, there just aren’t enough gems like that left in the world.

[coastererI think Intamin should make a donkey!]

I also caught a POV of the ride, which as far as I know is the only one up on the internet. There's a lot of noises in it haha, just be forewarned, but it's a great example of just how powerful the ride is.
ENJOY!


YouTube Videolink


(If an admin sees this and isn't okay with a youtube link, I have an 8 MB m4v file, I just wasn't sure how to upload it properly)

[XIII prefer to mate with donkeys over humans!]

Once again, Great Photo TR. Jungle Storm looks awesome and it's really cool to see Photo TRs from rarely seen places. Keep up the good work.

(If an admin sees this and isn't okay with a youtube link, I have an 8 MB m4v file, I just wasn't sure how to upload it properly)

That would be awesome if you could upload it to CoasterTube as well!