Posts from ‘April, 2008’

Wild Water Kingdom

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Toronto’s largest and infact Canada’s largest water park is in Brampton and it’s that huge its a kingdom! The Wild Water Kingdom has 13 body and tube slides, another 7 kids waterslides a huge 6000 square foot swimming pool

and even two mini golf courses and its set on acres and acres of picnic area. The par’s biggest attraction its the Big Tipper, two huge buckets drop 800 gallons of water on the unsuspecting below- it’s great fun. This year the park has a new attraction for the summer months the Misty Blue Zone, here parents can relax under the mist and escape the hot sun while the kids are having fun on the slides. The highlight for us, and I’m sure for a lot of kids is Hugo the Hippo the cuddly purple hippopotamus character who patrols the park- look out for him and give him a big hug for me!

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South Street Seaport

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Situated in the historic area of Manhattan where Fulton Street meets the East River you will find the South Street Seaport Museum. The seaport is a collection of beautifully restored 19th century commercial building, restored sailing ships and plenty of tourist malls with food, shopping and good night life and one of the best views of the majestic Brooklyn Bridge. One of the more popular vessels to visit is the Peking a Flying P Liner which was a sailing ship of the German F Laeising shipping company which originated in Hamburg. Built in 1911 the ship was made famous by Irving Johnston who filmed onboard the ship as it rounded Cape Horn back in 1929. The ship has been on display at South Street since 1975. Other interesting vessels include the Wavetree which is a 1885 fully rigged cargo ship and the W.O Decker a 1930’s tugboat which sometimes gives the public a chance to board it for strips around New York’s waterways. Read the rest of this entry »

The Liberace experience

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Liberace was one of the pioneers of entertainment in Las Vegas, he brought a new type of glitz and glamour to the strip with the most over the top and lavish stage shows ever seen. He arrived on stage in jewel encrusted vehicles and had rhinestone covered pianos and his costumes were the most amazing and outrageous with sequins, jewels and diamonds. Stripped away from all the flamboyance Liberace was one of the world’s greatest performers and his classical piano playing was second to none, but it was the glitz and glamour for what this mega celebrity will be remembered for. Today Liberace is no longer with us but his legend lives on in Vegas with a huge collection of his pianos and vehicles including a mirror tiled Rolls Royce and rhinestone laden roadster are on display with many of his costumes, the amazing jewelry and the entire story of his performing life. The museum itself is larger than life just like the superstar with huge neon piano on the roof. There’s a great gift shop and the trust which runs the museum puts the money into the Liberace Foundation which invests in performing arts scholarships for the young, a cause Liberace was so deeply involved in. Read the rest of this entry »

The Meguro Parasite Museum

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Japan has some of the world’s more interesting museums, there the noodle museums, sewerage museums, salt museum…you get the drift but now we have found one which is even weirder…The Kiseichuu Hakubutsukan or Meguro Parasite Museum. Here you can see jars and jars of interesting parasites in all shapes and sizes. The star attraction of the museum in their 45000 item collection is a 8.8 meter long tape worm which once happily lived in a woman. There are all sorts of worms and wriggly things enough to turn you off your lunch and probably tomorrows as well. The museum like all museums features a gift shop at the end of the tour, and yes you can buy your very own parasites one of the best sellers is a parasite key chain- beats that Hello Kitty one they are selling down the street and for only Y210 its a real bargain. The Meguro Parasite Museum is located Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, and only a few minutes walk from Meguro Station. – Just a word of warning no eating is allowed whilst veiwing the parasite collection. Read the rest of this entry »

Fire rocket launches at cows

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Here at Tripandom we really hate animal cruelty but this story was so bizarre we have decided to tell it. There is a tourist attraction just outside the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh where visitors can fire all sorts of military weapons including machine guns, grenades, rocket launches and anti aircraft guns and for a few more dollars you can shoot at different types of targets. For about $200 US which is huge dollars in Cambodia you can fire your weapons of choice at a coco-nut or for a few dollars more even take out a poor chicken. For those blood thirsty people who have another spare $200 you can take out a cow with a rocket launcher. If you miss the cow you get the $200 back and need to spend another $200 +$200 for your second shot. We can’t seem to find out what happens to the cow, that’s if there’s anything left, maybe hamburgers for dinner? Who knows? If you have any other weird attractions or even distasteful ones like this we would love to hear from you.. Drop us a line.

Baghdad Disneyland Style

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Well the streets might be just as safe as LA but that isn’t stopping the US based company U3’s plan to turn the old Baghdad Zoo into a Disney style theme park in Iraq’s capital. The Times has reported today that the park is going to be a huge US style adventure park with rides, concert theater, museum and will cost in the vicinity of $500 million to construct. Before the US invasion the Baghdad Zoo was one of the city’s more popular attractions but many of the animals died and many more were abandoned or stolen for food. The Zoo is slowly opening with bears, lions and ostriches already on show, a huge skate park is the next thing to open sometime around June. The C3 Company is using a development company which has worked closely with Disney so some pretty amazing things are planned and it is hoped that this park is only the start of making Baghdad a much more happier place for it’s young and families. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Ducky in London

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Most people take the double decker bus, a taxi or even a river cruise to see London, but now there is a new way aboard the London Duck. The London Duck is a former military vehicle which not only cruises the streets of London it also takes to the water. This amazing amphibious vehicle was used in the World War Two D-Day landings and has been transformed into one of the city’s most fun and informative city tours. The 75 minute tour takes visitors past many of the city’s best sights on the street, then drives into the mighty Thames and shows people a completely different aspect of the city from the water. Ther commentary is another attraction- some very interesting attempts at stand up comedy, you won’t know whether to cringe or laugh, know what I mean governor? you get the drift. Make sure you book in advance because this is a very popular tour and one you wouldn’t want to miss on a visit to London.

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The Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy

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Siegfried and Roy are Las Vegas institutions they performed amazing animal and magic shows on the Las Vegas strip for decades until a horrific accident involving a tiger nearly killed poor Roy a few years back. Today the duo are remembered with a magnificent animal park at the Mirage Casino Complex. Here amongst an amazing tropical sanctuary are the most beautiful royal white tigers which the team were so famous for along with leopards, white lions, panthers and even an elephant. The sanctuary also includes a watered area with 2.5 million litres of tropical seas and coral reefs which are home to Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins. The centre is committed to conservation and hope this centre will help people understand the importance of these amazing animals and the real threats they are exposed to which threaten their species existence. This is a magnificent way to escape from the neon and artificialness of Vegas and experience some of the world’s finest animals in their very own Vegas oasis.

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A few fine feathered friends

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Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park is one of the island city’s most popular attractions. The park has recently completed a multi million dollar make over and offers so much for the visitor. Some highlights include The Waterfall aviary would have to be the parks most spectacular home to 60 species and over 1500 birds all living in a huge enclosure which includes a 30 metre high man made waterfall. The aviary is that huge it even has own monorail. Labelled the Panorail which travels through it. The Bird’s and buddies show is also a crowd favourite with parrot and cockatoo performances and an exciting birds of prey show. And there is nothing as cute as the penguin exhibit more than 200 of these artic black and white feathery friends call the exhibit home, the exhibit includes Humboldt, the Rockhopper, the Macaroni, the Fairy and the majestic King Penguin. The Darkness exhibit is also a great chance to see nocturnal birds including fish owls, snowy owls and herons all living happily in reverse light conditions.

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Abba museum planned

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We thought we would do a Sweden double header, All is on track to open the Abba museum in Stockholm in June next year. This 6500 square metre will celebrate Sweden’s most loved and popular band of all time. The museum will have an extensive collection of memorabilia, actual costumes, photos and awards from the group and trace their amazing history from Eurovision song contest winners to one of the world’s biggest bands. The museum will feature interactive displays using state of the art multimedia, sound and lighting which will give the expected million visitors a year an amazing and fun insight into Abba. Owned by a private couple Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman with the permission of the four Abba members Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Reus Visitors are already seeking tickets especially to the huge opening week of celebrations, The Abba museum is just another great reason to visit beautiful Sweden.

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