Red Zebra Labs

Saigon

Posted by Robin on June 7, 2010

Saigon. Or if you prefer, Ho Chi Minh City.. From the moment our bus reached the outskirts of town I could feel the madness. Lots of traffic and lots of motos. None moving particularly fast. The city has roughly the same number of people as Bangkok, but feels less organized. It’s hard for me to explain why. It just felt like everyone is trying to get somewhere in a hurry, on their motos.

After some looking around we found a guesthouse in the backpacker/cheap guesthouse area of the city. On our way to dinner we ran into the British/Canadian couple we met on the bus, who had also looked at a few guesthouses with us. The 4 of us had supper at a Pho place, then we walked around the park that was near our guesthouse. There was some kind of tourism fair going on, along with some bands playing. It was kind of neat.

The next day we decided to check out a temple and Dam Sen park, a large park that had waterslides and a roller coaster. Only we never made it to the temple. The maps we had were mediocre at best and the heat was not helping either. After several minutes of walking around trying to find the place I said I’d had enough of looking and would rather just go to the park. So we did, grabbing some lunch on the way. On our way into the park we saw a very small kitten next to a tree. We petted it, put him a bit further away from the main road, and went into the park. In addition to the water park and the roller coasters, there was a small zoo, some odd sculptures and other amusement park rides. We didn’t see the elephant made out of CD cases, but we did see some some looking elephants in a pen. The park’s restaurant had a dragon made out of dinner plates.

The water park, while on the small side, was quite fun. Very refreshing from the very hot day. Sadly the big roller coaster wasn’t running. It wasn’t very big, so I wasn’t too disappointed. On the way out of the park I was wondering if we were going to see the kitten again. I think Jody was wondering the same thing. Just before we got to the gate we saw him, not very far from where we’d left him. I pick him up, he was about half the size of my hand. If this was Montreal I would have taken him home with me. Sadly, we couldn’t do that, but we got him some milk and water and hoped for the best.

We made plans for the next few days. We opted for a tour that would take us to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Great Temple, which Jody really wanted to see. Jody also wanted to lave Saigon the next day, but I still wanted to see a few things, so we decided to split up for a few days. We made to plans to meet up with Mel and Ted, who were also in Saigon.

The next day started like any other bus tour we’d done, by meeting somewhere and being taken to a central point to meet the other tour people. Our first stop was a village’s souvenir workshop and gift shop. While the stuff was really nice, I was kind of sick of being dragged around to gift shops as part of the tour. Jody picked up a neat wooden carving print.

The Cao Dai temple was pretty neat. We were just in time to catch to noon service. It’s supposed to be a combination of Catholicism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and it’s the only religion that originated in Vietnam. Lots of colours, both worn by the followers and the temple itself.

The Cu Chi tunnels date back to the Vietnam war. Some of the tunnels have been widened and lit so tourists can explore them safely, but a few are still how they were many years ago. Jody was small and brave enough to check them out. In addition to the tunnel there was a badly translated film, recreations of ground traps and army camps, and a shooting range. I shot my first gun, 5 AK47 bullets. I think I was scared about how loud the shots were than the fact that I was actually shooting a gun.

That evening we went for dinner with Mel and Ted, the British couple we’d met in Thailand. They were telling us about how their trip was going and some of the things they’d seen. They mostly gone to the same places we had, but had done different activities. They liked hearing about our elephants story and how much climbing we’d done. They’d done some elephant riding, but as part of a tour and not bareback. We sadly had to cut things a bit short as Jody had his overnight train to catch.

The next I did some museum seeing and walking around. I visited the War Remnants museum, which was really cool but sadly they were closing for lunch about half an hour after I got there There wasn’t anything else I wanted to see in that area of town, so I slowly walked around Saigon for most of the afternoon. I tried to find the Museum of Saigon but the map I had wasn’t correct. I walked around the Fine Art museum, it wasn’t big but a nice break from the heat of the city.

Once it was time for me to catch my train I took a moto-taxi to the station. I’d never been on one by myself, or with my big backpack. The driver put the big pack in front of him and I had my small one on my back. We rode through the rush hour traffic, which was really exciting for me. It was fast and crowded, and I held on to my seat as we zipped through the city. Just as I was really feeling comfortable and with being on the bike we were at the station.

(I was in Saigon April 11-14)

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Mekong Delta

Posted by Robin on June 3, 2010

After a VERY rude awakening during the night (note to self – no more rooms with adjoining balconies or windows without glass!) we joined a bunch of local and westerner tourists in front of the hotel across the street. We were instructed to leave our bags in the lobby and were ushered to a boat at the dock. The first stop was a fish farm. It was in a home in one of the local floating villages. The were these 2 “pens” in the floor/dock of the home, inside were nets with living fish. We could toss food into the pens and the fish would just go crazy eating. I’m talking what looked like an absolute feeding frenzy! It looked the the water was boiling, that’s how active the fish were.

Stop #2 was the silk farm/local village. It was more like silk farm and souvenir shop really. We saw the loom the women used for weaving, but there was a large room filled with silk scarves right next to it. Also, along the side of one building were table of vendors with small trinkets, fans and snacks. I picked up a few silk scarves.

Our stops complete, we headed back to the boat, then back to the hotel where we were put on a 15 seat minibus. We sat next to a Dutch girl who had done a homestay the night before in the silk village and was now on her way to Saigon. She’d been in SE Asia for about 6 months, working in Chiang Mai for a while before travelling around. She was actually going to be flying back to CM for Songkran (Thai New Years celebration, when large water fights dominate the towns) in a few days.

As the bus continued it’s journey to Cantho, we stopped to pick up more passengers. Like Cambodia, just because there are X amount of seats in a vehicle doesn’t mean it can’t hold more passengers. There were people sitting, on people’s laps, on the floor and on small stools. At least there was AC.

Once in Cantho, the tour was over for he day us; the guide said someone would be meeting us the next morning to take us to the floating market and villages. While in Cantho Jody and I got to planning our Vietnam itinerary, With barely 3 weeks to spend to go from south to north we had to choose and cut out where we wanted to go. We decided to give the beach resort towns of Nha Trang and Mui Ne a miss, opting to just visit the beaches in Hoi An and Cat Ba instead. We both wanted to spend time in Saigon, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Cat Ba and Sapa. WE also decided to visit the Cu Chi tunnels just outside Saigon and not the DMZ near Hue. With all that in mind, our arrival date in China would be between April 28 and May1.

Once we were done done planning we took a walk around for something to eat. After some time we came across a small place near the water that had a variety on Vietnamese and Western food. There were a few dishes containing snake. Not feeling overly daring, Jody had Pho and I ordered some goat curry, but I think it was actually lamb. We walked back to the guesthouse along the illuminated waterfront.

The next morning we set out to the floating market with our tour. We got on a large touring boat not unlike the one we were on the day before. The market it really a bunch of large boats selling mostly fruit and fish to smaller boats. Our boat went all around the market, then stopped next to one selling fruit. I got some pineapple on a stick. After the market we were taken to a place that made rice vermicelli and another small local village, A bunch of local kids showed up and followed us around. The tour leader waned us to watch our bags and pockets, since the kids had been known to try and steal.
We moved our bags so that they were in front of us, and the kids suddenly went away.

After the tour we stopped in Cantho to wait for our bus to Saigon. For lunch, a few people other people from the tour had seen snake on menus around town and were also curious to try it. Between our group of 8 or so more than half was game to try, so we got a snake dish to share. It was actually pretty good, kind of an oily meat. Don’t think I’d order it again as a meal for myself, but maybe to share as a group meal.

The ride to Saigon was pretty uneventful. Not long after leaving Cantho we had to take a short ferry ride over a river, as the bridge was still under construction. The boat consisted of motos and tour buses. Very few cars. I chatted a bit with a Canadian/British couple who had been teaching English in South Korea for the past year. Once off the ferry we had to find out tour bus, which wasn’t the easiest task since many buses look alike, and most people failed to take note of any distinguishing features our bus had, our what our driver looked like. Fortunately Jody was able to identify the bus, and we piled and headed north to Saigon.

(We were in the Mekong Delta region April 10-12 )

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Scams, temples and genocide part 2 – Phnom Penh

Posted by Robin on June 3, 2010

On to Phnom Penh. What an interesting place. From the second we stepped off the bus it felt like a big 3rd world city. I guess that’s an odd thing to say after being in the 3rd world for the past month, but it did. Then again, this was the second “big city” we’d been to in the past month, well, 3 if you count Singapore (Bangkok being the other one). Right after we got off the bus a hoard of tuk-tuk drivers came up to us and wanted to take us to our guesthouse. Only when we told them where we wanted to go the drivers tried to get us somewhere else, saying “It’s closed” or “This place is same same”. Then we’d have to bargain for the price. Eventually we got to where we wanted to go, for the right price.

Phnom Penn has no public transportation system. The city has roughly 1.5 million people. To get around you walk (which can be tedious in 40 degree heat), you rent a motorbike or you get moto drivers, tuk tuk or taxis to drive you around. Many taxis don’t have metres, so you need to agree on a price beforehand, which for westerners is often inflated. Bargaining is key. While I’m talking about getting around, most 4 way intersections do not have stop lights. Or even a UK-style roundabout. Really. Imagine the intersection of Peel and St Catherine street, or Sherbrooke and Guy/Cote des Neiges. Now imagine them without traffic lights. Now replace the cars with many motorbikes. Now try and cross the street. Jody told me he’d read somewhere there are about 6 traffic deaths a day in Phnom Penh. I can believe it.

When we weren’t bargaining or dodging motorbikes, we saw a few sights. We took a moto-taxi to the Killing Fields, 20 minutes out of town. The is the site of the mass graves that the Khmer Rouge dug in the late 70′s. Like Hiroshima, this was not an easy place to visit. Various spots around the site were marked with signposts, like “In this grave 240 bodies of women and children were found here” or “This is where the truck from S-21 would park and the prisoners would be led out and killed”. In the middle sits a memorial stupa with skulls, bones and scraps of clothing. Not easy to take in.

We headed back into town and saw the National Museum, which wasn’t super interesting to us, and then headed towards Toul Sleng Museum, or S-21, a school that was taken over by the Khmer Rouge and used as a prison. Prisoners were tortured and imprisoned here for months or years before being taken for execution at the Killing Fields. We could actually walk into the former classrooms that had been partitioned into cells. In some rooms photos of people being tortured and in the middle of the room would be the same torture devices and shackles. Once again, not an easy place to be. I left the place shaken from the atrocities human beings are capable of doing to each other.

While we were going from place to place, people would be coming up to us for money, tuk tuks, and trying to sell us things. We’d leave one place and would be asked “You go Killing Fields? Shooting range?” Women would come up to us with naked babies and empty bottles, and even the baby would have their hand out asking for “dolla”. Kinda surreal, in a way. And yet they wouldn’t take food from us, or ask any local people for money. Only the white people.

Our next destination was to be Vietnam. We found out that for the same price as a bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Mihn City) we could take a boat into the Mekong delta. Since we were thinking about going to that area anyway, it worked out nicely. There were 2 Dutch girls who were doing the same. WE took a van about an hour out of Phnom Penh on sometimes paved sometimes dirt road, then got on a a small wooden boat. We passed by many fields and small homes near the water.

After lunch at an overpriced restaurant at the border crossing we got on another, larger boat bound for Chau Doc. What a difference between the 2 sides of the river. The Vietnam side had more people, better boats, more infrastructure. Small children would see the boat and wave and yell “HELLO! HELLO!”. I was not expecting such a warm welcome from the locals.

After a bit of an adventure in trying to get money from several bank machines and figuring where we were relative to the centre of town, we started walking. We were followed by 2 riskhaw drivers who kept trying to get us to ride with them, but kept changing the price (first they said 10000 dong, then 10000 each, plus a second one for our bags). After half an hour of being nothing but useless pests they left us be. Finding where we were trying to go was a bit of a pain to, since many buildings had 2 numbers on them, the building number and the unit number. Eventually we found where we wanted to go.

Once we settled in Jody decided to take a bike ride out to a mountain and I decided to stay in, relax and eat. I had my first bowl of Pho, aka noodle soup. After Jody returned we made travel plans for the next few days. We discovered the guesthouse also booked tours and onward bus transportation. For about 25$ each we got a tour of local fish farms, silk markets, vermicelli “factory” and local villages, the floating market outside Cantho, one night accommodation and ground transportation. We went to bed excited to begin our Vietnamese leg of the trip.

(We were in Phnom Phen April 8-10, 2010)

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Ask me anything

Posted by Robin on May 26, 2010

In the next week I foresee spending a lot of time on trains by myself as I make my way from Xining to Xian. then Chengdu, then back to Beijing and up towards Harbin. Since I really want to get writing more, and now that I have almost double the battery power I’ve had so far on this trip, I invite you, my readers, to ask me anything about the trip so far. It can be about the places I’ve visited, the people I’ve encountered, the best/worse/weirdest moments so far. Or even what I listen to on my Ipod the most, or what I miss about home. Just anything.

Looking forward to your questions!

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Row row row your boat

Posted by Robin on May 26, 2010

Number 3? in the Foreigners as Rock Stars in Asia series (FARSIA)

We’re on a 24 hour overnight train from Beijing to Xining. Distance wise, it’s a bit less than going from Winnipeg to Vancouver.It’s the last overnight journey Jody and I will take together on this trip. We’re in the “hard sleeper” class, which is actually quite comfortable but crowded. There are no walls separating the corridor with the bays of 3 tier high bunk beds. Our beds are on the bottom, meaning they double as seats for the other 4 people in the compartment, and/or their friends.

We are surrounded by Chinese people. Before we even left Beijing West station someone asked us how long we’d been in China. But his wording is confusing, we figure out what he’s asking by writing down the question. Further attempts of small talk were futile, since our temporary travelling companions knew very little English, and our knowledge or Mandarin is limited to the words “Hello, thank you, no, west, Yuan (the currency used in China,)” and names of cities. One of the men is curious about Jody’s zip-off cargo pants. The girl across from us starts to count in English. I help her a bit. Then I take my list of handy words and phrases I’d ripped out of Lonely Planet. I try to count to 10, but the only numbers I really know are 1, 5 and 10. The crowd of Chinese people around us laugh. Someone starts singing the alphabet but gets lost around G. I help them, They smile. I start to feel less like a Rock Star and more like an zoo inhabitant.

For a bit they leave us alone. Then the girl trying to count wants pictures of us. We pose for pictures with her, with the guys travelling with her. I start to feel like a Rock Star again. A bit later counting girl tries to get us to sing. After a few minutes of thinking I start singing Row Row Row Your Boat and she is delighted. I try to teach it to her. She gets the first line after a few tries but can’t pronounce the word “gently” and the rest of the line is more vowel sounds then anything. The second part was pretty good, by this point she’s forgotten the first bit. But it’s all good.

Jody opens his laptop and shows people our pictures of elephants. A small crowd gathers around. Soon half the carriage is looking. They tell us the Chinese word for elephant (I think it’s Tasio or Tasia). We show them some picture of cats (Mo, pronounced like “no” but with more of a falling tone). Counting girl asks us if we have kids. We answer “no, cats” and they laugh. Another girl wants a picture with us. I start to feel like Santa Claus. We sing Row Row Row Your Boat again and the Chinese people applaud.

Later on, they notice Jody’s shirt (a bunny mounting a duck from behind) and have a laugh at the caption “WRONG” underneath. We show them more pictures of cats. They smile.

Sometimes, it’s fun to pretend you’re a rock star.

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Scams, temples and genocide part 1 – Our time in Cambodia

Posted by Robin on May 21, 2010

Our first experience with Cambodia and scams occurred before we even crossed the border. We had lunch with a guy from Hong Kong, then the 3 of us got a tuk-tuk to the border. Only the tuk tuk didn’t take us there directly. Instead we were taken to a shack-like, well, shack where some men in uniforms gave us Cambodian immigration papers, then told us it would cost 1200 baht (about 40$) to get our visas. Jody and I already had our e-visas, but the guy we were with had to pay before they’d drive us the rest of the way to the border. Once we got there, I noticed the actual price of the visa on arrival was closer to 20$. Jerks.

After a long wait at immigration we got through were in Cambodia. Unlike Thailand and Laos, Cambodia doesn’t have any government-run public transportation system. Or maybe they do and we didn’t see it. In any case, we had to find our way to Siem Reap, about 2 ½ hours away. We got on a free shuttle from the immigration checkpoint to the bus station with 2 other white couples, where a local guy stood up and said that we should change all our money into riel (the national currency) because no one takes baht. We could use the US dollar but everything would cost more, because they can’t give change in US money (ie if we paid for something that was 2000 riel with a 1$ bill we wouldn’t get change. 4000 riel = 1USD). And of course, when we got a bottle of water from the bus station and Jody paid in baht he got a terrible rate. But we kind of expected this, right?

Have I mentioned Cambodia is notorious for ripping of white people?

Once we got to the station, we had a choice of taking a shared taxi, or a bus. The guys were trying to get us into a cab for 48$, and we said it was too much, even for 4 people (12$). We were told this was the best rate in town. The bus wouldn’t be leaving for 3 more hours. After threatening to leave, we got it down to 40$, all the way to our guesthouse. The rest stop we fuelled up at told us we could only use the bathroom for free is we bought something. Once we were near Siem Reap the driver stopped, said cars were not allowed into the city proper, and that we could take a tuk tuk for free into the city. The catch was, we had to book a temple tour with that tuk tuk driver the next day for 20$, or he’d charge us 5$ each. We argued, then decided we’d take the ride, then change hotels. The driver took us to a guesthouse, but I really liked it so we decided to stay (dumb move on my part). We told the driver we wanted him to pick us up at 9am, thought Jody and I already decided we wanted to go for sunrise. So we arranged with our guesthouse a tuk tuk driver to come very early, and a whole day for 15$. Sounds good so far.

So, at the hour of super-early we woke up and met our driver. We bought our tickets and headed to a small reservoir for sunrise. We heard Angkor Wat was great to see at sunrise, but had a tendency to be really crowded. So we decided to save it for last. When we arrived at Sras Sorong we were greeted by a crowd of children trying to sell us coffee, books and trinkets. They were pretty relentless, and when we politely declined whatever it was they were selling they would ask “Why you no buy?” Heart wrenching. The kids would even ask where we were from, and then reply “Canada, capital city Ottawa”. Great, but you probably can’t read the words Ottawa or Canada, or point out either on a map.

We visited about a dozen sites during the course of the day. We found the temples that had the most decay to be the most interesting. We saw temples with so much decay trees were growing around them. Amazing. Another, the Bayon, had all these faces carved in it. Angkor Wat, our last stop, felt anti climatic after everything we’d seen all day. The main facade was also under renovation, making it a bit of a eyesore to photograph. Fortunately, the back is very similar to the front, so we went there for pictures.

We headed back to the guesthouse for food and drinks. In one of the guidebooks we saw a bunch of pizza places that had names like “Happy Angkor Pizza” or “Ecstatic Pizza”. I wasn’t sure if Jody believed me when I told him it’s not uncommon to put marijuana on pizza here. In any case, we decided pizza would be a nice treat. The menu didn’t say anything outright, but when we made our order the guy asked if we’d like our pizza “happy”. When in Rome…

At around 6am the next morning I woke up and noticed Jody wasn’t in bed. He was at the door telling someone “It’s 6am, come back later and we’ll talk then”. It was the tuk tuk driver from 2 days ago! He’s come by the previous day and someone working at the guesthouse told him which room we were in. Needless to say, we changed guesthouses!* The driver was trying to tell us we owed him money because he’d come the day before and we weren’t there. I can’t remember what Jody said to him but we gave him a few dollars and he buggered off. That is, after we declined his offer to take us to a different guesthouse. WTF?

Once we find another place we visited a silk-production workshop. It was really neat to watch people prepare silk and use the looms all by hand. It was with a group that does fair trade artisan crafts. I picked up a small camera case, my old one had fallen into the depths of Lumpini stadium a few days earlier. That evening we walked around the night market and the appropriately named Pub Street. For a city of its size Siem Reap has a lot going on. Then again, it’s mostly for tourists.

Part 2 – Phnom Penh is coming up.

** The guesthouse was the European Guesthouse. It’s mention in Rough Guide, not Lonely Planet.

(We were in Cambodia April 4-9 2010)

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Down time

Posted by Robin on May 21, 2010

I’m tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired.

For the past 4ish weeks it’s been city hopping non stop. Since we left Cat Ba, Vietnam at the end of April we’ve changed locations every day, or every second day.

This is where I’ve been in the past few weeks (Note, the spelling of many of the cities could very well be incorrect).

Cat Ba (Vietnam)→ Nigh train to Sapa from Hanoi (1 night)
Sapa (2 nights)
Sapa → Cross border to China → Overnight bus to Kunming (1 night)
Day in Kunming → Overnight train to Lijiang (1 night)
Day in Lijiang (1 night)
Tiger Leaping Gorge trek day 1, overnight on the trail (1 night)
Tiger leaping Gorge trek day 2, back to Lijiang for the night (1 night)
Train Lijiang -> Dali, spent the day and night there (1 night)
Bus Dali -> Kunming, overnight train to Guilyn (1 night)
Bus Guilyn-> Yangshou, stay there (2 nights)
Bus back to Guilyn, overnight train to Guanzhou (1 night)
Train Guangzhou → Hong Kong, stay in HK (2 nights)
Train HK → Guangzhou, stay there (2 nights)
Overnight train Guangzhou → Shanghai (1 night)
Stay Shanghai (1night)
Overnight train Shanghai → Beijing (1 night)

We arrived in Beijing early Tuesday morning. It’s now Friday. I’ve seen the Great Wall as a day trip from the hostel. Absolutely amazing. Wednesday afternoon we went to Tianamen’s Square and the Forbidden City but didn’t go in or take pictures. And that’s all I’ve done in Beijing, other than sleep, eat and loaf around the hostel. I feel like I should have more get up and go, but I don’t. We’re here until Tuesday afternoon, so I still have time.

I’m not unhappy though. Just feeling a bit worn out. Unfortunately, I don’t like feeling worn out. I don’t think anyone does. And when your travel partner has lots more energy than you do, it can be tough when you want to be doing stuff with them and barely have the energy to walk 3 blocks for lunch. Meanwhile, Jody’s out getting a bike for his upcoming Himalayan adventure.

I think today I will relax, and eventually give myself permission to stop feeling unhappy about needing to rest. Maybe I should try relaxing somewhere other then the hostel. Get some tea.

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Amusement park review – Chimelong Paradise

Posted by Robin on May 17, 2010

Yesterday I decided to indulge myself in one of my favourite things – going on roller coasters! After 3 months in Asia, I was going to my first park on this trip (well, 3rd, but the rides weren’t working at the park in Saigon or Tokyo). My destination – Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou, which is supposedly the biggest park in China. Compared to other parks I’ve been to, Chimelong was pretty small, probably around the same size as La Ronde, or a bit smaller. Still, I had a great time.

Coasters I went on were:

Dive Coaster (the park has a lack of creativity when it comes to names) – This is apparently a clone of Shreika at the Busch Gardens parks. Still, I’d never been on either of them. I’d been on Oblivion at Alton Towers, which is the “original” dive coaster. For those of you who aren’t familiar with coaster lingo (which is probably the bulk of people reading this), dive coaster have 2 distinguishing features. First, the cars are short and wide. Oblivion’s cars are 2 rows of 8 seats I think, and DC has 3 rows of 10. The rows are also staggered, giving the feel of sitting in the front row in all rows. Kind of. The other unique feature is the first drop is a near-vertical plummet. DC actually has 2 straight-down drops, one at the beginning and one a bit later on. And unlike Oblivion, this one has a loop. Not a lot of airtime, but a fun ride.

10 inversion roller coaster – A copy of Thrope Park’s Colossus. It has 10 inversions. Not a particularly smooth ride. I came off with a wicked headache. Not impressed.

Motorbike Launch coater – Now this was something new, at least for me. Not a particularly high ride, or a fast one. What I find makes this not so much the launch (meaning there’s no lift hill, a motor makes the train go) but how you ride it. Instead of sitting down like a normal roller coaster, you straddle a motorbike “seat”, with your hands on handlebars. The back of the seat presses into your back and there are restraints around your legs too. Fun ride.

Half-Pipe – Probably my favourite ride. A U-shaped track with 2 circles of seats that spin on a platform made to look like a snowboard. The board is propelled up and down the track by linear induction magnets. Lots of airtime. It’s kind of like the frisbee ride at La Ronde but on a track.

Spinning coater – Wild mouse with spinning cars. Generic.

Other cool bits – A ride that was just a loop that you kept going around and around. More fun than I make it sound.

Now, the amusing part. It appeared to have been school field trip day at the park. Kids in school uniforms everywhere. As one maybe 6 white people visiting the park, I got a fair share of stares and “HELLOOOOOOOO!”’s from the kids. That was fun for the first hour. I tried to not be too goofy when I said hello back. What I most amused about was when I got off the 10 inversion coaster a little boy pointed his camera in my direction. I looked over my shoulder and there was no one there. He wanted a picture of me

Later that day, I was getting into line for the Dive coaster and saw a couple (probably early 20′s) taking pictures of each other. When I walked by the guy wanted a picture. I thought he wanted me to take a picture of his and the girl he was with. Nope, he wanted one of me and him.

At the end of the day I got my picture taken with one of the clowns on stilts. Just because

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