Lotte World Part I: Disneyland Koreanified

I had been looking forward to the weekend of July 19th for a long time because ever since May I had been planning to attend the Boryeong Mud Festival. Every year, thousands of tourists and Koreans travel south of Seoul to Boryeong, where they participate in mud games, have mud baths, and listen to concerts on the beach. As an added bonus, the mud is supposed to have nutrients that are good for your skin. Unfortunately, there were reports of some pretty nasty rashes breaking out at the festival, as well as eye infections and a few cases of swine flu, so I was convinced that going to the festival would be a bad idea. Instead, we went to a theme park.

Two Saturdays ago, Jihoon, Julia, and I visited Seoul's major amusement park, Lotte World, owned by that maker of cookies, crackers, and various other snacks, Lotte. The cost was about $25 and, surprisingly, the souvenirs and food inside were regular prices. The downside was that much of the park was comprised of slightly altered pieces of Disneyland. Still, if Lotte can keep costs low by not having to pay "Imagineers" to design their rides, I'm all for it!

Lotte World is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, as it opened in 1989. The first McDonalds in Korea actually opened in 1988 and Nam June Paik completed his TV tower "The More the Better" in 1988. Coincidence? I think not. The Olympics were held in Seoul in 1988, in what was a "coming-out" party somewhat similar to China's last year. The games ushered in a new period of international exposure as well as Westernization, paving the way for Lotte World.

Upon entering the park, we rode the escalator up to the top floor of the Lotte building where the majority of Lotte World was housed. Lotte World, Jihoon explained, is the largest indoor amusement park in Asia. Although most of the park is indoors, they've added a new area called "Magic Island" outside.

First stop: picture time with the LW Mickey and Minnie substitutes, the Lotty Raccoons

Second stop: Picture time in front of the Disneyland castle replica

(Koreans and replicas seem to be like pb and j...)

Next we took a ride on Atlantis Adventure, a roller coaster of the same intensity as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, only this ride had an aquatic theme

graffiti

Please don't get pregnant on the ride guys, it's just wrong

Next we went on Comet Express, a space-themed ride similar to Disneyland's Space Mountain, except not only did the car zoom around on a track, but each individual seat also rotated freely around its base. If there was a way to make the most nauseating roller coaster possible, the designers of Comet Express discovered it.

The operator of the ride had seemingly been forced to wear a pair of kitty ears as part of his space uniform, so we all tried animal ears on to be in solidarity with him.

Following the space ride, we hopped on Gyro Drop, a Supreme Scream-type ride which took us up a few stories and dropped us. Finally, we went on Fantasy Dream, an attraction as saccharine and sickeningly sweet as its name suggests. The Lotte World map described Fantasy Dream as a "fantastic underground train tour full of cute animals." I was sold at "cute animals." The escalator down to the ride was a descent into madness or, as Julia put it, into a place that smelled like old Barbies in her basement. Surprisingly, no one else was waiting for Fantasy Dream, so we boarded quickly. The ride started with a grotesque looking genie, continued with dancing candy bars, and ended with, as promised, a carousel and a train both full of stuffed animals.

We got hungry quickly, so we made our way over to the Lotte Folk Museum, dedicated to the history of Korea. Out of all the restaurants in the old-fashioned style food court, we picked the buffet, which featured pumpkin juk, kalbitang, dumplings, pork, fish, noodles, Korean pancakes, and some other dishes I can't remember. I happily fished all of the beef out of the kalbitang, Jihoon loaded up on cartilage soup, and Julia savored some sort of sweet rice drink.

On our way back through the park, we came across a life-sized mechanical mule. Apparently, you could pay 500 won and the mule would poop out slime for you to eat.

We decided to try out the flume ride next. Graffiti was everywhere at Lotte World, even in the waiting area for the flume ride. Although most of it was in Korean, the drawings of naked people were proudly signed by Americans. No wonder Korean cinema has birthed movies like "The Host."

Next, we waited about 40 minutes for the Pharaoh ride. One thing LW has over Disneyland is that you don't have to wait ridiculously long times for LW rides.

The Pharaoh ride was nearly identical to the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, with Egyptian paraphernalia substituted for Indy's Indian theme. The waiting rooms were laid out in a similar manner, and the Pharaoh ride even had a faux black-and-white travel video in one of the rooms.

Us with a strange little girl, ready to explore the Pharaoh's tomb

The ride itself also borrowed liberally from Indiana Jones, making use of a room where flames shot up, snakes hissing at riders, and a giant boulder rolling dangerously close to the riding vehicle. Strangely, the rolling boulder came in the middle of the ride, rather than the end. Disney understands "story" and "climax" better than Lotte, but that's forgivable.

a free-fall ride for kids

not everyone was having fun

To Be Continued...