if you go down to the tropical rainforest tonight...
I am posting this from little_ribbon's hostel - she is REFUSING to allow me to watch Merlin until I finish this post. SO I WILL MAKE THIS QUICK. ... for a given value of quick.
Last year lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I went to visit the Night Safari's Halloween Horrors, and that was FUN. This year, the both of them having ABANDONED ME this country for CANADA, I went with rei_kurasaki, little_ribbon and Kimberly.
BEFORE the trip they had all been over my house and I had HAPPILY INFECTED THEM WITH MY NEW OBSESSION: TALES OF SYMPHONIA 2: DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD / KNIGHTS OF RATATOSK. I love Emil, and to my great surprise and shock, I really really really like Richter. Richter looks like the love-child of Jade and Asch with Dist's fashion sense, and Richter is my hero ♥ He's smart and really cool and distant and TOTALLY NOT AT ALL THE KIND OF CHARACTER I NORMALLY GO FOR (cough cough Emil: small and blond and cute and with the biggest puppy eyes ever). BUT YES. It was especially to show rei_kurasaki all the Richter/Emil moments, and Lin was, "... did they make this game gay on purpose?"
ANYWAY THAT WAS SUPER FUN, because then we went for dinner and SO MANY THINGS BECAME ALL RATATOSK-ESQUE'D - we were talking about having oyako-don and then Kimberly said, "ARE YOU A DOG OR A MAN", and Sam said, "I DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" and... and then Kimberly pushed up NONEXISTENT glasses and said, "COURAGE IS THE MAGIC THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY". oh god and then I laughed SO HARD ROFL. Even when we were waiting for the tram, I leaned on a different side of the railings from the others and was, "LOOK I'M DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF YOU" and it turned into YET ANOTHER "WE DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" moment. We were standing at another long-tailed bush rat exhibit and somehow the conversation turned into, "You let your Uncle Alba push you around" and more COURAGE BEING THE MAGIC happiness.
oh but the part that made me laugh so much is that now when we're apologising, we're channelling Emil. And right at the end of the night when we were having Ben & Jerry's, this SUPER CREEPY (but very pretty!) freaky extra-mouthed gothic Lolita girl came up to Kimberly, and STOOD THERE FOR A VERY LONG TIME JUST STARING AT KIMBERLY WITH REALLY HUUUGE EYES (Lin can still see her when she closes her eyes)... and Kimberly hunched over and went, "... I'm sorry..."
... oh god and then Lin and Sam and me burst out laughing.
ANYWAY BACK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY BEFORE IT WAS DERAILED BY RATATOSK: Night Safari's having a Return of the Halloween Horrors, and it is AMAZING. IT IS SCARIER THAN IT LOOKS ON THE VIDEO OKAY, because, it is AT NIGHT, and it is IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. Which ALWAYS makes the Malayan horror aspect REALLY REALLY TERRIFYING. ANYWAY! I thought the Night Safari had been done up really beautifully: they had a giant animatronic horror pumpkin-head tree at the visitors' entrance, which would rise up and roar with unholy laughter, and they had LOADS of costumed horrors wandering around: the Tin Man who'd taken his quest for a heart to the extreme lengths of looking for REAL human hearts, bloody!Cinderella with a very real-looking glass slipper in her forehead, a creepy, creepy dim-sum seller with... REALLY SPECIAL FRESH DIM SUM, a psycho farmland Ronald McDonald, Nightmare Before Christmas-esque gothic horrors... together with the usual suspects: Scream!masked caped mysteries, creepy crones, butcher-knife wielding maniacs, caped vampires (DO WE DAZZLE YOU)... and MORE.
We went for the scary-fied Forest Giants Trail - the suspension bridge had been turned into the Bridge of No Return, complete with freaky people and freakier props. And the rest is cut (in case you want to go and be surprised) for the
TERRORS OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST.
There was a GIANT CAULDRON of bubbling human remains at the entrance of the Bridge of No Return, complete with a bloodied butcher man and a cackling witch. ... as usual my response to FEAR is to be Very Nice to the nice people who are dressed up in scary clothes to freak me out and are standing there in the muggy tropical night WORKING while we are having fun, so I smiled a lot and told them how lovely their costumes were, and we took pictures! They were very obliging. :D
... and there was a SCARY HUNG-BODY DROP at the end of the suspension bridge. There is NO BODY OPERATING IT (so one of our fellow trailgoers was saying it must be automatic).
There was a SCARY CHINESE VAMPIRE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE (while the forest echoed with screams and cries), and when the flash of (someone else's) camera went off, it picked out this really pretty multicoloured satin decorations on his collar, so I went, "Oh, your costume is so pretty!" (then to the rest) "Does anyone want a picture?" and our happy fellow trailgoers were, "Oh oh oh! Can I get a picture of you strangling me? :D" And the vampire was very obliging. :D
Oh and the sweeeeeetest moment of the night was when we got to the end of this suspension bridge, and there was this adorable little three-year old girl gazing up at a scary PUMPKINHEAD man and giggling and giggling with UTTER JOY AND HAPPINESS. We could hear her laughing from the bridge, and it was the HAPPY LAUGHTER of a SMALL CHILD HAVING THE TIME OF HER LIFE. It was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to take pictures but felt I would be accused of being PEDO. So I did not, BUT I WILL REMEMBER THE CUTENESS OF IT ALL.
Also, the ride that's REALLY worth your money? It's the Train of Terror and Gate to Neverland. It's just three dollars extra to get onto that train, and in all our opinions, it was MORE THAN WORTH THREE DOLLARS. On the train of terror, you get taken through the Night Safari with CREEPY COMMENTARY. Such as when the ordinary guide would tell you, "A pelican's beak can hold up to 30 gallons of water", the Terror Train guide would cackle and tell you in a veeeeerrry witchy voice, "A pelican's beak is big enough to hold a human head... or two." There would be SPECIAL EMPHASIS on the bite strengths of various predators and just what would be lurking in the looong grass.
BUT THE REALLY FREAKY PART is the Gate to Neverland. (BAD ENOUGH THAT IT MAKES YOU THINK OF ENTERING MICHAEL JACKSON'S DOMAIN). This year's theme was TWISTED FAIRYTALES.
THE TRAIN OF TERROR
The GATES OF NEVERLAND actually open to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AREA OF THE PARK. :D And it's ... REALLY FREAKY. (to me. I am a gutless wonder, therefore I get the most scares and hence satisfaction!)
It opened with this FREAKY MAN IN A SACKCLOTH MASK BANGING AWAY WITH A KNIFE ON THE METAL FENCES. And there was SMOKE/MIST, and then we went into the land of TWISTED FAIRYTALES. There were Beauty & the Beast wandering bloodied and quite insane in a grove of destroyed bookshelves (books in coffins!!!), there was Snow White and the Evil Queen cursed by the Mirror, there was wailing!little Red Riding Hood terrorised by HUGE ANIMATRONIC WOLVES and the deranged Huntsman who strode past the train banging his machete on the siding, a Pan-like creature who crept up to the train, GORE GALORE, a creepy lady with a baby wrapped up in her arms, MORE...
and the part that scared me the most was their take on the Little Mermaid, because the twist was that a demented butcher had gotten his hands on Ariel and the rest of her sisters, and that area was set up like a BUTCHERY OF A FISHERY, with huge mermaid tails hanging from wooden supports...
and the butcher with the Little Mermaid on a bloodied chopping block. The Little Mermaid was SCREAMING and thrashing and calling for help from the train passengers, and her TAIL was (quite frighteningly) flapping away despite being severed from her body, and the butcher was screaming, "DIE DIE DIE!!!" intespersed with HACKING AND CHOPPING, and then he would stare up at the train and yell, "PRETTY GIRL OVER THERE, YOU'RE NEXT!"
AND NOW I MAY HAVE MY MERLIN.
Last year lacewood, cynic_in_charge and I went to visit the Night Safari's Halloween Horrors, and that was FUN. This year, the both of them having ABANDONED ME this country for CANADA, I went with rei_kurasaki, little_ribbon and Kimberly.
BEFORE the trip they had all been over my house and I had HAPPILY INFECTED THEM WITH MY NEW OBSESSION: TALES OF SYMPHONIA 2: DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD / KNIGHTS OF RATATOSK. I love Emil, and to my great surprise and shock, I really really really like Richter. Richter looks like the love-child of Jade and Asch with Dist's fashion sense, and Richter is my hero ♥ He's smart and really cool and distant and TOTALLY NOT AT ALL THE KIND OF CHARACTER I NORMALLY GO FOR (cough cough Emil: small and blond and cute and with the biggest puppy eyes ever). BUT YES. It was especially to show rei_kurasaki all the Richter/Emil moments, and Lin was, "... did they make this game gay on purpose?"
ANYWAY THAT WAS SUPER FUN, because then we went for dinner and SO MANY THINGS BECAME ALL RATATOSK-ESQUE'D - we were talking about having oyako-don and then Kimberly said, "ARE YOU A DOG OR A MAN", and Sam said, "I DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" and... and then Kimberly pushed up NONEXISTENT glasses and said, "COURAGE IS THE MAGIC THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY". oh god and then I laughed SO HARD ROFL. Even when we were waiting for the tram, I leaned on a different side of the railings from the others and was, "LOOK I'M DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF YOU" and it turned into YET ANOTHER "WE DESPISE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T THINK FOR THEMSELVES" moment. We were standing at another long-tailed bush rat exhibit and somehow the conversation turned into, "You let your Uncle Alba push you around" and more COURAGE BEING THE MAGIC happiness.
oh but the part that made me laugh so much is that now when we're apologising, we're channelling Emil. And right at the end of the night when we were having Ben & Jerry's, this SUPER CREEPY (but very pretty!) freaky extra-mouthed gothic Lolita girl came up to Kimberly, and STOOD THERE FOR A VERY LONG TIME JUST STARING AT KIMBERLY WITH REALLY HUUUGE EYES (Lin can still see her when she closes her eyes)... and Kimberly hunched over and went, "... I'm sorry..."
... oh god and then Lin and Sam and me burst out laughing.
ANYWAY BACK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY BEFORE IT WAS DERAILED BY RATATOSK: Night Safari's having a Return of the Halloween Horrors, and it is AMAZING. IT IS SCARIER THAN IT LOOKS ON THE VIDEO OKAY, because, it is AT NIGHT, and it is IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST. Which ALWAYS makes the Malayan horror aspect REALLY REALLY TERRIFYING. ANYWAY! I thought the Night Safari had been done up really beautifully: they had a giant animatronic horror pumpkin-head tree at the visitors' entrance, which would rise up and roar with unholy laughter, and they had LOADS of costumed horrors wandering around: the Tin Man who'd taken his quest for a heart to the extreme lengths of looking for REAL human hearts, bloody!Cinderella with a very real-looking glass slipper in her forehead, a creepy, creepy dim-sum seller with... REALLY SPECIAL FRESH DIM SUM, a psycho farmland Ronald McDonald, Nightmare Before Christmas-esque gothic horrors... together with the usual suspects: Scream!masked caped mysteries, creepy crones, butcher-knife wielding maniacs, caped vampires (DO WE DAZZLE YOU)... and MORE.
We went for the scary-fied Forest Giants Trail - the suspension bridge had been turned into the Bridge of No Return, complete with freaky people and freakier props. And the rest is cut (in case you want to go and be surprised) for the
TERRORS OF THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST.
There was a GIANT CAULDRON of bubbling human remains at the entrance of the Bridge of No Return, complete with a bloodied butcher man and a cackling witch. ... as usual my response to FEAR is to be Very Nice to the nice people who are dressed up in scary clothes to freak me out and are standing there in the muggy tropical night WORKING while we are having fun, so I smiled a lot and told them how lovely their costumes were, and we took pictures! They were very obliging. :D
... and there was a SCARY HUNG-BODY DROP at the end of the suspension bridge. There is NO BODY OPERATING IT (so one of our fellow trailgoers was saying it must be automatic).
There was a SCARY CHINESE VAMPIRE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE (while the forest echoed with screams and cries), and when the flash of (someone else's) camera went off, it picked out this really pretty multicoloured satin decorations on his collar, so I went, "Oh, your costume is so pretty!" (then to the rest) "Does anyone want a picture?" and our happy fellow trailgoers were, "Oh oh oh! Can I get a picture of you strangling me? :D" And the vampire was very obliging. :D
Oh and the sweeeeeetest moment of the night was when we got to the end of this suspension bridge, and there was this adorable little three-year old girl gazing up at a scary PUMPKINHEAD man and giggling and giggling with UTTER JOY AND HAPPINESS. We could hear her laughing from the bridge, and it was the HAPPY LAUGHTER of a SMALL CHILD HAVING THE TIME OF HER LIFE. It was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to take pictures but felt I would be accused of being PEDO. So I did not, BUT I WILL REMEMBER THE CUTENESS OF IT ALL.
Also, the ride that's REALLY worth your money? It's the Train of Terror and Gate to Neverland. It's just three dollars extra to get onto that train, and in all our opinions, it was MORE THAN WORTH THREE DOLLARS. On the train of terror, you get taken through the Night Safari with CREEPY COMMENTARY. Such as when the ordinary guide would tell you, "A pelican's beak can hold up to 30 gallons of water", the Terror Train guide would cackle and tell you in a veeeeerrry witchy voice, "A pelican's beak is big enough to hold a human head... or two." There would be SPECIAL EMPHASIS on the bite strengths of various predators and just what would be lurking in the looong grass.
BUT THE REALLY FREAKY PART is the Gate to Neverland. (BAD ENOUGH THAT IT MAKES YOU THINK OF ENTERING MICHAEL JACKSON'S DOMAIN). This year's theme was TWISTED FAIRYTALES.
THE TRAIN OF TERROR
The GATES OF NEVERLAND actually open to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AREA OF THE PARK. :D And it's ... REALLY FREAKY. (to me. I am a gutless wonder, therefore I get the most scares and hence satisfaction!)
It opened with this FREAKY MAN IN A SACKCLOTH MASK BANGING AWAY WITH A KNIFE ON THE METAL FENCES. And there was SMOKE/MIST, and then we went into the land of TWISTED FAIRYTALES. There were Beauty & the Beast wandering bloodied and quite insane in a grove of destroyed bookshelves (books in coffins!!!), there was Snow White and the Evil Queen cursed by the Mirror, there was wailing!little Red Riding Hood terrorised by HUGE ANIMATRONIC WOLVES and the deranged Huntsman who strode past the train banging his machete on the siding, a Pan-like creature who crept up to the train, GORE GALORE, a creepy lady with a baby wrapped up in her arms, MORE...
and the part that scared me the most was their take on the Little Mermaid, because the twist was that a demented butcher had gotten his hands on Ariel and the rest of her sisters, and that area was set up like a BUTCHERY OF A FISHERY, with huge mermaid tails hanging from wooden supports...
and the butcher with the Little Mermaid on a bloodied chopping block. The Little Mermaid was SCREAMING and thrashing and calling for help from the train passengers, and her TAIL was (quite frighteningly) flapping away despite being severed from her body, and the butcher was screaming, "DIE DIE DIE!!!" intespersed with HACKING AND CHOPPING, and then he would stare up at the train and yell, "PRETTY GIRL OVER THERE, YOU'RE NEXT!"
AND NOW I MAY HAVE MY MERLIN.