The Leofu Village, that is.

The things I do when I travel….

On our 4th day in Taiwan, Fernie, sister and I went to the theme park somewhere at the edge of Taipei, or out of it [that's the thing - none of us could figure out where exactly the theme park was in the Taiwan map].

“Leo” means “Six” and “Fu” means “Luck” in Chinese, thus the name of the park of the park translates to “Six Luck”.

The entrance fee is NT$890, but one pays NT$200 lesser if you have a youth travel pass. Sister and I tried to get Fernie in without her concession pass but failed. :/

Upon entering, the 3 of us went errr… *shifty eyes* *puzzled expression* are we early or what??

There were so. little. people. around. Where was the crowd? Where were the life-size cartoon characters?! Where did the little kiddos go? We were expecting kinda like a Disneyland/sea experience with music and toys and candy sticks and popcorn and all things happy that make you want to skip around in joy.

But.

A smattering of people.

Surely this could not be it? The atmosphere was so different from Tokyo’s Disneysea.

Where on earth were the crowds? The people? The tourists? Bizzaroland.

Oops. Caught cam-whoring by Fernie.

On the bright side of things, we didn’t have to endure 2-hour long queues for the rides. Everything went smoothly and without hiccups. The supervisors for each ride were friendly and made our rides more personal by chatting with us before and after the rides.

Grinning from ear to ear because I finally got to sit in the carousel – something I’ve always wanted to do because.. they just seem so magical, y’know?

The happy gals.

However, the novelty wore off after a while and I got bored.

After 2 rides, we got errr. hungry. Ok, please blame the cold. Kthks.

The ride that didn’t happen. We were looking for the entrance to the Lost World ride and got lost looking for it [Wow, is that even a proper sentence?!]. Turned out the ride was closed for maintenance. Drats.

Fernie! Where are you!? Again!

Laughs. Fernie has a habit of disappearing stealthily like a ninja. The 3 of us could be walking alongside one another and all of a sudden, sis and I will realise [belatedly] that Fernie has scooted off somewhere to clickclickclick stuff.

Getting into the whole unlimited-rides-no-queues experience.

Sun in our eyes. Fernie sat sedately at the opposite end.

Before the ride – happy Fernie.

The guys in red and black were genuinely terrified! Their friends [the two gals in yellow and blue] coerced them into going for the ride.

The guys got scared, Fernie got scared and so did we.

“NoooOoOooooOoooo,” went the guy in black.

We went on it twice. It was a little vomit-inducing. Imagine sitting at either of the extreme ends of the ship, with nobody in front of you, and the ship goes rushing 70 degrees down. Yarghhh… I felt like I was floating off the ship!

The 360 degree turn.

Now, this looks scarier than it actually is.

Sister was all for this ride while Fernie and I had our reservations [that's an understatement!]. I don’t remember how it happened, but sister managed to convince me to go for it. Just once! You’re here anyway! I think that was what she said.

I think I am secretly a masochist.

At this point in time, I was staring open-mouthed at the people.

Well, it really wasn’t all that scary! Sister and I sat next to each other and were laughing throughout the ride because of funny things that happened during the ride, like how she couldn’t control the movements of her feet [gravity and all that] and they flew up when the ride swung one way, almost hitting me in the face.

Hmm, looks are deceiving I guess. The 2nd most scary ride we had that day was this [and we will get to the scariest ride in the next Taiwan entry, don't worry. You won't be able to guess which ride. Ever.].

Pagoda – a 17-storey free-fall drop.

Yes, definitely a masochist. Why do I subject myself to such stuff????

I was surprised Fernie agreed to go for this. Sister and I spotted her dragging her feet through the queue though, as if she was wishing it wouldn’t happen if she walked a bit slower. Laughs.

We were seated in a horizontal row [the only 3 people who were crazy enough to try this] and as the seat went up slowly, the 3 of us went wahhhh… [at the scenic view] wow….. nice!!, then *silence* err… urghh.. argh!! [note: the seat was still going up during this point of our thought process]

Me: I’m getting really scared!! Heeelllppppp!!
Sis: Me too! I regret!!!!
Fernie: Ahhh!!!! I regret too!!!
Me: Put meee dowwwwnnnn heelllpp!!
Sis: I don’t waaannntt!!!!!
Fernie: NoooOoooOo…
Me: NoooOOOOoo….!!! Mummmyyyy~~!!
*a cacophony of our half-joking, half-panicky voices ‘crying’ for help’*

Then, whooooossshhhhh!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ever had that out-of-body experience? That was how it felt like. -________-” This is it. I cannot go bungee-jumping.

Fernie making friends with the Leofoo’s ambassadors.

The theme park had a safari section with over 1000 animals in its open sky enclosure.

Shy white beauty.

Mary’s lamb.

It tried really hard to get out.

Then it got stuck. Oh dear!

The animals in the park were in zen and lovey mode.

Parrots that kissed each other.

Cranes that were kissing each other.

Cubs playing with each other.

Fernie, sister and I had an experience with a monkey which I’m pretty sure none of you readers have gone through before. It was so traumatic and funny at the same time it deserves a post of its own. Keep an eye out for it! Soonish!

The biggest, fattest rabbit I have ever seen.

See, I wasn’t kidding.

Sister tried to sayang it but it kept skipping hopping lumbering away. Compare the size of sister’s hand to the rabbit’s body!

Our trip to the theme park ended earlier than expected and we decided to head back to the city after some dilly-dallying.

We were waiting for the bus in the cold when we caught sight of the Totoro bus. Will it bring us to a Camphor Laurel tree to meet Totoro??

 

Other Taiwan posts:

Welcome 2 Taiwan!
What A Load of Bull
Randomly Taiwan
The Biggest Bookstore in Taipei & Meeting Jay Chou