South Korea: Lotte World

Rain began to fall on the third morning. It was Sunday. When I was sitting in the bus and saw church buildings, I wished I could attend a church service together with the Korean locals.

Our original programme was to spend half day in Everland in Gyeonggi-do. Our tour guide, worrying that we the outdoor facilities there might be close due for the safety reason, suggested that we went to Lotte World, a major recreation complex in Seoul and the world's largest indoor theme park. His persuasion was successful though many of us still preferred Everland, the biggest theme park in South Korea and the fourth in the world, which is often compared to Disneyland and which includes a zoo and gardens.

I was never interested in any thrill rides. If I had enjoyed myself in other theme parks previously, it was because of the presence of my friends.

This time in Lotte World, my company consisted of a majority of senior citizens including Mum, two pairs of sisters who were always stick to their own family members, our tour leader and tour guide who were there as part of their duties. So my excitement was at a very low level.

The first ride I saw was this Treeble Hopper for children. It was funny to see some little girls screamed as the hopper suddenly moved up and down.

To start, we followed Sindbad on an underground adventure.

Next, a group member in her 40s suggested that we rode on the Conquistador. We had not read through the brochure which mentioned all the restrictions according to the age, height or health conditions. So when Mum was showing her pass to get into the swing boat after me, she was held by the employee. Since I figured that it was due to her age, I did not try to persuade the worker and expected Mum to withdraw herself and watch us from far. In less than a minute after I was settled in the boat, Mum came and sat next to me! I was stunned that our tour guide or tour leader had managed to convince the employee to let all our senior group members to join the pirate ship.

I had purposely chosen the middle seat to feel the minimum of the angular momentum. And I was very concerned about Mum and wondered if her heart could stand the swinging back and forth of the boat. When the ride was over, Mum was still very OK but I was the one whose face had turned pale! I began to have diarrhoea and went to the washroom. A feeling of nausea also came over me especially as we walked past restaurants or food stalls to take the monorail on the third floor to have a tour ride across Lotte World. So I prayed to God to heal me.

Very soon it was lunch time but I had no appetite at all. I ordered a bowl of Shanghai-style noodles for Mum and sat opposite her at the food court. Mum invited me to taste her dish. As soon as I put a noodle in my mouth, food was finally brought up from my stomach. So I rushed to the washroom again and vomited, after which, I totally recovered and went back to the food court with a relieved smile.

Mum offered me to have her leftover noodles. Though I was not hungry yet, I had no problem to finish the bowl. I noticed that an auntie of our group was also feeling sick after the pirate ship ride and her face was still as white as paper!

When it was getting 2pm, a space was cleared for a parade on the ground floor. It did not affect those who were enjoying facilities like the speeding loop train that made 360 degree revolutions.

Children's favorite fantasy mask parade was one of the highlights of the indoor theme park.

Many characters which I had read in story books or watched in cartoons during my childhood

appeared in front of us.

To continue to live in the fairy tales,

we went to the Magic Island,

the outdoor fantastic lake park surrounded by popular rides.

I just walked around with Mum to appreciate the gorgeous landscapes. Some of our group members queued up to enter the Ghost House while the youngest girls accompanied by our tour leader Addy were experiencing all kinds of thrill rides. I finally had a desire to eat something. As Mum had just had her lunch, she was not interested to have snacks so soon. So I brought her to an ice-cream stall and bought a honey-dew ice-cream for her and a chocolate one for myself. I asked the stall keeper who agreed to let me pose next to her. When Mum was getting ready to take a picture, a guy from another nearby snack stall walked past and volunteered to be our cameraman.

Then he invited Mum and me to pose with his colleagues at their stall.

This visit to the theme park was an unforgettable one during which for the first time I had taken my hat off to Mum who, at her age which is two times mine, withstood swinging much better than her daughter.