Today was going to be a 2-park day with the first being the one that claims to be the largest park in India, Esselworld which is situated on a peninsula west of the city. There are two ways to the park. A 90 minute drive direct to the park or a 60 minute drive and ferry crossing. I chose the former and after a fairly uneventful drive we pulled into the car park which is about half a mile away from the park. For some reason the roads immedaitely around the park are closed but within the complex there's a large pagoda, the amusement park and a water park.
So, the day started with me being laughed at by the locals whilst I put on sun lotion to pass the time and after about 15 minutes of waiting the stand-up open shuttle bus arrived which a small group of us boarded. These buses are great, could you imagine a chav-filled one running from Staines to Thorpe Park?
Esselworld opened in 1989 so the park is in it's 25th year of operation.
A rather odd advert for ice cream. For a country inundated with cows it seems odd they'd want to bring milk over from the UK. I'll put this one down to marketing.
These are not zorbing balls for rolling in but for climbing into and then playing sumo with your competitor. We have these at Alton Towers too but with an inflatable arena, not one made of ropes. Perhaps having a trip hazard makes it more competitive.
Initial view was positive with a nice selection of rides in amongst some nice grounds. Clearly I was in the off-season as the park wasn't flowing with people, but at least I wasn't alone.
The park has some nice attempts at theming. Buried behind this facade was an indoor ice-rink, which doesn't open until later in the day.
I have no idea who Andy is but they've named the gift shop after him.
The apple coaster is a kid only ride. :(
There are two wooden coasters in India, both of which had some involvement from Blackpool Pleasure Beach in their construction. This was the first of them, and the smaller of the pair. Zipper Dipper opened a few years after the park did and is a simple out and back ride with a tame thrill level. This is perfect for families and was running really well. The ride ops were really proud of the ride proudly proclaiming "Indian Coaster" as I returned to the station, and more than happy for me to jump into another row for another go.
This is an elevated car ride. No hills and drops means it can't be counted.
This is a new attraction at the park, a bounce tower ride which was really really good but picked up a decent queue through the day. A big tip if you're happy taking photos on rides, try to sit in the first corner and you'll get an amazing view of the golden pagoda that is located near the park. (I didn't get it and the queue was too long later in the day to retry)
Here's a shot of it from within the park. It's stunning!
I like how the marketing almost makes it look like a flying coaster. It is the tallest tower ride in the country.
At the back of the park, or the front of the park if you come by ferry is a recently relocated Zyklon coaster. This one I couldn't ride alone so I did have to wait a little while for a group to make their way up from the ferry station. I've ridden loads of these now but I can easily say that this is one of my favourite purely on account that had the coaster not had it's first drop where it did I'd have got a faceful of hawk which had chosen to swoop at our car whilst the ride was running.
I almost had my Fabio moment!
Coaster number 3 was a generic looping coaster, as rough as these usually are so I was more than happy to ride this just the once. Being a bigger park there is quite a bit of sponsorship going on. I hadn't realised Oreos had quite the global presence.
The park were preparing to open their new attraction Ali Baba Adventure and had arranged for the cast of popular Indian TV show "Classmates" to attend do the ribbon cutting. So this area of the park was closed off whilst they literally rolled out the red carpet. I was quite excited at being the first westerner to experience it but they were overrunning well into the afternoon and I subsequently discovered the attraction was just a rethemed mirror maze so I didn't end up doing it. I did however take the opportunity to speak to the park staff who were really nice and when they asked "let us know if there is anything we can do" gave me an opportunity to respond with "you have a wacky worm coaster that is only open to kids, any chance I can ride it?". 5 minutes later a junior member of staff had walked me to the ride :)
Argh! Another water coaster and just look at that plate they'd retrofitted to the front of the car to ensure what the Romans would describe as "Splashimus Maximus". Yes, I got pretty wet on this.
This made me laugh. If you are going to toss you don't want to do it half-cocked. Ensure your toss is a full one!
This is an indoor attraction of some kind. I kept managing to miss the allocated show times however so I've no idea what goes on inside it. I bet it's hot and sticky in there though. A great way of using a dead ship though.
Enjoy this ride or the deer gets it.
I'm not sure what this is trying to promote. Perhaps someone in the marketing department had seen that "2 girls 1 cup" video for ideas. (DON'T GO LOOKING FOR IT IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS)
Another tosser reference, and yes, this is just a rodeo bull.
and that was Esselworld. A really nice park with a great selection of coasters. If you're an enthusiast and you're going to come to India then this is mandatory purely on account of the wooden coaster. But if you're not that hardcore it's still enjoyable..
Another shot of the pagoda from afar.
Esselworld is located north-west of Mumbai in the Gorai region, and is one of the more difficult big parks to get to on account of its location.
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