Kishkinta

Advertised as "India's No. 1 Theme Park" Kishkinta has been open around 6 years and is owned by Navodya, a film production company famous for releasing the first 3D Indian film. The name Kishkinta is derived from Kishkinda which was a monkey kingdom in Ramayana theology.  

Proof that I was there during Pongal with this large pot gracing the entrance to the park. Entrance was around 540 rupees which on the exchange rate was around £5.50.  

As with immigration the ticket buying process was a bit convoluted and went something like this.

Give your order to the woman at the front of the ticket booth queue line. She will write your request down on a piece of paper. Then walk down the queue line and hand over the piece of paper to the woman in the booth and pay her. She will give you the ticket and a wristband. Don't put the wristband on but take it to the entrance gate one of the security team will put the wristband on for you. You then go to the entrance gate and have the ticket scanned to enter the park. A second security detail then checked the content of my bag before I finally got into the park. So be prepared for a little mucking around just to get into the park. 

Given the name of the park it seemed apt that the park mascot be a golden monkey.

The first coaster was a fairly recent addition to the park. A zyklon coaster that lay in pieces in 2014 but was now assembled and, much to my liking, operational. 

Now whilst I'm not a fan of over regulating theme parks, this is a sign I'm more than happy to see as I think theme parks would be amazing places if there were no kids in them. How selfish of me haha! 

One thing I first encountered here but did run into elsewhere was the need to run the trains full, which as a single-rider made it a little bit awkward for me to get to ride everything. Fortunately on this occasion there was a group of 3 in the queue that I was paired up with. As the first coaster on the trip it was great to see the locals screaming with fear then laughing with relief as they made it back into the station. The ride was running really well and sometimes these coasters can give you a little knock here and there but this didn't, perhaps because it was a new installation. 

A strange Disko ride where the power to the ride came from a cable suspended over the car. I've seen that with powered half pipe rides but never with a disko, not even in China. 

The second coaster was a powered dragon with a slightly larger track than usual and a great custom designed train. I thought I'd be stuck waiting for ages for this to ride. As a single rider, waiting for the rest of the train to get filled up should have taken some time but it didn't. A recently arrived coach load of school kids had given enough interested bodies to fill the train and send us on our way.

The on-ride photo system for this ride was amusing. Before departing, one of the operators walked the length of the train taking photos on a small compact which he then downloaded at the exit whilst the train was running. As you then made your way off the ride he'd try to get you to the booth to buy the photo, which I guessed they'd just print off.

The marquee that housed their tea cup ride.

This was a 5D cinema which you got to enjoy once, a mark was recorded on the wristband to indicate it had been enjoyed once already. The film was a Korean made coaster simulator which suffered from the movement not syncing with the film quite right resulting in a motion sickness inducing ride experience.

A park within a park, the water park wasn't open as I made my way around the park. It was hot enough for me but with January being the coldest month for the locals perhaps the attraction wasn't there for them. Or perhaps it opened later in the day. I don't know. It looked pretty decent and in much newer condition than the majority of the amusement park. 

Given the climate in India it is perhaps not such a big surprise that water parks are very popular indeed, and for those of us who are trying to find rollercoasters this country is quite unique in that most water parks have some sort of amusement park section, or "dry rides" as they're referred to here.

Riding a bull attraction, which is a little odd given the way cows are treated as sacred here. Is this a good thing to do?

From afar the water splash ride looks like it could be a coaster, but it isn't so don't try to count it as one if you do ever visit here :) That sits on one side of a slight hill you have to go over to get to the rear of the park.

A clever use of space has the rapids and water splash ride sharing the same carousel station building.

At the back of the park is a lake tour ride. I don't know what you got to see on it, I imagine some of it could be like Disney's Jungle Riverboat Cruise but for real :)

The water chute ride, also at the back of the park.  Also back here is the only water ski show in the country apparently. Unfortunately it was only showing in the afternoon today and I was intending to be elsewhere when it was on, but I have a good idea what goes on in a water ski show...water skiing :)

Another attraction that was only going to be shown later in the day is Manthira Arai, which looked amazing and completely unique. Not getting to see this, or even participate in it, is my one regret from my visit here. Some research revealed it is based on a famous scene in a film called "My Dear Kuttichaathan", the 3D film mentioned earlier. Synchronising a camera and stage rotations the following effect was possible.

(if the clip doesn't jump to 38:45 go there, that's the bit I'm talking about)

and the reason why I was so interested in this attraction? I reckon it's the nearest I'm ever going to get to recreating this classic scene from one of my favourite films.

Theme Parks needs to have this!!! It would be much more impressive than pretending to be on a flying carpet in front of a green screen.

Elsewhere in the park there were some nice touches of theming and with plenty of tree cover lots of oxygen being pumped back into the park. As well as offering shade I'm convinced parks with lots of trees instead of concrete make for better parks.

The jumping ride is the first attraction in the park and so one that had built up a sizeable queue. 

A small train ride built on top the remains of a much larger one. I wonder if it suffered a crash in which people who survived the crash then drowned in the pool below :)

The park does have a castle, which is the building you notice as you get close to the park. Inside it is another small train ride.

Another jumping variant and a popular attraction in Asia is the Kangaroo jumping ride. 

This carousel is one that Zoolander would approve of as it turns the wrong way to most. 

and that was Kishkinta. A nice way to start the trip. I'm not sure it is the number 1 park in India though. Be prepared on the way out to have your wristband cut off on the way out. Another example of the overly process driven nature of things that exist here.

Kishkinta is located on the Chennai Outer Ring Road a short distance from Tambaram, south east of Chennai. From the Holiday Inn it took 30 minutes.

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