Leofoo Village: My Fabulous Far East Trip Report - Part V

Good morning, everyone! :}

There's only one park left on our little Taiwan adventure before we plunge ourselves back into Hong Kong Disneyland! 

Who's ready for the third and most mysterious park of our Taiwan visit?? It's time to hop a bus to Leofoo Village!

But first, Tea: The Breakfast of Champions!

Here's our ride!

From the thicket of Taipei it's about a half hour bus ride to Leofoo Village!

For the third day in a row, Kaitlin and I are overwhelmed by crowds!

Once we drop off our luggage at guest services, it's time to see what Leofoo has to offer!

A surprisingly nondescript walkway leads guests from the entrance of Leofoo Village into the park's central hub.

From here, the park's five areas are accessed: Wild West, South Pacific, Arabian Kingdom, African Safari, and Leofoo Water Park.  

Like Janfusun and Lihpao, Leofoo's waterpark is in a deep sleep!

Also like Janfusun and Lihpao, Leofoo was clearly built to handle crowds that were not present on our visit.

First stop: Wild West! Where condors scream, American flags fly, and Dolly Parton music plays on a continuous loop.

Kaitlin and I quickly determined that the Wild West area felt like the result of someone's desire to bring Dollywood to Taiwan. We had absolutely no problem with this.

While the expanse between Leofoo's entrance area and the central hub lacks facilities of any kind, Wild West's boomtown provides for the park a main street of sorts.

Something that never ceases to amaze me is the universal appeal of wild west-themed areas in theme parks. That, and the fact that wild west areas in U.S. parks are really in no great way different than those found in, say, Taiwan. I guarantee you could find a theme park with a boomtown in no less than five different continents. 

But only this boomtown has these signs in its bathrooms. 

Ok! We have some important business to tend to now!

It's time to tackle Leofoo's flagship roller coaster: an Intamin Twisted Impulse coaster by the name of Screaming Condor (or, in Cantonese, the much-more-appropriately-named "Defiant Eagle").

We soon discovered that Leofoo Village is a goldmine for amazing and hilarious signage.

Like, seriously. Do not ride Screaming Condor if your family has history.

The inside of Defiant Eagle's partially subterranean station gets an A+ for atmosphere.

I want you to stop for a second and read the provided description of Screaming Condor very carefully. It's hard for me to decide if they're talking about the ride, or just condors in general. Perhaps both.

It is explicitly indicated that Screaming Condor takes 10-15 minute pauses between dispatches. This would have seemed extremely odd if we hadn't had the experiences we've had in the last couple of days, although I liked to think that G5 and Gravity Max dispatched infrequently just because of the lack of crowds. God forbid they really all wait for ten minutes per dispatch with a full park.

Back seat for our first ride on Screaming Condor!

Fortunately for Kaitlin and me, our hearts were strong enough to stand up to Defiant Eagle!

Aside from popping up through the midway on the back spike, the ride is just your garden variety Twisted Impulse.

Let's snag a rapids ride while we're here!

Only Wild West trash is allowed here. No trash from any of the other areas is allowed. 

The loading area for Big Canyon Rapids Ride ("Grand Canyon Whitewater Rafting") is impressive to say the least.

Seatbelt regulations seem a bit more lenient around here, which would explain the life ring on every boat just in case someone takes a dive.

As a student of English, I found probably an excessive amount of enjoyment in reading the signs in the park. 

While the twisty bit is widely considered to be the focal point of a Twisted Impulse coaster, Screaming Condor's twisty bit can only be seen up close from the rapids ride. 

And, of course, dispatches were hilariously infrequent. 

During the half hour or so that Kaitlin and I spent queuing and riding Big Canyon Rapids, Defiant Eagle made not a peep.

Taiwanese parkgoers continue to wave at cameras without fail. :}

Fun fact: Screaming Condor was built without a holding break on the back spike because Intamin came to their senses and gave up on that mess. Also, like all other Twisted Impulse coasters, the ride was fitted with additional bracing on the spikes some time after opening (the exception being Wicked Twister, which has custom supports).

Here's an interesting Leofoo Village-type-thing: area-specific maps.

XTREME SCREAMING DEFIANT CONDOR EAGLE STATION POV MADNESS

Here's our second mine train themed Vekoma Rollerskater credit of Taiwan! It's Little Rattler (Western Crazy Train)!

Wild West is home to a really precious bakery with some truly outstanding menu items!

I give you: Oreo Angry Bird cupcake, strawberry cream puff cupcake, and a made-to-order kiwi smoothie. These divine things rank very high on my lists of cupcakes and smoothies, respectively.

Speaking of divine things, how about this weather?!

A benefit of photographing Screaming Condor is that the ride's linear induction motors do indeed scream (and echo, thanks to the ride's tunnel of a station), which gives you a notification when it's time to get the camera out!

Since there's no real good way to plan a decent shot of the spiral, a shot of the back spike will just have to do.

The park's "Old Oil Well" (same in English and Cantonese) is quite popular with guests! It has a bigger picture on the brochure than Screaming Condor!

Also, apparently, Wild West = "Budweiser Drunken Barrels."

(English = "Poncho Villa's Crazy Barrels." lol)

Next up: the South Pacific!

Walking in, you get a tease from behind of the log flume greatness ahead!

South Pacific also happens to have some flat ride greatness to offer, too!

Deep Sea Voyage (Tsunami) is a rather lovely-looking spin-and-puker, the likes of which I've never seen. It's basically a maelstrom of pendulums under a thatched roof.

Here's an idea of what the ride does. This was my first time encountering such a ride, in person or otherwise. I have no idea who makes this ride or if there are others, but it was a lot of fun!

You know what time it is! It's log flume tiiiime!

Mighty Mountain Flume Adventure (Volcano Adventure) is probably one of the nicest log flumes I've ridden. It has great atmosphere, a nice length, and two excellent drops!

Leofoo Village Care About YOU!

Mighty Mountain Flume Adventure selfie!

The area around the log flume can apparently be explored Tarzan's Treehouse-style, but the walkways weren't open on our visit.

Dead ahead is the park's highly-themed Intamin Giant Drop, which was also down for the count. 

That awkward moment when your log flume is way more remarkable than your flagship coaster. And it has way better capacity.

And over here we've got our third water ride and our third pendulum ride! An oversized  ship and a tow boat, no less! I'm starting to notice a lot of variety here and a lot of Intamin. No complaints. :}

Oh, and can you guess who did the log flume? And the rapids?? And the barrels???

 Turns out this park is about 50% Intamin. :}

Intamin's brand of swinging ship, called "Bounty," made major landfall in the U.S. in the early 1980s with an installation at every Six Flags park, each under the name "Buccaneer" (except for Six Flags Over Texas, whose Spanish themed Bounty still runs today as "Conquistador"). Double-sized models, such as this one, are quite popular in Japan and China. 

Parks in this part of the world rely on water attractions to roughly the same degree as parks in Florida and Southern California. It begs the question: when will Hong Kong Disneyland get their answer to Splash Mountain?

We popped into the area's main restaurant to see if they had a decent veg meal, but we came up dry.

They do, however, have the cutest table known to man. We should all hope to be as happy as this crab. :}

Leofoo may have the record for world's smallest full-circuit passenger train. 

The Bounty, by the way, is called "Captain Cook's Swinging Ship."

Yes, "Captain Cook." Not "hook."

"Cook."

The Cantonese, however, must settle for a much simpler name: "Pirate."

A larger swinging ship means greater height and gentler forces. Always a nice ride regardless. :}

While we were loading, we noticed a park employee wading around in the tow boat pond. 

As for why he's in there, your guess is as good as mine. 

Amazing cultural thing: Incredibly intricate carved chicken eggshells. Who knew?!

Plus keychains, wind chimes, and little Captain Cook ships to take home with you. :}

It's time to trot the globe once again! Onto the Arabian Kingdom!

Arabian Kingdom or Agrabah? You decide. 

Who needs protein when you can have glutinous rice flour? :}

Pendulum-type-thing #4, albeit a simulated pendulum.

Things I never thought I'd say:

"Wow, this Ring of Fire looks great!"

Ok guys, in here is the star of Leofoo Village. 

Sultan's Adventure (English and Cantonese) is an enormous Intamin dark ride, which uses a ride system very similar to that of Disneyland's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Like all great dark rides, Sultan's Adventure leads with an elaborate queue full of storytelling elements.

Speaking of which, I'm not *quite* sure what the story is with this ride, but it felt like the lead in to the Mummy coasters at Universal Studios: museum leads to tomb, tomb leads to curiosity, curiosity leads to exploration, exploration leads to calamity. 

After exploring the ride's museum of a queue, we follow dark stairs into the building's basement, where 12-passenger jeeps roar in and out of the tomb.

I haven't ridden Indiana Jones in 10 years, but I wouldn't be surprised if these vehicles were note-for-note replicas of Indy's Jeeps. The ride is thrilling and dazzling, but the events were non-sequential and the whole thing ended kind of abruptly. The detail is there, but the ride lacks the storytelling elements and climax that make Indiana Jones so sensational. 

Arabian Kingdom also has a Pegasus-themed monorail. Not quite sure what the Greece connection is with Middle East, but who cares!? It's a flying pony! :D

The view from the back of our Pegasus is of the central hub, which frankly looks like it could use some TLC. The lack of facilities in the hub (and on the midway leading to the park entrance) is a missed opportunity for the park. 

Improvements are continuing to be made, however. At least development inside the park isn't at an apparent stand-still. *cough*lihpaoland*cough*

Also, the Pegasus ride does not have a clear translation for its Cantonese name. The suggestions I got include "Abstract," "Unrestrained," "Ideas," and "Fanciful." I try to decode the names of these as best as possible, but I'm just going to leave this one be...

Our Arabian adventure would not be complete without a Flying Carpet ride!

Putting this ride on the roof is sheer genius. 

The ride cycle is mild, but felt slightly less-so without a working lap bar. 

One last look at the spectacular Arabian Kingdom before we move on to the park's last area...

ALPACALAND!

(Just kidding. Don't let these South American rabbit-ponies fool you;  we're actually now in the African Safari area.)

Here's some African Domesticated Ponies. lol

Leofoo Village continues to win Best Signs in the History of Ever.

Epic Signage Level: Leofoo Village. 

GOAT.

A GOAT HATH ESCAP'D THINE PETTING ZOO.

So we reacted like responsible adults and petted it. 

"MY YEAR UPON THE CHINESE ZODIAC APPROACHES. I AN NO LONGER BOUND BY TEMPORAL SHACKLES."

Plot twist: lambs and goats can actually just walk around the midway as they please.

Not-in-America-level: Leofoo Village Petting Zoo. 

The year of the Ram/Sheep/Lamb/Goat would be commencing in just a few short weeks! The representative animals were quite thrilled. :}

^__^

African Safari's sole thrill ride is this small Intamin Twister coaster, Sahara Twist (or "Desert Storm").

#saharatwistselfie

The lead car had a habit of doing a half spin going up the lift hill. :}

I for real don't know what to make of this lead car.

It's, like, some kind of space weapon thing. I literally do not know. 

Desert Storm was a nice surprise! Super smooth and lots of spinning!

"I agree. I rather like the spinning."

Directly across from Sahara Twist is this habitat full of enormous black and white kitties.

They seem pretty much exactly like the ones at home, just bigger. 

I now submit this green parrot for your approval.

Also this yellow (?) one.

Happy Chinese New Year, sir!

Leofoo Village has an outstanding collection of primates. I don't exactly frequent zoos often, but I can't say I've ever seen so many different species of primates in one place before.

The animals all seemed spry and well-cared for.

Leofoo is also home to the single-most flamboyant chicken  bird  living creature I have ever seen. Eat your heard out, Elton.

"Day 351: The Flamingos still think I am one of them." 

If I knew what this was, I would tell you. All I know is it's probably not a flamingo.

Lemur #1 looks like it forgot something important.

Lemur #2 is just over it.

I swear I've seen monkeys like this in movies, but now I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Here we have a monkey that's about 65% arms. Is that amazing or what??

This juvenile monkey was being quite mischievous behind his mother's back! :}

This disabled monkey was taken from the wild to live here without the threat of predators. :}

"You may say I'm a lemur, but I'm not the only one."

Mother lemur and babe. :}

"You don't look like any of the other humans here. Are you ill?"

"He's tall. Probably just an ugly giraffe."

Of all of the zoos I've visited, I don't think I've ever seen so many baby animals before.

It seemed like every other species of animal had at least one baby running around.

One last ring-tailed mom and babe before we head out. :}

This archway looks so familiar for some reason...

>.<

Last bit of Leofoo signage greatness. Not sure how I missed this one on the way in.

Goodbye Screaming Condor / Defiant Eagle! Your area's ambient Dolly Parton music has me all excited to get back to Dollywood in a few months. :}

Better grab a snack for the road.

Gummies! ^_^

Thank you Leofoo! You definitely hold your own among Taiwan's more notable parks.

Time to fly home! Though not on Hello Kitty Airlines, unfortunately.

If you ever find yourself in the Taipei International airport, be sure to check out this amazing world clock matrix!

Finally, a meal! Seafood spaghetti marinara and a mystery white broth. :}

. . .

(I'm thinking about hosting a caption contest for this one)

LOOK at these music boxes!

Thanks to a clever use of magnets, the vehicles upon these little wooden music boxes appear to travel all by themselves. :}

Orchid Keychain Level: Taiwan.

I can't handle the cuteness. Better just go wait by the gate.

Thank you, Taiwan, for being so wonderful! This is a country that needs to be on every coaster enthusiast's bucket list! :}

Our Taiwan adventure may be complete, but our journey is far from over! Next time, we'll enjoy some more quality Hong Kong Disneyland action, including some major attractions we missed on our first two days. See ya soon! :}