Richard Bannister

Sunway Lagoon is a park that registers on the coaster enthusiast radar primarily due to it having once been home to the Schwarzkopf masterpiece Dreier Looping. From the perspective of this writer it seems that the ride would have been far too big for the park, and maybe that explains it being sold on at the end of the last century. It spent a few years in England before being exported to Mexico, where lots of classic coasters have found their final resting place. Today the park is home to the two coasters it opened with, namely the uninspired powered Buffalo Bill Coaster, and a superb airtime laden mine train from Soquet.

It is the second hill on Lost City of Gold (#1323) that is the highlight of the ride. It feels almost as if the engineers got their calculations wrong during construction, as the negative forces at its peak are extreme, throwing riders into the retrofitted seat belts with incredible force. The secondary restraints feel very necessary, as the single fixed position lap bar does not seem at all adequate to keep riders in the train. Unfortunately, this thrilling airtime blast also serves to greatly limit rerideability of what would otherwise be a top class coaster; it is simply too aggressive for more than a few laps.

As its name suggests the park is predominantly a water park, and from the perspective of the lengthy suspension bridge (pictured above) it certainly appeared to be one of the better ones. It was however a place of contrasts; many Malaysian women choose to wear full length burkas, and these black blobs paddling in the water looked very strange in comparison to the many other locals with more relaxed religious beliefs. It is perhaps a reflection of how tolerant society is here that these groups can mix so easily.

The only slight negative on the day was the ticket price; the park admission fee was significantly higher for those without a Malaysian Identity Card, a definite case of a tourist tax. Having said that, it was still cheaper than equivalent resorts in the rest of the world, so I can't complain too much.