Lost World of Tambun, Ipoh

Having been here around 2 years back (I think), we thought it is a worthwhile place to spend another day there again. So when my friend, CK, saw some promo ongoing in a MATTA fair like early last year, he asked if we wanted to buy the tickets for our family or not. I said ok la, and the tickets were in my possession for as long as I remember.

Apparently, the date on the sticker on the tickets was the due date for the tickets' validity but we have no idea since there wasn't any mention of "DUE DATE/ EXPIRY/ VALID TILL". It was just written "MATTA FAIR 28/8/2011. Now, who would have thought that that date is the expiry date, right? Furthermore, is a ticket a perishable item?

Arm with the tickets in hand, we queued up diligently for the wrist band to enter. But, the staff told us the tickets have indeed expired and hence, began a 2 hour long of debate over this issue. So potong stim, but we didn't want to pay for another 5 tickets which would easily be over RM100.

Eventually, we were offered a discount on top of another and paid something like 50+ to get in. If there were no korkor's friends waiting for us inside, I think we would have just went home.

So began the day of splashing, waiting, queuing, sliding, immersing in hot tubs and not forgetting, sunbathing. Urgh! All our shoulders hurt like crazy the next day, it was really badly burnt!

This second trip was rather disappointing, in the fact that I only realized there were only a mere 2 slides for the whole of the water theme park. Holiday season is the worst time to go as well, for there are just crowds of people everywhere. And most of them wore whole baju from top to toe, which was just soooo..... yucks!

As there wasn't much activities to do, I accompanied the kids in the slides, over and over again, until they had enough. But enough was far from their minds, and in the end, I still need to pester them to move on. They kept pestering us to rent a big float to go round the "river", and eventually, I relented even though the 2 men said no. Hubs asked a man who was returning the float to "borrow" to us and we pay the deposit to him instead. Since we were going to retrieve the deposit when we return the float, that made us renting the float for free. The kids were so thrilled, and that made me contented. The younger brother of korkor's friend thanked me for it and I felt so overwhelmed. That little guy is really sweet, apart from the good manners, he is also being very nice to both didi and meimei.

During that "journey" down the "river", when we were almost at the end of the trail, suddenly we saw people scurrying away and I quickly asked what happened. A woman in front of me said people were saying there was a snake in the river a little bit away from where we were. *GASP*

I hurried the kids to do the same and all of us inched closer to where the unwelcomed visitor was and saw a HUGE biawak inside the water! It wasn't moving initially, I had thought whether it was real or dead.A ranger came with a walkie talkie and I asked him what they'd do. He told me the people from the petting zoo will be there soon to catch it. Hence we stayed around and waited to watch the action to begin (as really, there wasn't anything else to do in the theme park!)

It wasn't very exciting and soon, the biawak were caught and tied up. The rangers jokingly said this is what happens when trespassers enter without a proper wrist band.

We spent almost 5 hours in Lost World, and wanted to shower before going home. My gawd, the ladies room were horrendous! There were long Qs in every cubicle, people were showering in the toilets (even the friend's mom couldn't take a leak the whole day since it was the only restroom available!) and even in the sinks! WTF! Do you dare wash your hands after some babies peed and showered in those sinks?!! Anyway, you can't because all of them are occupied with these little toddlers/ babies. Malaysians ought to be educated somewhat!

I waited in line for awhile and the lines were really not moving at all! Gave up pretty soon and called the friend's mom asking her if it's convenient to go over to their room to take our showers. Very glad that they booked a room for their 2 nights' stay there indeed. The boys were very unhappy though as hubs were adamant to get that fast and over with in whatever ways they could in the gents room. *stifle laughter*

So, all in in all, it was a pleasant day apart from all these hiccups which I feel, the management could really improve on.

1. If the tickets have a validity date, for goodness sake, print the words proper with "DATE DUE" on it.
2. The crowds were so humongous during holiday season BUT only what? 1 counter opened for "walk-in customers", 1 counter for "purchased via other means' customers", 1 counter for buying the wrist tag. Can you imagine the long queues and the frustrations on those visitors' faces?
3. More toilets and shower rooms! As you can probably guess, where else they release themselves when they can't find a proper toilet?? *shivers*
4. Stricter rules of the garments please. It's an eyesore and soooooo unhealthy. Sick of it!
5. More rides, more thrills! I was wishing they build those challenges which we watch on those Japanese/korean game shows, you know, those fun things where they jump, balance, maneuver around spinning or rotating stuffs on water? Why we don't have that here??

So that's it! No more Lost World for us.