Here at Tripandom we really hate animal cruelty but this story was so bizarre we have decided to tell it. There is a tourist attraction just outside the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh where visitors can fire all sorts of military weapons including machine guns, grenades, rocket launches and anti aircraft guns and for a few more dollars you can shoot at different types of targets. For about $200 US which is huge dollars in Cambodia you can fire your weapons of choice at a coco-nut or for a few dollars more even take out a poor chicken. For those blood thirsty people who have another spare $200 you can take out a cow with a rocket launcher. If you miss the cow you get the $200 back and need to spend another $200 +$200 for your second shot. We can’t seem to find out what happens to the cow, that’s if there’s anything left, maybe hamburgers for dinner? Who knows? If you have any other weird attractions or even distasteful ones like this we would love to hear from you.. Drop us a line.
Well the streets might be just as safe as LA but that isn’t stopping the US based company U3’s plan to turn the old Baghdad Zoo into a Disney style theme park in Iraq’s capital. The Times has reported today that the park is going to be a huge US style adventure park with rides, concert theater, museum and will cost in the vicinity of $500 million to construct. Before the US invasion the Baghdad Zoo was one of the city’s more popular attractions but many of the animals died and many more were abandoned or stolen for food. The Zoo is slowly opening with bears, lions and ostriches already on show, a huge skate park is the next thing to open sometime around June. The C3 Company is using a development company which has worked closely with Disney so some pretty amazing things are planned and it is hoped that this park is only the start of making Baghdad a much more happier place for it’s young and families. Read the rest of this entry »
Most people take the double decker bus, a taxi or even a river cruise to see London, but now there is a new way aboard the London Duck. The London Duck is a former military vehicle which not only cruises the streets of London it also takes to the water. This amazing amphibious vehicle was used in the World War Two D-Day landings and has been transformed into one of the city’s most fun and informative city tours. The 75 minute tour takes visitors past many of the city’s best sights on the street, then drives into the mighty Thames and shows people a completely different aspect of the city from the water. Ther commentary is another attraction- some very interesting attempts at stand up comedy, you won’t know whether to cringe or laugh, know what I mean governor? you get the drift. Make sure you book in advance because this is a very popular tour and one you wouldn’t want to miss on a visit to London.
Siegfried and Roy are Las Vegas institutions they performed amazing animal and magic shows on the Las Vegas strip for decades until a horrific accident involving a tiger nearly killed poor Roy a few years back. Today the duo are remembered with a magnificent animal park at the Mirage Casino Complex. Here amongst an amazing tropical sanctuary are the most beautiful royal white tigers which the team were so famous for along with leopards, white lions, panthers and even an elephant. The sanctuary also includes a watered area with 2.5 million litres of tropical seas and coral reefs which are home to Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins. The centre is committed to conservation and hope this centre will help people understand the importance of these amazing animals and the real threats they are exposed to which threaten their species existence. This is a magnificent way to escape from the neon and artificialness of Vegas and experience some of the world’s finest animals in their very own Vegas oasis.
Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park is one of the island city’s most popular attractions. The park has recently completed a multi million dollar make over and offers so much for the visitor. Some highlights include The Waterfall aviary would have to be the parks most spectacular home to 60 species and over 1500 birds all living in a huge enclosure which includes a 30 metre high man made waterfall. The aviary is that huge it even has own monorail. Labelled the Panorail which travels through it. The Bird’s and buddies show is also a crowd favourite with parrot and cockatoo performances and an exciting birds of prey show. And there is nothing as cute as the penguin exhibit more than 200 of these artic black and white feathery friends call the exhibit home, the exhibit includes Humboldt, the Rockhopper, the Macaroni, the Fairy and the majestic King Penguin. The Darkness exhibit is also a great chance to see nocturnal birds including fish owls, snowy owls and herons all living happily in reverse light conditions.
We thought we would do a Sweden double header, All is on track to open the Abba museum in Stockholm in June next year. This 6500 square metre will celebrate Sweden’s most loved and popular band of all time. The museum will have an extensive collection of memorabilia, actual costumes, photos and awards from the group and trace their amazing history from Eurovision song contest winners to one of the world’s biggest bands. The museum will feature interactive displays using state of the art multimedia, sound and lighting which will give the expected million visitors a year an amazing and fun insight into Abba. Owned by a private couple Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman with the permission of the four Abba members Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Reus Visitors are already seeking tickets especially to the huge opening week of celebrations, The Abba museum is just another great reason to visit beautiful Sweden.
The Town of Kiruna is Sweden’s northern most city and is home to an iron ore mine and is in close proximity to Sweden’s space port and the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarv. The most interesting thing about Kiruna is that the city of around 18000 people is on the move. The iron ore mine that sits 1 klm under Kiruna is starting to cause problems for the town, with buildings starting to crack as the town sinks into the void left by the removal of iron ore from under the town. To get around the problem Sweden has decided to move the whole town up the road to a much safer location, the construction has already started with a new sewer line ran to the new location. Roads and rail will probably be next and eventually over the next 20 years or so all the buildings and houses will be rebuilt or put on trucks and carted up the road, this includes the towns huge town hall and historic church that both will need to be cut up into section to move. Between 30 May to the 15 July Kiruna is bathed in perpetual daylight as the midnight sun sits in the summer sky.
Japan has a fascination with all things French, you might remember a few weeks ago we did a story on Tokyo’s Statue of Liberty, well they have a Eiffel Tower Too. Built in the late 1950’s at a cost of about 2.8 billion yen the Takenaka Corporation built a tower based on Paris’ much loved landmark. The tower is actually built with over 30% scrap steel recovered from war damage to the city and being made of steel it weighs in about 40% lighter than the Eiffel Tower. It stands 332.6 metres tall and is the tallest man made structure in Japan. The tower is used for communications and also has viewing platforms, plenty of dining options a huge aquarium and a host of shopping and smaller attractions. The tower is painted in a bright orangey red shade and over 28000 litres of paint is required to paint the structure. It was decided to make the tower this colour instead of the grey as used in the Paris tower for air safety. From Dusk the tower is light magnificently with huge floodlights and can be seen from many points in the city.
Back in the late 1970’s a little Irish band recorded their 3 first albums at Windmill Lane in Dublin before they became one of the richest, most influential and exciting (and sometimes precious) bands of the last 30 years. Since it’s opening by sound engineer Brian Masterson, Windmill Lane has also been the studio many of Ireland’s best rock acts have chosen for their albums including artists like Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Clanned. The studio is no longer on site but the ledged lives on. There are plans to build Dublin’s biggest tower near by called the U2 tower which will be completed in 2010 which will include apartments and a recording studio all owned by U2 costing in the vicinity of 200 million Euro. The old studios today is covered in graffiti paying homage to the days when U2 were the greatest new band Dublin had ever seen. The old studios are a bit hard to find with no signage, look for Bob Bushills furniture store and then go to the street behind. Read the rest of this entry »
After a full stomach on a tasty hot and spicy lunch in Bangkok probalby the best place to keep away from is the Museum of Forensic Medicine. Here you can see some interesting and sometimes gastly body parts and images of terrible crimes and the bizzare. The museum has a huge collection of bodies, and organs including some horrible sights that would make the strongest person sick. Some of the exhibits have an artistic touch others are just plain in your face. there are victims with gun shot wounds, accident victims, deformities and plenty of organs in various states. A place you really need to prepare your self before you visit and deal with once you leave.. Only for the brave.
