Magic Land

Eric:

Much of the shoreline of the lake that we live on is either occupied by the military or is privately owned.  The military zone is off limits, but some of the private land is accessible to the public, sometimes for a modest fee.  This is the case with a stretch of the shore about a half mile from our apartment. 

From the roadway, you can see a rather ancient Ferris wheel and a driving range with golfers whacking golf balls into the waters of the lake.  While I often see golfers at the range, walking by yesterday with Rossana was the first time I’ve actually seen the Ferris wheel in action.  It was moving so slowly, I first thought it was just turning in the wind, but in reality it takes about 20 minutes to complete a single revolution.  Kinda makes the London Eye look like a thrill ride. 

Ferris wheel with driving range on the left

We also noticed indications that there was more of an amusement park that occupied the space at one time.  If the road barriers are to be believed, the amusement park was called Magic Land, but it appears to have lost its magic, if not its charm. 

Feel the magic!

Today, I decided to invest in a visit, so I paid the entrance fee of 200Kyat (about 20 cents) to check out the magic for myself. 

When I approached the Ferris wheel, the only sign of life was a young couple  um, getting acquainted behind an umbrella on the lawn at the base of the ride (I’m planning a whole separate post someday about the local custom of using an umbrella to create a screen to fool around behind).



Get a room!

While I was snapping photos, a car drove up and honked a few times at the guards lounging outside the neighboring driving range, and apparently indicated to them that they wanted to ride the Ferris wheel.  I saw one of the guards dial his mobile phone and a minute or two later, a guy trotted over from somewhere to operate the ride for them. 

 

Further along the trail there’s an abandoned Tilt-O-Wheel ride (at least that’s what they called it at Playland at the Beach).  No amount of honking is going to get this ride spinning again. 

Does anyone know if these are still in use somewhere?

The ticket booth next to the Tilt-O-Wheel doesn’t look to be in any better shape than the ride.

But when I walked around to the other side of it, there was someone inside seemingly staffing the booth. 

How much paperwork can there possibly be?

The only other “attraction” nearby to the booth was a bumper card ride, but it looks to have been retired at about the same time as the Tilt-O-Wheel, so I’ve no clue what paperwork this woman was working on inside the booth.  Maybe it was her homework.

The end of a bumpy road

 

The highlight of the afternoon though was when I stumbled across this locomotive graveyard. 

 

 


This one even has some wood in the tender to build up the fire in the boiler

And as I was leaving the park, the folks who had gotten on the Ferris wheel were just completing their circuit.