Why bother trekking all the way to Nepal to see Everest when you
can catch much the same thing in, erm, Florida from this spring
onwards?
The latest forthcoming attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort
is 'Expedition Everest' no less, a theme park recreation of the
world's highest mountain complete with, well, a mountain and a
recreated Nepalese village called Serka Zong complete with a hotel,
internet cafe and trekking supply store - all traditional Nepalese
buildings, erm, obviously.
It may all seem faintly ridiculous, but Disney designers, called
'imagineers' were dispatched to the Everest region to ensure a
certain amount of authenticity for the new six-acre ride. You can
laugh, but apparently the village is built so it accurately
reproduces authentic Nepalese building techniques and distressed for
added authenticity.
Then there's the botanic side of things with more than 900 bamboo
plants, ten species of trees and 110 types of shrub being planted to
create an authentically himalayan feel.
The man from the Mirror
went there and was suitably impressed by the project which has
reportedly taken around four years and £14 million to put
together describing it as 'quite possibly the ultimate in theme-park
attractions.'
What else? Well, obviously you'll be taking a train up Everest,
duh, you can't walk at that altitude without adequate acclimatisation
you know, and there's a huge, animatronic Yeti which the Mirror
reports has "the power of a 747 jumbo jet".
More information and pics of Expedition Everest at www.themeparks.com.
It's also Everest month at Disney's
Virtual Magic Kingdom... More pics and building info at
www.wdmagic.com
So there you go, a family holiday and a trip to Everest all in
one, ahem... :-)
And for the last word, see www.disneyeverest.com
complete with sound effects...
