On Saturday evening, 18 September, I spoke on 95.3fm about my regular Malaysian travels, Malaysian food and Malaysian tourism strategies.
We also spoke about Rajah Brooke butterflies, the JDT Tigers, the benefits and consequences of spicy food and how much I enjoy using the rail network (particularly the monorail) in Kuala Lumpur to travel the city.
“I found out long ago, it’s a long way down the holiday road”
That line, from Lindsay Buckingham’s, ‘Holiday Road’, theme tune for the movie, ‘Vacation’, is so evocative of those road trips from the past and the present.
Peeling mandarins, playing travel games based on the colour of oncoming vehicles, the stench of spilled milkshakes and the music that never suited every passenger in the car so it all got turned off.
My discussion on the ABC Saturday Breakfast Show about roadtrips turned into more of a nostalgic romp through time for Charlotte, Jamie and I and we almost forgot to mention some of the good road trips from Perth that can take you to so many wonderful places.
The Avon Valley, the Ferguson Valley and Dryandra Forest are all ideal day trips from Perth that make even better overnight mini vacations.
A good road trip is all about the journey as much as the destination so make sure you pull off the road and discover a new roadhouse sausage roll or a granite outcrop full of lizards basking in the sun.
Enjoy listening to our roadtrip discussion in the link at the top of this page. Hopefully it brings back fond memories and is just a little bit inspiring for when that next long weekend comes around.
The file above is from a conversation on ABC radio, The Breakfast Show with Charlotte and Jamie, about virtual reality tourism. I hope you enjoy listening to it.
Virtual Reality Tourism has the potential to shake up the travel industry in a lot of good ways.
I had the opportunity last year with my son to be the first to experience the Virtual Reality Roller Coaster at Legoland Malaysia and the combination of reality and virtual reality made an entirely new sensory experience that was exciting and wonderful.
Over the years, I’ve described to people on radio, to students in classrooms and to my friends and family the experience of trekking the jungles of Borneo, retracing the footsteps of Australian and British Prisoners of War. While slipping on a pair of goggles in the comfort of your sofa will not give you a sense of exhaustion and emotion, it will give you an experience that is different to listening to reading. Seeing in your goggles the clinging vines, sucking mud, slippery slopes and rocks will inform your mind and help create new ways to understand a story you have been told or read about.
Virtual Reality tourism may create a whole new binge opportunity. Rather than spending the whole day watching every series of a favourite tv show, you could scuba dive all day long and all around the world, or wander the great museums of the world.
The cultural sensitivity of many areas may create amazing virtual reality opportunities, such as climbing Uluru.
Virtual reality tourism will help those with disability and affordability issues to join in experiences they may otherwise not be able to do. Virtual reality tourism will enable the tourism industry to offer more, on a scale that is inclusive and safe.
I wish I could claim the line, “A very vroomy experience,” but I can’t. The honour for that line belongs to my son, eight year old Tom Parry and the first kid in the world to experience the shock and awe of the new Legoland Malaysia Virtual Reality Roller Coaster.
This ride is a real roller coaster and a real virtual reality experience. You’re strapped in to a real world roller coaster and then the goggles come over your face and you’re completely immersed in the world of Lego. Look back at the people in the seat behind you and you’ll see a Lego world. Look above you to the real world blue sky above Legoland and you’ll see a Lego world. Look to the sides, look to the front and you are completely Lego-bound.
The ride has just opened and to experience this and other attractions head to Legoland Malaysia, located in Johor Bahru.
GETTING THERE
Many airlines fly from Australian capital cities to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, including Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, AirAsia and Singapore Airlines. Legoland is a one to two hour drive from Singapore’s Changhi International Airport or a short domestic flight from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru.
STAYING THERE
Make the experience complete by staying at the Legoland Hotel. An Adventure-themed room will cost from AU$216 and each room has its own treasure hunt, Lego bricks to build (and step on) and all guests have entry to the Legoland Theme Park and Legoland Water Park one hour before the gates open to the public. An adult one-day ticket combo includes entry to the theme park and water park and is about AU$60. A child one-day ticket combo is about AU$40.
From Casablanca in Morocco, to the hills of San Gimignano in Tuscany, the beaches of Thailand, the wonderous resorts and bushveldt of South Africa to the mountains of New Zealand, the locations are as varied as the movies themselves and the reasons why we long to travel to these sites are even more varied.
Just remember to keep your expectations in check. You may see an Orc in New Zealand but when you arrive on Thailand’s James Bond Island, from the movie The Man With The Golden Gun, don’t expect Nick Nack to great you on the beach in top hat and tails.
Please enjoy listening to the story below:
Above and Below: 2014’s movie ‘Blended’ now has South Africa’s Sun City Resort on every kids travel bucket list while ‘Mad Max 2’ and over 140 other movies have been filmed around Silverton in the outback of New South Wales.
Chris Parry Writes For Us 