Imagine this: you went to Boracay, but you never got your feet wet. You visited Osaka, but did not even taste takoyaki or okonomiyaki. You went to Sagada, but you did not check out any of the caves. You drove all the way to Baguio City… and never laid eyes on Burnham Park. See what I’m getting at? So I’m saying that you cannot go to Everland without going on any of the rides and, once you’ve worked up the courage, get on the T-Express, a wooden rollercoaster with one of the steepest drops in the world.
One of the attractions of Everland Resort that makes it popular is the T-Express.
But hold up! Let’s not go there yet!
While we were on our way there, we were, like, 95% on our resolve to ride on the T-Express. “Duh, it’s a rollercoaster, we should ride it!”
First: I have a confession to make.
I have never ridden on a legit, straightforward rollercoaster.
Sure, I went on 3D-rides, movie-themed ones and others that are just like rollercoasters (the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride at Tokyo DisneySea was particularly mind-boggling for me because man, it had steep and sudden drops in the dark and I WENT SOLO, haha! Read about that experience here.) But those quintessential loops of rollercoasters? Not yet.
That explains the 5% apprehension that I had, going into the park. I’ve seen footages of the T-Express in variety shows such as Running Man, so the curiosity level was up a bit.
And then we arrived at Everland and from inside the cable car from Global Fair zone to the American Adventure, we already caught a glimpse of the T-Express in the distance.
I swear, I felt my breath catch a bit. Mostly nerves.
The 95% slowly went down by multiples of 5%.
Our discussion went like this:
L: Man, look at thaaaaat.
Me: I knooooow.
L: …..
Me: ………
L: Can we do it…?
Me: Can we?
L: ….but we’re already here….
Me: I know.
L: ….
Me: ……
At this point, 95% went down to around 30%. *is humiliated*
So we decided to build momentum a bit. And looked for other rides to, you know, pump us up a bit. Prime us, so to speak.
Or take the edge off.
Don’t laugh, but we started with a relatively harmless ride. The Magic Swing.
Harmless, I say, because it’s designed for kids. But, for some reason, when we got on the spinning ride, our stomachs were already in knots because we could hear the distant screams from the T-Express.
After the ride, we got off, a bit dizzy. Haha!
Then we went on the nearby Thunder Falls.
We thought it’d be a good way to get used to steep and sudden drops. Which it was, in a way, because at one point, there was a part where the boat we rode on slowly made its ascent up to the peak, and then slowly, eeeeever so slowly turned around…. and then dropped us on our backs.
In some way, it worked. We thought we’re getting ready. 30% is now up to 50%.
We got partially soaked in the Thunder Falls ride, though. And we didn’t think to bring another set of clothes. Fortunately, it was quite a warm yet breezy day, and we were wearing fabrics that easily dry up. Plus, it did not seem out of place to be walking around the park with wet clothes.
Next, we looked for the rollercoaster ride. We even went round in circles for a while trying to figure out the map, until we found it. For a moment we watched the Double Rock Spin. Which was nuts. NUTS. (Check out the video at the end of this post.)
Part of us wanted to try, but we already set our mind to the T-Express, so…. we turned to the other side and went on the Rolling X-Train. Which is your true-blue typical rollercoaster.
Beside it is another stomach-churning ride, the Let’s Twist. The whole time we were queueing for the Rolling X-Train, we were gazing at the T-Express in the distance, and still hear the screaming.
The Rolling X-Train is described as “super-fast”. I think the whole ride lasted for all of 90 seconds. I can’t be sure. But it’s fast, and it’s loopy. This is where I practiced how to scream out my nerves. 🙂 That’s what Lorie, who has been on rollercoasters before, gave as an advice.
Well, guess what, she didn’t make a peep throughout the ride. Haha!
Rolling X-Train had two complete 360-degree loop-to-loop sections. But it was so fast I wasn’t able to tell where the two loops were, haha!
When we got off the Rolling X-Train, the 50% has gone up to 75%. OK, we’re more confident now!
And we were starting to feel hungry, but we were afraid lunch would be wasted if we ate first before going on the T-Express. (You know what I mean, don’t you?) So we made that another motivating factor. The 75% went another 10% higher, the jump spurred by necessity and hunger pangs combined.
So we took the Human Sky ride to the European Adventure…. and went straight to where the T-Express was.
Darn, there was even a video inside the lobby showing two young women riding on the T-Express looking… well, like they were on the T-Express.
Ok, so the T-Express.
Back in 2012, the T-Express was declared to be the world’s steepest roller-coaster. Today, that might not be the case, but it is still in the top 5 steepest roller coasters in the world.
- It is the first wooden roller coaster in South Korea, and the first ride of its type in Asia.
- It is the world’s fourth steepest roller coaster, with a maximum vertical angle of 77 degrees, which you’d get to experience during the first part of the ride.
- It is the 9th fastest (with a top speed of 104km per hour) roller coaster in the world, the 4th tallest, and the 6th longest.
The ride went for around 3 minutes. The queue, however, was far longer.
The queue was nerve-wracking by itself, because you’re walking under the roller coaster, and you can hear screams, and even catch a glimpse of the three-car train moving up and around. Phew.
I admit, I already felt my knees wobbling, and the 85% was going down again.
But, alas, we cannot turn back. We have already come this far, so we were just leaving everything up to the heavens.
And then our turn came. At this point, I remember us being kinda giggly, but still all nervous, as we got on our seats and got locked in.
One of the hardest part was the steep ascent of the train. It was sooooooo slow. Tauntingly slow. And then it leveled off, and we can see the drop coming up…. but it was still moving so slow, as if it’s going to stop…. and then we neared the drop, I was already starting to yell….
….and BAM. We went off and down. And it felt like my heart became a separate entity from me, which I could not bother to hold on to even as I imagined it dropping way ahead of me. At one point I shut my eyes closed, and then decided to be braver and opened them so I could see us moving fast through and around wooden loops and dropping to heaven-knows-where….
Then suddenly I was enjoying myself. I was even laughing at some point, but I could also feel some whiplash going on around my neck and the back of my head. It was thaaaaat fast, it whips you right up and around.
And then it was over.
And we were still alive and in one piece!
And thoroughly, utterly exhilarated and euphoric.
“MAN THAT WAS AWESOME.”
Now we were going all, “I’M SO GLAD WE WENT ON THAT ONE!”
By now, any other ride have paled in comparison, and we didn’t have any interest in going on any more thrill rides, so we opted for the more sedate Lost Valley and Safari World attractions. Not even the Amazon Ride posed as “challenging”, because our concern was getting wet again after we just got dried from the Thunder Falls ride.
Believe me, if we had more time, and if the queueing time wasn’t quite long (it took us 15 minutes only, though, because it was lunchtime already. I think everyone else was doing what one’s supposed to do during that time, which is eat).
So, yeah, I’m a roller coaster virgin no more. And I’m soooo glad that my first time was in Everland!
And now on to the videos:
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