Of Yeti and Movie Stars

The next day, we woke up respectably early and meandered over to Disney's Animal Kingdom.


Oh, the humanity. More people than I've ever seen at a park were here, and they all seemed to be a large sea of t-shirts and shorts, which smelt of sunscreen and sweat. Animal Kingdom isn't my favorite park, mostly because it's the hottest, and there isn't a lot to keep you entertained. However, a relatively new addition to the park, Expedition Everest, helps-- it's a roller coaster that I very, very much enjoy. Also, the imagineers at Disney did a very good job of theming the area, down to an altar and prayer flags, which fluttered with more spirit than most of the people below them could.

We ate lunch at a new restaurant called the Yak and Yeti, and I loved it. Though pricey, it offered pho and dim sum, a welcome change from normal Disney fare of hamburgers and sweet things. Its decor was up to the same high standard as the rest of "Asia," and though it was much more Nepal, India, and Tibet than it was China and Japan, it still did an admiral job of accuracy. Though this makes me wonder whether children will ever really appreciate the true artifacts if they see fair reproductions only a three hour plane ride away.

After lunch, we staggered out of the park and had to cross the Great Pathway Desert, which is a concrete slab with no shade that is very far from the bus stop oases that we needed to reach. Despite hallucinations, we made it, and moved on to Disney's Hollywood Studios, formerly Disney-MGM Studios.

It was so crowded and so hot, prayers of doing any rides were kind of a fail. We went on the Great Movie Ride, which is a cliffs notes of the great films of Hollywood, and we went on a quest for Dug the Dog, from Up. He existed as a plush creature that spoke, but proved to be an elusive prey.

We finished the evening at Boma, an African buffet at one of the hotels. As usual, delicious, but there is always a sense of suspense when I eat there. You never know what you get there, really, until you try it, but that's fine by me. I tend to make excellent discoveries. Curried pasta salad? Yes.