TacoCat’s Travels #220 (Genting): Visiting Ripley's Odditorium! 👀

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, we're currently on our first trip up into the mountains of Malaysia, specifically to Genting Highlands, where there's an integrated resort there! I've heard about it a lot but never actually been, and Sean was excited to show me around since he used to go there with his family.

Last week, we started exploring the whole resort compound after having full bellies from a big lunch! We walked through the indoor theme park all the way to the other hand where Genting Complex was, passing by some interesting places on the way.

We also step foot inside one of the most expensive hotels here called Crockfords which was so far away from the main indoor area of the resort that the hotel provides an escort in a golf cart to their guests!

We had a nice refreshing traditional herbal jelly dessert before going to Ripley's Adventureland!

There were plenty of kid-friendly entertainment here including the dinosaurs you could ride, a train and some mech machines and cars.

And of course since this was Ripley's Adventureland we had to check out the Believe It or Not Odditorium! Here we go!

11 September 2022. Sunday.

I've been to one of these before a long time ago in another country, but since Sean's never been we thought we'd check it out! I recall watching Ripleu's Believe it or Not on television back in the day and some stuff was kinda creepy but it was mostly weird.

First thing we had to do was buy tickets so we went to the ticket counter. It was 38 RM for a single attraction and we agreed this was probably the most value for money since it was a whole exhibit, unlike the carnival-like rides.

Once we paid and were free to enter, the first thing that greeted us was a car made of scrap, an Iron Man figure and a King Kong figure made of tires!

We thought this was the famous Ripley but it's actually a dude named Major General Daniel E. Sickles who may or may not have lost his leg to a cannonball in the civil war.

I guess the whole point of this museum was to put weird facts around and you could Believe it or Not?

This first area was pretty weird with a car made of wood, a guy doing a flagpole and some weird-looking people on screens.

Turns out the car is made entirely of recycled teak kitchen floors, and is identical to the one used in The Wolf of Wall Street. Apparently the wheels turn as well but I don't remember verifying it unfortunately.

We did try to open a door over here and a showering man appeared in the window.

The next area was more open with more figures and exhibits here on display. Thankfully there was no one around so we were free to walk around and take as many photos as we liked.

There were these two figures and one of them I recognised as the guy who could swallow his own nose!

As with all these touristy museums there were plenty of photo spots and since there was no one around we didn't have to wait for them!

Some of the oddities actually really exist like these things in bottles and miniature wood whittling that I'm sure someone can do.

There was also a video of a contortion show going on, which I remember from the Ripley's show back in the day as well.

There was this frame on the wall with the logo made of plastic blocks but which logo appeared depended on the light and angle at which you looked at it! Apparently there were 3 variations: Superman, Spiderman or Batman!

Some of these were cultural things like these tribal neck coins which I've seen before. I can't imagine doing something like this myself though.

Some of the exhibits were more interactive like this optical illusion where you could turn it to see an elephant but initially it looked like 2 giraffes, at least to me.

There was a recreation of the famous Girl with Pearl Earring that only appeared once you lit up this frame made of wooden mosaic pattern.

There was also the recreation of this famous photo Ellen took at the Oscars long time ago but in real life this recreation looked quite blurry. Only in the camera lens did it look better for some reason.

This was Tom Thumb's boots, who was the most famous midget of the time back in 1850s. I guess this was the little person that was featured by P.T. Barnum back in the day.

The next area had some trash made into art pieces that would show something if you shone a light on them. It was completely dark at first so we got scared thinking it was going to be creepy.

There was a figure of the Vampire Woman who I guess just had a lot of tattoos and piercings all over her body. I thought it was Lady Gaga at first tbh.

Beside her was a kissing booth and initially the lady has her back to you until you put your hand on the panel and she turns around revealing her face that looks like a mule. We were scared it was going to be a jumpscare or that she'd grab us or something so Sean is ducking down. xD

The placard says she surprisingly had a lot of marriage proposals even though her publicist called her "the ugliest woman in the world!"

These all seem like they should belong in The Greatest Showman tbh. There was also a photo spot with the body of fattest man!

Some of these were just cool art pieces though, like this one made of packing tape art that could only be seen when you light it up from behind.

Others were optical illusions like this rug that looked like a normal rug when you looked at head-on.

Probably the only one that is undeniably true is this frame that said Robert Ripley was a newspaper cartoonist and his sketches ran in over 40 countries which made him a millionaire and inducted him into the Cartoon Art Hall of Fame!

There were more art pieces like this one of Tom Cruise made of mustard and ketchup:

And these ones that looked blurry irl but perfect through a lens. I still have no idea how these work.

There were even some leaf paintings that looked awesome! It felt like an art museum sometimes with all the different mediums they used.

There was also a taxidermy foosball with a squirrel and gopher than thankfully was not actually real.

Well I guess they might have been real at some point. Still seems kinda cruel though.

Behind it was a food truck showing videos of people eating bugs.

And the next thing we saw was a replica of the World Trade Center made entirely of matchsticks! Apparently it took over 15 months to assemble and required 470,000 matchsticks!

In the next room was this huge replica of Cinderella's pumpkin carriage complete with 4 horses! It was created in 1994 and was actually a floating boat that sailed down the Grand Canal in Venice!

Behind there was a video of a headless chicken playing that I guess did survive at some point.

More sculptures made of different things like this goat of recycled junk:

More art of famous people made of different things. I think these were basically unrecognisable irl

This one was probably the most impressive since it was the biggest and was made of sequins that would flutter in the breeze.

For some reason they had a Chinese Celadon portable toilet on display too. I read about these before and they actually do exist. I think there was a flush sound when you pressed the button.

There was a match game on the screen that was almost impossible to beat that we tried.

This was apparently a vase made of camel bladder that used totransport roses and spices out of India since they could withstand excessive heat and dryness.

There was a little interactive tunnel for kids to go through but we got curious and went through it ourselves to see what was in there.

I sent Sean in there first to scout the area since I was scared there would be spooky things in there.

Turns out in was nothing much other than some smaller items on display and a toilet with a fake spider and poop in it.

It was kinda goofy I guess but mainly for kids.

Next we saw Ripley's collection of tribal masks from exotic locations around the world.

I'm not sure how true this is but apparently this was a human skin mask made from slaves that was carried by the medicine man of the Ekoi tribe of Cameroon during funerals.

There was also an automated mechanical owl that would turn his head and wings that honestly looked a little creepy.

I think the only normal looking things we saw here was this desk but it was too normal that it felt out of place in the museum.

So that was mostly older stuff but they also had a futuristic section that I'll cover in the next post! Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #219 (Genting): Exploring the Mountain Resort! 🌄

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