Story and photos by ARNOLD LOH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

THERE’S a sign near the main entrance at the ESCAPE Adventureplay theme park with a rather ominous message as far as young are concerned people – “No WiFi connection”.

That’s right. The park, in Teluk Bahang, Penang, is a WiFi deadzone. Not far from that sign is another one that bears the message: “Cure for computer addicts.” Clearly, this is no ordinary theme park. Fun and tech rehab rarely go hand-in-hand, but the man behind the park is having a right go at it anyway.

“Mobile Internet may be the greatest discovery of the millennium, and computers could be great enablers of progress.

“Nothing is free, though, and such technology has come at an awful price,” said ESCAPE founder and chief executive Sim Choo Kheng.

He describes civilisation as “growing at breakneck speed”, and we are now trapping ourselves in silicon, fibre optic highways and virtual reality.

“When I built this park, I wanted it to be a place where people can escape from all that. I want them to come in and rediscover their childhood and reconnect with nature,” he enthused.

It’s a big claim, but Sim Choo Kheng, CEO of the ESCAPE Adventureplay theme park, promises to cure your gadget addictions with some healthy fun.

And so ESCAPE, as a theme park, departs from the conventional ideas of high-tech mechanical rides, sugar-coated fairy tales and synthetic fantasies.

“The attractions in ESCAPE draws from our childhood past to discover our intuitive skills as well as recapture our dreams, traditional values and love for nature,” said Sim.
The most imposing attraction in ESCAPE is called Monkey Business, which looms overhead as soon as you enter.

This attraction has over 82 challenges, spread across eight courses and three difficulty levels.

Level One of Monkey Business is nothing but fun. One wears a specially designed safety harness and pulley, and trails along a safety cable through an interesting range of obstacles about 4m above the ground.

Walk on wires, step across tiny platforms of wood, stride over a row of roped planks, negotiate a barrier of poles while trying to keep your footing on freely swinging planks, and zip through space while suspended on your harness.

The exhilaration of tackling Level One of Monkey Business will leave any greenhorn grinning foolishly … at themselves. The way your tendons and ligaments are called to action will leave you more aware of your body than you have been in a long time.

Monkey Business, Level One, is easy as pie and nothing but fun.

Then, there is Level Two (8m above the ground) and Three (12m above the ground).

The higher you go, the more your sense of balance and your agility come into play in ways that just cannot happen in everyday life.

To maintain balance and manoeuvre across all the challenges, you very often have to make full use of your upper body strength. Again, not something you frequently do in everyday life.

“This is how we used to play as kids,” said Sim with a smile. “We climbed trees and ran through the woods and dangled from branches. Nature has to be fun for children.”

At Level Three of Monkey Business, many challengers lose all strength in their arms and can no longer proceed.

At this juncture, they will simply need to dangle freely on their harnesses, and the attentive and highly-skilled staff will clamber to them (literally like monkeys – watch and learn from them!) and haul, drag, or lift the defeated ones back to the starting tower.

“At no point is anyone in danger in Monkey Business. The harnesses keep them all safe, yet the challenges are very real. I want people to rediscover nature and their basic selves when they’re here,” added Sim.

Children – lighter and more agile than adults – may find it surprisingly easy to negotiate Monkey Business.

It is a little difficult to describe the fear that Monkey Business inspires among visitors who are more attached to sedentary lifestyles. No matter how stout and secure the harnesses are, a good number of visitors become gripped with acrophobia and fail to continue.

Enter the attentive staff again to guide them back to solid ground.

First timers would then take a break on their firmly planted feet, thinking about what it was they were so frightened of while everyone else plays happily; and if they believed in themselves enough, they would try again.

“Our staff are trained to coax and give visitors confidence. We love it best when visitors conquer their fears and overcome Monkey Business.

“Our daily lives are so mundane and regulated that we seldom ever have the chance to face the psychology of fear. Among other things, I built ESCAPE to give people the chance to do so,” said the founder, who is an adventurer with myriad hobbies himself.

Then there is the Gecko Tower, where you race up the side of a building. If you have tackled ordinary climbing walls before, your experience will not help you.

Here, you will be grabbing at plumbing, air-conditioning units, window grills, wooden sidings and old tyres.

“It’s to mimic how we used to help our family by fixing the roofs and the rest of the house.”

The whole affair of unconventional obstacles and footholds is designed to disorientate you and prevent you from acquiring a rhythm.

To top the excitement, there is also the Flying Lemur, a series of ziplines for you to fly from one hill to another while suspended on wires.

Slithering up: Parents taking photos while their children clamber up Gecko Tower.

ESCAPE contains 20 attractions. A few of them are for kids only, but most can be played by all.

There are also DIY activities in the park where children can learn about nature and environmental protection.

“Our Greenie Programme and the Escape Challenge Programme for school groups are designed to awaken school children’s green awareness and their love for nature,” Sim said.

There are no electrical gadgets – and definitely no diesel-fueled gimmicks – to help you have fun. All the fun in ESCAPE is powered by nature, mechanical implements and mostly by the visitors’ own strength and willpower.

Sim, who owns Sim Leisure Consultants Sdn Bhd, has been designing, building and operating theme parks for over 20 years throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

This is the first time the Penang-born entrepreneur has used his acumen in theme park building in his home base.

“Malaysia is a prime tourist destination, but we’ve been waiting a long time for a benchmark that will establish our industry as world class.

“I am glad that Legoland, which I’m a fan of, is finally leading the way in our country. As far as ESCAPE goes, I am building this out of my belief that theme parks do not always have to be super high-tech. Creativity is far superior to technology.

“As an entrepreneur, I want to be a positive game-changer and be able play a part in giving the future generation the ‘reconnection’ needed to love nature. If the future generations love it, they would want to protect it – just like our forefathers.”

Coming later this year, across the street from ESCAPE Adventureplay, will be ESCAPE Waterplay, a water theme park that will have the same theme of environmental sustainability and back-to-nature fun.

Sim is also raising the stakes a little for visitors by launching the ESCAPE Trophy, a sporting event using the challenges in ESCAPE Adventureplay where participating teams can stand to win up to RM21,000 in cash prizes.

For a closer look, visit www.escape.my.