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"Your Adventure Awaits", announces the brochure to West Edmonton Mall (tel 444-5200 or 1-800/463-4667, www.westedmall.com ), preparing you for a place that gets eleven mentions in the Guinness Book of Records , including its main claim to fame as the "largest shopping mall in the world." Built at a total cost of $1.1 billion, the complex extends over the equivalent of 115 American football fields (or 48 city blocks) and boasts more than 800 shops - of which some 110 are restaurants - plus 19 cinemas, and 11 department stores. The mall's effect on Edmonton has been double-edged: it employs 15,000 people but has captured thirty percent of the city's retail business, thus crippling the downtown shopping area, though it has also succeeded, to everyone's surprise, in attracting twenty million visitors a year (or 55,000 a day). Funnily enough, many of the shops are rather downmarket (retail hours are Mon-Fri 10am-9pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun noon-6pm), though the sheer size of the place is enough to keep you browsing all day. There's almost a queue of superlatives. Its car park is the world's largest, with room for 20,000 cars; it has the world's largest water park (50 million litres of water); it uses enough power to run a town of 50,000 people; and features the world's only indoor bungee jump (jumps from about $60, to $90 if you want the full video and T-shirt package). The world's largest indoor lake (122m long), part of a cluster of attractions known as Deep Sea Adventure (Mon-Thurs 11pm-4.30pm, Fri & Sat 11am-7.30pm, Sun 11am-5.30pm; $13) contains a full-sized replica of Columbus's Santa Maria , and four working submarines - more than are owned by the Canadian navy - offering an underwater trip past some 200 different species of marine life. Other distractions here include dolphin shows ($2), canoe rentals, scuba diving and an underwater aquarium ($3 on its own) laced with the inevitable sharks. Then there's the world's largest indoor amusement park , the Galaxyland (Mon-Thurs noon-8pm, Fri & Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 11am-7pm; day-pass $29.95), which features such attractions as the Drop of Doom , a thirteen-storey "free-fall experience", and the fourteen-storey Mindbender triple-loop roller coaster. The latter, it comes as no surprise to learn, is the world's largest indoor roller coaster. The World Waterpark , by contrast, is a superb collection of vast swimming pools, immense water slides and wave pools (Mon-Thurs noon-7pm, Fri & Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-6pm; day-pass $29.95, cheaper after 5pm). If you've still any energy, you can also ice-skate on a National Hockey League-size skating rink ($4.50 a session, skate rental $3). You could round off the day or indulge yourself further in one of the mall's many cinemas (including a recently introduced IMAX), the Ice Palace, Dolphin Presentations, Sea Life Caverns, Professor Wem's Golf Adventure, or a variety of clubs. If you want to go the whole hog, then spend the night, in the 354-room Fantasyland Hotel (tel 444-3000 or 1-800/661-6454; $175-240) where 118 of the rooms are intricately equipped and decorated to fulfil various assorted fantasies: Roman, Hollywood, Arabian, Victorian Coach, African, Igloo, Canadian Rail and, most intriguing of all, Truck. Cheaper rooms are available without jacuzzis and mirrored ceilings. There are over 100 places to eat , some lined up on two "theme" streets: Europa Boulevard and a New Orleans-style Bourbon Street. Bus services to the mall heading west out of downtown include #100, #109, #111 and #113. The monster's location, so far as it has an address (it has five different postal codes and 58 entrances - remember which one you parked by if you've come by car), is 170th Street and 87th Avenue. Maps are available throughout the main building at information booths, where you can also get information and any number of facts and figures. If you get tired, scooters can be rented from about $6 an hour. For more information, call 444-5200 or 1-800/661-8890.
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