Kiwi tourist shared ‘eerie’ experience in Vietnam
Jessie and her partner visited a water park
A Kiwi tourist was left unnerved after coming across an eerily empty water park while holidaying in Vietnam.
Jessie Riley visited the Wonderland Water Park in Mui Ne last week while on her travels around Southeast Asia with her partner. The pair arrived at an empty car park and realized they essentially had the entire place to themselves as only a handful of other people were there as well.
“I don’t understand it,” Ms. Riley said. “Tickets were literally 15 New Zealand dollars for the whole day and there were no wait times on anything. There were all of these rides – including inflatables and water slides – but no one was there.”
Unsettling footage showed rides completely empty, with massive pools abandoned and hundreds of sun beds unoccupied.
Ms. Riley is not the only tourist who has lived through this experience, with many others revealing that empty water parks are a common sight around the country.
Lowkey was waiting for Mr Beast to tell us he rented a whole waterpark out for us…. But it was infact just empty anyway this was NovaWorld in Mui Ne Vietnam #novaworldphanthiet #muine #novaworld #waterpark #vietnam
TikTok
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JESSIE 🫶🏼🪸🗺️🪩
She said one of the few patrons approached the couple at the entrance and offered a cheaper entry fee, which they accepted.
“This lady walks up to us and says she’ll sell us a ticket $5 cheaper than the entry price,” she said. “I think she bought a family pass and then we paid her to pay off the family pass.”
The video was shared on TikTok where social media users revealed it was not an uncommon sight – and some had been put off by it as well.
“I was there but I got a bad feeling and left,” one said. “I travelled to Vietnam for two months and can confirm that almost all the theme parks there are like that,” a second said. “When I was a kid, my parents took my sister and I back to Vietnam to visit family and we went to the water park down the road. When we got there it was completely empty to the point where I thought it was closed or abandoned. It was just us the whole day and we had the entire place to ourselves.”
Vietnamese locals clarified it was common for water parks to be extremely quiet during certain parts of the year.
“It’s a thing here in Vietnam,” one local said. “There’s not a lot of holiday, so it’s either no one or everyone.”
“In Vietnam, we love the beach – water parks are busy during the holidays but not on regular days,” another said. “These theme parks are empty because we’re not in summer or the holidays yet. It will be more crowded than your country during the summer and holidays.”
The Wonderland Water Park has a 4.8 star rating on Tripadvisor. The seven hectare venue is described as “a themed water park designed around the concept of the Ocean Realm.” Among its attractions are Ocean Warriors, The Great Bubble Battle, The Ocean Kingdom, The Ocean Fortress, The Mysterious Ocean, The Lost River, The Typhoon Bay, The Blue Wave, and The Kraken Challenge.
