Vietnam’s Suoi Tien Cultural Theme Park

In the country of Vietnam, located within Ho Chi Minh City is one of the world’s more unusual amusement parks.  It is the Suoi Tien (or “fairy stream”) CulturalTheme Park and it’s not Disneyland by any stretch of the imagination.  This theme park’s design is based around the legends, folklore and history of Vietnam with a particular emphasis on Buddhism.

This extremely colorful park may seem like a strange place at first to those used to a more Western amusement park experience.  All the buildings and other decoration are done in Eastern style, with Eastern themes.  The most prominent symbols include the dragon, unicorn, phoenix, tortoise and, naturally, the Buddha.  There are no Mickey Mouse mascots walking the grounds, but there are some folks dressed up as golden monkeys who will take pictures with guests and sometimes run around causing trouble.

The range of attractions at Suoi Tien includes thrilling rides such as roller coasters, adventure rides and water rides, though not in abundance.  The main fare of the park consists of walk-through attractions made up to look like caves, temples and shrines and focused on telling the stories of Buddhism.  There’s even one that takes you into the depths of Buddhist hell and is, if stories are to be believed, quite gory and frightening.

For the kids, the park has a children’s area and there’s also a zoo of sorts on the grounds.  Visitors can take a water cruise through the crocodile pond, home to more than 1500 live specimens of these vicious lizards.  If you’re so inclined, you can even feed the crocs with fishing poles.

If you get to the park at the right time, there are cultural festivals that take place, adding even more traditional Vietnamese activities to the mix.  The most prominent of these occur around holidays such as the Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

All-in-all, Suoi Tien is a good way to spend some time in Vietnam.  It makes for a decent day’s distraction and the park has more expansions planned for the future.  It may not be the amusement park you’re used to, but the appeal it holds is one that is uniquely Vietnamese.  If you want to know more, take a trip over to their website.

Big Face photo courtesy of Ghenghiskhanviet via Wikicommons

Statues photo courtesy of TDA via Wikicommons

Roller Coaster photo courtesy of Vuong Chi Ky via Wikicommons