Suoi Tien

Originally uploaded by toy ghost

Check your sanity at the door kids, you are now entering Saigon's only insanity-themed amusement park, Suoi Tien.

Take every crazy dream and fantasy you've had about Asia, and add a generous dose of Alice in Wonderland, and you've got Suoi Tien. I felt like i was walking into an Asian version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

They've got buildings shaped like dragons, enormous turtles, a waterpark inside a mountain, a Unicorn Palace, the Forest of the Magician's Kingdom, rollercoasters that go underground, and an Imperial Dream Castle.

They even have a haunted pagoda where you can descend into Vietnamese hell.

After experiencing Vietnamese Hell, I have come to the conclusion that Vietnamese haunted houses are the scariest haunted houses ever conceived. I have several reasons for that.

1). The confusion factor. I don't understand what these demons are screaming at me. If i understood, perhaps i could reason with them.

2.) The Vietnamese have a different scale on which to judge scariness. It has to be damn frightenening to pass as scary in Vietnam.

3.) The special effects are so low budget, I'm not even sure they're special effects. That girl's entrails looked really convincing.

After that I had to chill out by visiting the Crocodile Kingdom, where i relaxed by feeding vicious maneating crocodiles pork livers on the end of a stick.