Yesterday was the commemoration of the death of the 1st King of Vietnam and so it was a holiday that triggered a 3-day weekend.  Yay!  And since I’ve been cooped up in the apartment for a week because of my bummed leg, I was so excited to get out and do some sightseeing.  Together with the Balbons, Manuel, Sam, and I went to Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9.

Suoi Tien is a wonder because it is religiously-inspired focusing  more on Buddhism and animism especially for someone like me who was brought up in the Catholic religion where we are taught to take religion VERY seriously.  The waterpark was a sight to behold!  Dragons with water coming out from their  noses (yup! not flames! :D) and the King’s head as part of the whole landscape.  All over Suoi Tien, statues, figures, and landscapes were sculpted in detail.  No wonder that this themepark which began construction in 1995 isn’t finished yet.

To get there, we rode a taxi from District 7 to get to the Saigon Bus Station.  There, we caught Bus No. 19.  We weren’t prepared by the crowd waiting get a ride — after all it’s a holiday!  Seemed like everyone wanted to beat the heat and go to Suoi Tien where the holiday was being celebrated with parades in honor of the king and all.  It was a loooooong ride.  Sam fell asleep during the whole bus ride.  Thank God!  But it was hot with so many people in the bus and it didn’t help that we were seated right where the sun was glaring.

The entrance fee was 55,000 VND for adults and 35,000 for kids.  Sam got in for free.  Once we were in, we headed towards the rides so the kids can have fun while it wasn’t too hot yet.  Good thing that most of the rides were in a covered area and there were a lot of trees around the park as well.  If you get tired walking, you can hire the park’s taxi.  There’s a tram too that lets you see the whole of Suoi Tien.  We didn’t ride this one and just opted to check the place by ourselves.

Sam enjoyed the helicopter ride, train, and the water boats with Daddy.  Sam and I rode the humongous bump cars and I was amazed on how fast those were and you can even drive the car in reverse!  Ruth’s kids rode a lot of more exciting rides which includes the mid-air cycle which I wanted to try out but I realized that with my leg, I couldn’t possibly cycle the whole course.  The course was sooo long and you really needed to pedal.  But it was really cool because you’re up in the air!

For lunch, we dropped by one of the restaurants and the food was great and inexpensive!  I remember when we went to HK Disneyland, the food was really pricey.

After lunch, we headed to the waterpark to cool off.  Looooove the waterpark!  So much stuff to do there and Sam loved every moment of it.  Manuel and I tried water rafting and it was great except that our boat turned over and got water into my nose.

We left at around 5pm but this time we took a cab home. 😀  I wanna come back just for the waterpark but we have yet to see Dam Sen Waterpark and Dai Nam so it’ll be a while before we see Suoi Tien again.

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Repost from http://www.spillsandspiels.com April 24, 2010