Vinpearl Land

Yesterday we did something that I was not really looking forward to. We went to a water and amusement park called Vinpearl Land. I thinking to myself, 'Are you kidding me, we are in Vietnam and we are going to Elitches?'  But, at the end of the day I changed my tune - that was a lot of fun!

Vinpearl is a first world attraction created by a Vietnamese billionaire who made his first fortune in dehydrated foods(as far as I can tell). We entered the gondola station to board a car that was to take us on a two mile journey out to a former island prison at heights of up to 200 feet over the water. This system was manufactured by a very reputable French company, Poma, and was erected in 2007.

The Vinpearl Land website issues many assurances about how you will survive high winds, earthquakes and even tsunamis aboard their magic machine. I have been riding Poma lifts for the last two decades in the Colorado Rockies and this thing was definitely not circa any time in this century. I think they picked up a retired system on the cheap and installed it here. No big deal, it seemed to work fine. No cars with it's passengers detached and fell 200 feet to their watery graves, at least not today.

The views did not disappoint. Here is a cruise ship in the bay. This one is probably a little more like what a friend of mine, Tara, likes to cruise aboard versus our Halong Bay Junk.

We started down there.

We approached Vinpearl like we approach a ski day, get first chair, hammer it until lunch then go from there. In the morning there were no lines so we did almost every water slide a number of times at a good clip as we waited for the crowds. They never came, not for the entire day so we rode lots of things lots of times.  After we were done with climbing the cheese grater stairs to the top of the slides and had our fill of sliding we changed back into our clothes and left skimming across the water behind and ventured below it. Vinpearl has an aquarium system that Patti claims is better then what we have in Denver. We also saw a dolphin show, my first, I very impressed with the grace and power God has given these animals. Their jumps were spectacular.

They have an alpine coaster there which is like an alpine slide but on rails like roller coaster. You control your speed and you can really get ripping. Rode that 4 times. Here is Riley and I nearing the top.

The kids took on my childhood nemesis, THE SWINGS. On a number of occasions in my young life this beast had caused me to part with the contents of my stomach. They handled it with smiles and giggles while some guy my age was green and swung with pursed lips.

The kids biggest achievement was on our 7th and final ride on the roller coaster they kept their hands in the air the whole time.

We have been hearing some English as a First Language music here and there in our trip. Usually, and Vinpearl was no exception, it seems to be lowest common denominator in musical quality and lyrical content. In the kids area of the park Patti and I kept giving each other the 'What is up with that?' look when we would occasionally catch the lyrics. In the evening we watched the light and water show to Brahms and Tchaikovsky, what a contrast.

Riley rates Vinpearl almost as highly as Disneyworld, Tara has Vinpearl on top. Why? It did not hurt that the attractions were first rate but the clincher was the food. Unlike Disney, you could bring no food items in with you, not even water. So Mom did not pack in her el cheapo food to eat while you listened to the crunch and smelled the aroma of the other guests actually enjoying their meals around you.

With that you would think that the food pirates were going to take all your money as you walked the plank. The food prices was actually very reasonable (cheap) so we ate whenever and wherever the kids wanted to. For lunch I had fried cheese sticks and French Fries(is that capitalized?). For dinner I had a noodle dish with mega-garlic, and I had to eat Riley's as well. I cannot even talk to Patti today. I have to email her because my breathe just reeks, or so she claims, I don't smell a thing.

The ride home on the gondola was pretty cool as all of the structures were lit to appear like little Eiffel Towers.

Images in the 2014 Vinpearl Land album linked at right.