Arriving in Huế

There’s not much to do in Huế. If temples are your thing, then there are tons to see. After months of travelling through Thailand and Cambodia, I’m templed out. The only reason I wanted to visit Hué was to take photos at the abandoned water park. You won’t find the waterpark listed in any of the official tours. Tour agencies don’t have pictures of it in their brochures either. Not that we ever used an agency for anything in Asia. I learned about this place the way anybody learns about any travel destination these days, the internet.

You can find the park online everywhere, blogs, Pinterest, and Reddit to name a few. From what I have gathered, the park never actually opened. Construction was almost finished in 2004 but the owners ran out of money. The park has since become home to overgrowth and briefly alligators. A local warned us that there were malnourished ‘gators spotted at the park. They were living in the pool at the bottom of the slides. Fortunately, the reptiles were removed for their own safety, and I assume for the safety of everybody else.

Getting past the guards

A local business owner told me that the place had been officially closed off by the government in January 2018. A Redditor had told me that there would be a security guard at the gate and that you can’t enter at the main entrance. The Redditor also told me that he couldn’t convince the security guard to let him pass, offering money and begging did little to help. Unfazed by the awful idea that we would be able to access the park, we ride our scooter up to the main entrance blocked by the guard. He’s standoffish, he looks official in a full guard uniform, and we plead to enter. However, the guard refused.

Eventually, after going back and forth with Google Translate, he tells us there was another entrance if we followed the road around. We did this and drove past a couple of guys sitting in the sun who chased us and told us the park was off-limits. I offered to pay him 10,000 dong only for him to shake his head. I offered him 20,000 dong for him to suddenly change his mind. For reference, 20,000 dong is ~$1. It was the cheapest bribe I’ve ever paid. He said to us “Only stay 40 minutes and no climbing.” We entered and there were parking attendants with refreshments waiting for us.

You can ignore the attendants and drive around the park freely if you want to get around it quickly, which we did. Most people park up and walk around, but I wanted to zip around the lake so I could have more time to take pictures.

Enjoying the park

When arriving at the park I suggest you turn right and go over the skinny bridge and follow it around anti-clockwise. The guard will tell you to do otherwise but he isn’t the boss of you. That way the sights get progressively cooler, starting with the stage/water show seats, followed by the water slides, followed by the impressive dragon which you can climb inside. Inside the dragon is an aquarium. When photographing this there is ZERO light. Anybody who knows me, knows I’m not a huge fan of flash photography so I instead set my camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed to 30 secs and used a pair of phone torches to paint light onto the walls of the aquarium which I hope you’ll agree, created a nice effect.

The guard will come hunting for you before it gets dark, he eventually left me to my own devices after I pretended to leave behind him, but I could have stayed longer. It’s a perfect place to chill, drink a beer and maybe smoke a joint. Even at night. Just make sure you’re OK to drive back to your hotel.