Dai Nam Wonderland has 5 distinct sections : Dai Nam Beach, Dai Nam Open Zoo, Worship Zone, Amusement Theme Park & Camp Site. Won't bore you with the details. See website for more details.
We only walked through the Theme Park and Worship Zone. We're not the beach kind so that didn't appeal to us. And the Open Zoo was really a long walk away. There are bikes available for rent though. You can also rent a personal tram that seats 6-8 pax. There's a free tram ride to the Theme Park - just after the entrance. Not sure whether there are free tram rides around the whole park - most signs and information are in Vietnamese - very inconvenient for tourists.
A man approached us and said that we could have free transport around the park if we ate at his restaurant. His is a legitimate restaurant but we found the prices on the high side. Wanted to charge us half the price of a set meal for 6-8 pax - and we were only 2!! Price for us ranged from 500-700,000vnd - quite ex as the menu seemed quite ordinary. Local food, fruits and drinks are widely available around the park and at quite reasonable prices, except for the above restaurant.
As for the games/rides in the Theme Park, there are quite a number (40 so the park claims) but most were empty - roller coaster, bumper cars, pedal boats, horror pyramid - but nothing out of the ordinary. Some are rides found in international theme parks but the atmosphere and feeling's different here - not quite the same if you get me.
Walked through the Worship Zone where's there's this huge Golden Temple - impressive and very peaceful inside the temple (maybe because there were only a handful of visitors). The artificial "mountain" range - looked more like small hills - was ok, again nothing spectacular.
There was an advert for a supermarket but all we found was a departmental store with several small vendors. Don't think of getting any souvenirs of the park - the only available ones were pathetic looking t-shirts. A Vinasun taxi stand sits at the entrance (lots of taxis) and is co-located with the small bus station. Bus No 616 gets you here from the bus station across Ben Thanh Market. So getting here is no a problem...just a question of how long it takes.
Some say that the park is so big, you'll need 2 days to cover it totally. True if one wants to see and experience everything in Dai Nam Wonderland. If you really need to stay, there's a hotel available. But it looks to us like there's nothing much to do at night there, and there is nowhere that you can visit at night...a ghost town at night.
We left with the feeling that this is a theme park more towards Vietnamese taste (which is fine since it caters to locals) but a long way from international theme park standards. But then again, the cost is also much lower, so one cannot really complain. It's like a big big Dam Sen or Suoi Tien (the other 2 theme parks in HCMC)...nothing really spectacular. Worth one visit and I think that's about right for us...but then again, that's only one opinion.
Getting there : The cheapest option for the tourist is Bus 616, next is to bike there and finally there's the taxi (which will set you back anywhere between 400-600,000vnd (or more) depending on where you are staying)
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| Taking a short break along the way |
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| The entrance |
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| Buying tickets |
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| The most misleading sign. Theme Park Entrance (1st line) does not equal Ticketing Booth |
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| Departmental Store |
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| Pyramid (Horror House) |
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| Rather lame props in the Horror Pyramid |
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| Five Phoenix Discovery (a ride) |
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| Trash bins are turned upside down all over the park. Trash bags are placed next to it instead????? |
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| Inside the Golden Temple |
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| The Golden Temple |
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| "Mountain" Range |
