A tourist has captured footage inside one of the world’s eeriest attractions – an abandoned waterparkwith a “haunted” past.
Jeffrey Van Sluijs, 31, a freelance digital marketer from the Netherlands, has been travelling around Asia for the past nine months and recently explored the dilapidated attraction, located in Vietnam.
After staying at a hostel, he overheard other guests talking about a “dark tourist” spot, which is believed to be “haunted” due to its spooky past – and what he found sent a chill down his spine.
In a video, Jeffrey shows himself standing inside the mouth of a huge dragon statue that guards a three-storey observation tower looking out onto a muddy brown lake.
He then pans the camera around to a series of children’s pools, where brightly coloured plastic slides and sprinklers are covered in graffiti and their structures rusting in the stagnant water.
Despite the eerie silence, one sound prevails – dozens of crickets and insects who have made the former park their home.
Other shots show a lazy river structure filled with green water, as well as sun lounging areas, now muddied with broken tiles and overgrown plants.
“Some locals warn that the place may be haunted and this may have caused many investors to stay away from giving it a new try,” Jeffery told NeedToKnow.Online.
“The place itself was built in 2004 by the Hue Tourism Company and was opened to visitors when it wasn’t even finished.
“This bold decision didn’t work out very well and after two years of being operational, the park shut down forever in 2006.
“The reasons of its failure is unknown up to this day – but visiting the park is a shady endeavour.
“The first thing I saw was the giant dragon head. This climbable structure used to be some sort of viewpoint, although it was unclear for me what other functions this structure had.
“When going a little bit further, I came across a pool for children with a typical ‘water umbrella’ or ‘mushroom’ and some sort of artificial current, as well as a wave pool.
“Everything was heavily in decay and the water inside had turned dark brown and muddy.
“There were plants all over the place, and lots of insects.
“When walking through the children’s pool and past the wave pool, I tried to imagine what the place would have looked like when it was operational.”
Jeffery later shared the video on TikTok – racking up 8,000 views and over 700 likes.
“Sure it’ll look a lot scarier at night,” one person commented.
“Dangerous! This abandoned work is not maintained, probably damages everywhere which might cause collapse and unexpected accidents,” another user said.
“Looks like I used to come here once when I was a kid and it was also the last time,” someone else said.
“It’s in my city though I’ve heard about it many times. I’m yet to visit,” another person added.
Upon exiting the park, Jeffery experienced another strange encounter – a sign of life.
He added: “I stumbled upon an actual café inside the abandoned park.
“Right across the street where I found the abandoned theatre, I suddenly noticed quite a ’new’ sign saying something like ‘cold beer, cola’ etc.
“At the café, there was a group of about six Vietnamese people, looking quite rich in terms of how they were dressed, and enjoying an extensive lunch with an abundance of beers.
“It was such a strange thing to encounter in the park.
“Any abandoned place always feels like a present unfolding to you – around every corner, something new can be found.”
