Search result for "Southeast Asia"
country: Malaysia, Southeast Asia
Upon entering Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, you will probably find it more impressive than expected. Its theme park sits on a hill overlooking a water park containing a giant wave pool. The highlight of the water park is a very, very long suspension bridge traversing the endless pool – amazing to many and scary for some. The best and most thrilling thing you can probably do in the park is to pay an extra fee at the outer end of the suspension bridge, get attached to...
country: Singapore, Southeast Asia
The newest addition to the Universal Studios theme park family in Singapore is definitely the little brother of the group, but despite its small size it is cleverly arranged with some excellent Universal attraction classics and a couple of novelties.The park opened in March 2010 with three major rides: 'Revenge of the Mummy' - an Egyptian-themed dark ride/indoor roller coaster very similar to the same-named ride in Universal Studios Florida that is packed with evil, juicy,...
country: Malaysia, Southeast Asia
Indoor theme park in a major Kuala Lumpur shopping mall containing some ordinary fun fair rides and a huge roller coaster. I haven't seen anything like this before: the coaster snakes its way through several floors and areas of the mall, leaving a lasting visual impression! While it's nothing groundbreaking, Cosmo's World is solid fun in a mundane mall...
country: Thailand, Southeast Asia
This mediocre theme/water park features something seriously unique: an adrenaline-inducing and bone-breaking water slide. I’ve never slid down such a brutal monstrosity of a slide. Three humps await you: you will probably bump your butt on the first one, but on the second you will almost certainly enjoy a short uncontrolled flight before slamming back onto the slide, then splashing with brutal force into the pool. Some of the lighter Thai guys skip like stones over...
country: Singapore, Southeast Asia
Equarius Water Park is a development within Resorts World Sentosa close to Universal Studios Singapore. I love the idea of waterslides meandering through untouched trees in a real jungle. It is set to open in 2010 or 2011. At the time of my last visit no visible construction was taking place yet...
country: Philippines, Southeast Asia
Surprisingly charming little theme park one hour's drive south of Manila featuring a looping roller coaster, a flume ride, a river rapids ride and a 3-D cinema showing (at the time of writing) a 20-minute version of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' starring Brendan Fraser. The Disneyesque entry gate and a Universalesque street scene leave little doubt where inspiration for the park came from, but the overall innocent charm of the place makes this lack of originality...
country: Thailand, Southeast Asia
The second biggest theme park in Bangkok's vicinity, Dream World Bangkok has a unique layout resembling a long and thin rice field (it probably was one before): 1km long and only 100m wide, visiting the park feels like wandering through a hosepipe. Highlights are a flume ride with a merciless splash, a river rapids ride with an in-the-shower feel, a relatively new inverted (hanging) roller coaster, a lovely designed 'Giant House' and a 4-D cinema with local Thai soap stars...
country: Malaysia, Southeast Asia
As evident from my other reviews I am not such a big fan of the Legoland parks. Lego's success was based on creating a toy which was as versatile and limitless as the imaginations of the children playing with it. The Legoland theme parks, by contrast, show a distinct lack of imagination on the part of their designers. I believe the brand can do more than simply surround mediocre roller coasters and flume rides with oversized lego brick figures. That said, the concept of...
country: Brunei, Southeast Asia
In the mid-1990s there were no Hong Kong Disneyland or Universal Studios Singapore in South-East Asia: it was Brunei's well-manicured, billion-dollar Jerudong Park, with its Michael Jackson concerts and cutting-edge rides, that was the envy of the region. Less than 20 years later, it's all ruins and decay. Despite still being open and having a few carousels and bumper cars operating, all the major rides (like a suspended roller coaster and a mountain log flume ride) have...
country: Indonesia, Southeast Asia
Planes full of sun-seekers landing every 20 minutes. Adventurous backpackers on spiritual mass trips. Low-cost life in the side streets. Bad roads. Packed beach. Homeless cat. Moped. Massage. Burger King.
That's what Kuta, Bali's tourist aggregation zone, feels like. And in the middle of this is Waterbom Bali, a cultivated and beautiful tropical garden with three slide towers and the latest Canadian water slides. It's really an impressively fine water park that makes...
country: Vietnam, Southeast Asia
The suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City emanate similar feelings and impressions as the Disney-infested eastern suburbs of Shanghai. Cheap dwellings, dirt roads, street shops and motor bikes meet billion dollar theme park construction site. Happyland is reported to cost a staggering 2 billion USD - an unprecedented investment in a theme park to be located in a country with such low per capita income. The artwork leans heavily on Disney inspirations and looks a bit simple and...
country: Singapore, Southeast Asia
Resorts World's Marine Life Park comprises two separate ticketed gates: Adventure Cove Waterpark and the Southeast Asia Aquarium. While it's not as disappointing as I found Gardens by the Bay, I don't feel it lives up to the high expectations. Don't get me wrong, though, it's good! It's basically a two-storey experience: the underground level constitutes the aquarium with its huge tanks, and the ground level above is dedicated to water park and dolphin interaction. The way...
Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. Less well-kept than Waterbom Jakarta. Offers the usual lost city theming and features a big pool in its center. Ok to visit...
Visited 2012. The premier destination within the boundaries of Ancol Dreamland. Roller coaster, flume ride, river rafting ride, Wild West town, all included. Well-kept. Lowest point: an incredibly dreadful, slow and long 'It's a Small World' rip-off that will give you plenty of time to reflect on the past or think about the future...
Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. This is the equivalent of the American/Australian SeaWorld/Sea World parks. Enjoyed the messy hippopotamus feeding show, hadn't seen something like that before. Not bad...
Visited 2012. Part of Ancol Dreamland. Small oceanarium, but better than expected. Attractive interior design. Not to be confused with the American and Australian brand, nor with the neighbouring 'Ocean Dream Samudra' that has all the animal shows...
Visited 2012. Stylish, well-kept water park with lush greenery but much fewer slides than at Waterbom Bali. The ticket price I consider a bit steep for the locals. Halfway between the airport and Ancol Dreamland...
Visited 2009. Given that this oceanarium just opened, I thought it was quite disappointing. Seen superior oceanariums, e.g. in Osaka, Dubai and the Bahamas. Just does the job, nothing special...
Visited 2009. Very desolate, mainly indoor theme park with lots of scary-looking Disney characters painted on walls. Old ride equipment and unpleasant stares by staff. Strongly not recommended...
Visited 2008. Small amusement park that's now closed. Recalling a flume ride with a long chute. Was pretty pitiful a theme park for a place like Singapore...
Visited 2012. Same operators as Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. Located in the western outskirts, a bit far away from the city center, but worth the commute and much more fascinating than the name suggests. Impeccable landscaping and theming throughout...
Visited 2010 & 2014. Beautifully manicured jungle island with the feel of a Disney resort, packed with independent attractions. Highlights include 'MegaZip' (zip line sending you down to the beach), 'iFly Singapore' (indoor skydiving) and 'Songs of the Sea' (created by Yves Pépin, the same guy who masterminded the ingenious night show at Futuroscope in France). 'Images of Singapore' used to be a beautifully-themed museum, but the new UK-made live show with the...
Visited 2012. One of the world's best zoos, so good that some call it a theme park. Don't miss the boat ride - it's an oasis in the heart of the city!...
Visited 2011. Comparable to the safari attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but by night. Really well done. Nearly impossible to spot the fences or moats separating the animals from the safari tram. Thoughtful lighting creates an atmosphere of surreal beauty. Pathways through the jungle lead to themed grottos. Awesome!...
Visited 2008. I am a very small, non-themed water park adjacent to former Escape Theme Park, close to Changi airport. Ignore me...
country: Cambodia, Southeast Asia
A tragic story took place here. In March 2013, a young female Japanese tourist lost her life when the roller coaster pictured below derailed. It seems incomprehensible that you can lose your life in such a ludicrously small, flat and probably slow coaster. But you can. It happened. This incident really touches me. A girl who, finding herself surrounded by the spectacular ancient temples in Siem Reap, but who chooses to ride a rotten roller coaster instead, would have been my...
Visited 2013. Terribly tasteless, casino-powered amusement park planted on a spectacular mountain top setting. Many rides old and rusty, with quality ranging from average to abysmal. Divided into an indoor and outdoor section, the latter being slightly more bearable. Highlight is the awe-inspiring cable car ride to the skyscraping casino perched on the mountain edge...
Visited 2013. What happened here? River Safari's anchor attraction, Amazon River Quest, is a catastrophe. Compared to the spectacular, classic Night Safari, this much-touted river water ride is utterly pitiful in every respect: picture a creaking, slow log flume, barely moving, inching forward through meandering, narrow channels on a short ride, with only a few animals, and landscaping as lush and inspiring as a Burger King playground. Amazon Quest aside, this park is a...
Visited 2013. It's impressive what PR agencies and departments dare to call 'theme park'. This three-storey indoor entertainment center is not a theme park. I'm not even sure if you can call it FEC (Family Entertainment Center). It's more of a merchandise store extension, with the absolute minimum of space, rides and experiences. Boo!...
Visited 2012. Must not be confused with Resorts World Singapore and Genting, since this casino/hotel hybrid across Manila airport hosts nothing close to a theme park...
Visited 2014. Part of SM City Cebu mall. One of those drab, dark, indoor family entertainment centers located in the basement. Feels like the end of civilization...
Visited 2014. The upper floors of Cebu's landmark Crown Regency hotel house a whole little theme park: there's a 4-D cinema with passable Steven Spielberg film-inspired 3-D movies made in China, black light mini golf (sweet!), a zip line between skyscrapers, and the neat 'Edge Coaster', a slow moving vehicle orbiting the outer edge of the building's 38th floor. Leaning over the brink of the city's tallest skyscraper at an angle of up to 55 degrees, with only the lap bar...
Visited 2014. Apocalyptic-looking indoor/outdoor theme park on a mall's roof south of Manila. Sports a hilariously scary suspended monorail that looks like made in North Korea...
Visited 2014. Shopping center amusement arcade equipped with a gentle Dutch-made (Vekoma) roller coaster...
Visited 2014. Charming, small, well-landscaped water park that makes the best of its awkward location merely 20 meters (!) off a major highway. Highlights are two slide towers with lots of slides made in the 90's, and a wave pool facing a sandy beach with themed cabanas...
Visited 2014. Part of SM Fairview Mall. Compared to its local competitors, a rather clean and bearable family entertainment center/amusement arcade-cum-roller coaster...
Visited 2014. Charming and colorful small farm-themed outdoor amusement park, with an emphasis on kiddie rides. Comes with an arc-themed zoo called "Avilon" and aquarium adjacent to it. ...
Visited 2014. Unkempt indoor amusement park located in Sta Lucia East Grand Mall. Has a small roller coaster and a hilarously short ghost train with a duration of 50 seconds (20 seconds of which are in the dark.)...
Visited 2014. Expansive, desolate fairground with two small coasters and a Singapore view...
country: Indonesia, Southeast Asia
Bandung looks like Cambodia, with Hong Kong style shopping malls in between. Starving cats on non-existing sidewalks, surface cables galore, shanty homes, waste water channels, and then... King Kong, Gucci, and Chanel. I won't attempt a socioeconomic study of what went wrong here, so let's take a look at Trans Studios Bandung on its own merit: and it's surprisingly great! Situated inside a first-rate shopping mall, the indoor theme park sports a Universal Studios-like...
Visited 2014. Small, mall-attached indoor family amusement center, inspired by Disneyland's Toontown, and equipped with coaster, carousel and video games...
Visited 2014. Smallish, snow-themed water park, equipped with Canadian-made water slides. Not worthwhile for tourists, but certainly appreciated by the locals...
Visited 2014. 2013-opened theme park in the southern outskirts of Jakarta. Boasts a China-style grand themed entrance, but there is almost nothing behind it except a collection of low-rise standard rides, randomly scattered around an ancient-looking temple. Who designed this, please?...
Visited 2014. Colorful and well-landscaped water park 1 hour drive south of Jakarta. Equipped with solid slides, a wave pool, and even a bird park. It's no match to the great Waterbom parks found in Bali and Jakarta, though...
Visited 2014. Newly-opened, small outdoor amusement park that primarily serves as a venue for festivals and concerts. Main features are a Ferris wheel and about a dozen small kiddie rides...
country: Singapore, Southeast Asia
A somewhat wacky open air space cramped with statues and little figures. I was told the park used to have a number of rides, but they have all been demolished. The best exhibit left is a cavern with figures torturing each other in such comically brutal ways that suggest the sculptors had a lot of fun at work...
Visited 2014. The Ferris wheel still stands, but the amusement park has closed down. No rating...
Visited 2014. Half outdoor, half indoor, this little theme park is adorable in the sense that every single attraction is just so outrageously overpacked with props. The dinosaur jungle walk looks like a cemetery for dinosaur animatronics, and so does the mummy walk-through temple. The ghost train tops it all: here, you needn't break the rules and stretch your hand out, all the ghosts (at least one per meter) will actually come touch you. No, not masqueraded employees, but...
Visited 2014. Indoor theme park whose dark rides appear to have been outfitted by the same crazy artists who also created the nearby – and superior – Happy Zone...
Visited 2014. Abandoned amusement park on the southern end of Yangon's beautiful Zoological Gardens. Doesn't appear as if it will ever reopen...
Visited 2014. A truly cheerful and groomed outdoor amusement park that features all the usual rides which are so common for many of us, but so special for the locals. When I visited on a Wednesday, it was packed!...
Visited the future site in 2012. Announced...
Visited 2014. Small water park with a wave pool and a giant Tornado funnel slide that was out of service on my visit. ...
Visited 2014. Somewhat tasteless water park in between two highways. Boasts a 'Master Blaster' water coaster that was not operating on my visit. The parking lot looks already abandoned, which may serve as a precursor for the park's future...
Visited 2014. Some folks believe it's still up and running, but there is no Mines Wonderland no more. A lone watchman guards its dilapidated former entrance...
Visited 2014. Small, coaster-free funfair, sporting a big ferris wheel...
Visited 2014. As enchanting a concept and as admirable a business model as anywhere else in the world, KidZania broadens kids' perspective on the world and relieves parents for a day simultaneously...
Visited 2014. Opened in 2007, this was one of the first KidZania branches. It must be traumatizing for Indonesian kids to leave KidZania after 4pm. First, because it closes too early on weekdays, and second, because there is quite likely no city anywhere in Indonesia that has the infrastructure, organisation and social coherence KidZania recreates. If I was an Indonesian kid, I'd never wanna leave...
Visited 2014. As a non-Asian visitor, you immediately add to the attraction offerings found at Trans Studio Makassar. Kids, mothers and employees approach from all sides, asking for name, nationality and their photo with you, with their curious, open, wide Indonesian smiles. The level of attention exceeds that found in rural parts of China. It's cute, but it also underlines how misplaced this world-class Gary Goddard-designed indoor theme park is. Equipped with great...
Visited 2014. Without the powerful support of the Lego brand, this would be considered a very small and unambitious water park, featuring three slide towers in various colors, a small wave pool and a lazy river with floating Lego bricks...
Visited 2015. In the jungle, by the river, on Malaysian territory some 20km north of famous Singapore Changi airport, you will find a huge, undervisited crocodile farm. Run by a warm-hearted Chinese guy and offering the usual croc park highlights such as crocodile feeding and pic-with-baby croc, the true allure of this attraction is that, on a weekday, you'll be all by yourself. It's just you and 1,000 hungry crocodiles, some of them huge, in the jungle, by the river. Must...
Visited 2015. Fairly new, but already abandoned amusement park. Had a roller coaster passing through a Ferris Wheel, both still standing. Looks quite unique and must have had an eccentric owner or designer, but probably no feasibility study...
Visited 2015. Tiny water park in Thailand's Phuket with an unreasonable ticket price of THB 1,300 / US$40 per adult. Equipped with a small wave pool, a sole slide tower and no theming, this is probably the most expensive water park-per-slide on the planet. The Phuket market cries for a competitor committed to raising the standards...
Visited 2015. Themed water park built on the rooftop of The Mall Bangkapi, a major shopping mall in the east of Bangkok. Clever concept, pleasant theming, and a hit with the locals!...
Visited 2015. Given its adamant and efficient marketing campaigns in in-flight magazines and elsewhere, I expected more. Lost World of Tambun is just a small water theme park with a wave pool and a couple of slides. Dress recommendations for female visitors suggest that it predominantly caters to local visitors...
Visited 2015. Medium-sized amusement park and water park that has a bit of an identity issue. Maybe it's just me and my contempt for parks that use unlicensed Disney characters to draw visitors. Or that the park was almost deserted and the rides looked neglected. Whatever it was, it didn't leave a good impression...
Visited 2015. Large-scale attraction in a Hanoi suburb that includes amusement rides, a zoo, water slides and shows (not operating on the day of my visit). Forwhy it has a bit of a local flavor and a tiny drop of love, a far superior experience to its competitor closer to the city, Ho Tay Park...
Visited 2015. KidZania-sized and -inspired indoor children playground with attractions such as climbing walls, cooking classes and a small 3-D cinema. Charming DreamWorks theming, but not really a 'theme park'. Adults are not allowed in without the company of a kiddo...
Visited 2015. Elephant show and safari park where guests drive through tiger enclosures in a caged vehicle. The tigers looked rather starved, and upon exiting I figured out that one can open the barred safari vehicle doors from the inside. This is totally unsafe and a terrible accident waiting to happen. All in all, the safari park is in a state of abandonment and decay. They call it 'renovation', so let's hope...
Visited 2015. Large water park with numerous slide towers. Not particularly groomed and lacks attention to detail. Highlight is a newly-added giant funnel slide...
Visited 2016. New & neat KidZania branch, slightly smaller than the average. Great atmosphere, fantastic staff and probably the best location in Manila for an attraction of its kind...
Visited 2016. Permanent funfair sporting a Ferris wheel and various people accelerators. The best thing about it is its location between the gargantuan Mall of Asia and the shoreline...
Visited 2016. Another great, newly-built and standalone branch of global phenomenon KidZania. I was surprised that Singapore Airlines didn't step in as sponsor of its landmark airplane, allowing competitor Qatar Airways to burn into the minds and memories of tens of thousands of Singaporean kids. ...
Visited 2017. New water park under construction in Kuah close to the jetty. Tornado slide is already up. Smart location...
Visited 2017. Huge amusement park situated on an island adjacent to the city of Nha Trang; connected to the mainland by a cable car over the ocean. The location is spectacular, but that's about it. The themepark-waterpark-aquarium-zoo extravaganza contains everything the world has seen before, including SEVERAL Disney castles. And while it may enchant those visitors who have never been abroad, anyone else who has visited a Disney park before will likely consider this place...
Visited 2017. Dreamland, located next door to the Cambodian capital's major casino complex Nagaworld, didn't last for long. Opened in 2011, it had already been demolished upon my visit in 2017, with the footprints of the rides left behind in the grass. The park had a bad reputation, but nevertheless: sad to see!...
Visited 2018. Not sure what happened here. Had a hard time finding any operating attraction. DreamWorks zone remains closed. Employee-to-visitor ratio was about 10:1. Looks like a well-meant project that suffered a stroke. This park won't survive. ...
Visited 2017. Seasonal funfair sponsored by a terrible insurance I was once customer of...