Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is located on top of a mountain which is pretty unusual, but nothing compared to these bizarre theme parks from around the world.
Want to go to a real hellish house of horrors this Halloween? You can choose Haw Par Villa in Singapore or Suoi Tien Amusement Park in Vietnam. If you’re more reality-inclined, you can re-enact life in a real Soviet bunker in Lithuania or attempt a scary simulated border crossing in Mexico. If you just prefer gross-out humor, take the kids to BonBon World in Denmark. You can find a theme for pretty much any amusement in parks around the world. Here are some of the most bizarre theme parks, just in time for Halloween!
This Asian cultural park, built in 1937 and once known as Tiger Balm Garden, features history, philosophy, traditional rituals and religion along a red brick road. You’ll find tigers, leopards, dragons, goats, pandas, rabbits, gorillas, lobsters and a crab-lady. You can also enter the Ten Courts of Hell for a preview of, say, what it takes to get dismembered and drowned in a pool of blood. Afterwards, you can contemplate life in a real coffin.
Suoi Tien, Vietnamese for “Fairy Stream,” is devoted to Southeast Asian Buddhism’s animistic themes—instead of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, you’ll find the Dragon, the Unicorn, the Tortoise and the Phoenix, as well as workers in golden monkey outfits. There’s a huge golden dragon with a neon-lit shrine to Buddha, pillars shaped like elephant tusks and a giant rotating frog. The waterslides come from the beards of twelve Buddhist sages, and you can feed raw meat to 1,500 crocodiles in a pond. Don’t be fooled by the Palace of Unicorns name—inside is Buddhist hell, with a vivid display of how drug addicts, gamblers and adulterers will be tortured.
This is an actual Soviet bunker, built in 1984, where you can relive life in those Communist-ruled days. Many of the staff to guide you through the three-hour “1984: Survival Drama in a Soviet Bunker” were Soviet guards. The space is about 20 feet underground, includes over 32,000 square feet of tunnels and rooms, and a roof designed to withstand a nuclear bomb. The aim is education as well as entertainment. Some people faint. While you’re in Lithuania, check out Grūtas Park, also known as Stalin’s World, a 50-acre sculpture garden of Soviet leaders designed to resemble a prison camp.
Along with its gorgeous views, rivers and mountains, this ecotourism park offers visitors a realistic simulation of what it’s like to attempt a border crossing into the United States. The four-hour nighttime hike led by an actor-coyote includes the tension and danger of the trip. The event was established by the Hñahñus, local Native Americans, to discourage border crossings, educate outsiders and boost the local economy so that leaving isn’t the only option.
A candy manufacturer who marketed his products as Seagull Droppings, Ear Wax, and Dog Fart made a killing with potty-joke lovers of all ages, so he opened a similarly-themed park in 1992. The bathroom humor extends to the rides and statues in a country with relaxed standards of lowbrow amusement and is considered family-friendly. Attractions include the Worm, the Stud, Seagull Blobs, Horses Bulbs, Fold Cod, Crow Trees, the Horse Dropping, the Crazy Turtle, Skid Mark, Dunce Cap, and Rubbish Dump. The most popular ride is the Dog Fart Switchback with a huge, and noisy, canine statue.
Thank goodness, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has good old scary thrill rides like the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster and the Giant Canyon Swing—all plenty scream-worthy for Halloween! See you soon at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, a not so bizarre theme park!