Lost in Sun World (Our Trip to Ba Na Hills) (Pt. 2)

We saw a map that showed seven different hotels scattered around the area, so after wandering around the faux-French village for almost half an hour, we started poking our heads into the hotels and trying to figure out which one we were supposed to be staying in. It didn't take long, because all of the hotels were mostly unbooked and each were owned by the theme park, so it didn't take long for the reception desk of one hotel to tell us we were supposed to be staying in a different hotel, up the hill. We went and found our rooms, then we received our dinner, take out boxes of chicken and rice. The vegetarians amongst us weren't particularly pleased, but I wolfed down mine and felt like I could eat three more.

Despite all the neon lights and the various staff members darting around through the mist, everything around us seemed to be closed. I tried to buy a pack of cigarettes from the hotel bar, where the lights were at least still on, but they told me they couldn't sell cigarettes after eight. Luckily we managed to find a tavern-looking bar that was still still open, and when we got inside we found that the trippy flute and accordion music we'd been hearing was actually two live musicians. As we sat down and ordered drinks, they broke into a pan flute and accordion version of "Despacito," which was thoroughly bizarre. After the drinks we made our way back to the hotel and got ready for bed, all of us eager to sleep knowing that we'd have to be up at 5:30 the next morning to film the commercial.

The following morning the mist had only thickened, the rain picked up, and the temperature dropped. We got to the set and found that the crew was much larger than we'd expected. Several cameras stationed on different ends of a patio, people running around with clipboards, people setting up lights, a big storyboard showing the various shots of the commercial-- none of which featured us. It became apparent that we were not the stars, only extras, the motion and color that would fill up the background as two lead actors we'd never met portrayed a romantic date in faux-France. We were still excited for the shoot, but we were so tired and hungry that we were all relieved when we were told that the shoot was to be canceled due to the bad weather.

With nothing left to do, we set out into Sun World (sun not included) and made the most of the opportunity, a free trip to a theme park.

Beneath the charming and aesthetic exterior of Sun World, you can find the ugly truth of the place. It's extremely weird to see various religious structures (cathedral, giant buddha, greek temple) all created for the entertainment of theme park visitors and not for any genuine religious purpose. Some of the faux-pagodas even had food and burning incense on their altars, suggesting that in spite of their status as fake temples they were still receiving offerings and still being treated with some dignity. But beneath all that, in the land surrounding this mountain top have, one could see the industrial wasteland of future projects and refuse from past constructions. The whole area was surrounded by a veritable garbage dump of stripped mountainside and piles of mangled metal.

The highlight of the second day was the gondola ride back down to Earth. We were tired and ready to return home, and as we descended we got to see far more than we had the night before in the darkness. The view was absolutely stunning.