Just For Laughs

Sreetheran Karunanithy laughs a lot. Even when he’s thrown a catastrophic curve ball and there’s seemingly little to be amused about, the Sun World executive can still muster up a chuckle to lift the spirits of everyone surrounding him. And a smile or two is exactly what was needed during 2020 as COVID-19 forced Vietnam’s largest theme park, the Sun World Halong Complex, into closure or restricted hours.

- Wendy Kay

In fact, Sree, as he’s fondly known throughout the amusement park industry, was just weeks into his new job of managing the maintenance of the park’s rides and facilities when it was first shut down in March. “Yes, everybody keeps telling me my timing was off,” he laughs. “Right off.”

As Vice Director of Technical and Facilities Management, Sree explains he’s “basically” responsible for making sure the rides and facilities sprawled across the 214-hectare amusement park are safe and working. Not so basic at all really, considering his vital attention to detail can literally mean life or death to hundreds of thousands of thrillseekers.

Sree agrees his 11 months at Sun World Halong have proven to be more of a roller-coaster ride than the amusement park’s infamous Dragon’s Run. It first shut down in March, reopening on 8 May with just 15 guests trickling through the gates.

However, as Vietnam earned an enviable reputation for containing the virus and government regulations eased, people began to return in droves, with crowds of up to 30,000 visiting on weekends.

Then the second wave of the virus hit and numbers dropped again, forcing the park to shut during the week and remain open only for weekend trade. In August, it closed completely again, before reopening on weekends from late September. The park plans to operate seven days a week from December to cater to school holiday crowds.