a vacation villa in the form of a rong house

Villages of the Ba Na ethnic minority in the central highlands of Vietnam are centered around a tall community house with prominent features called the Rông House. The steeply pitched ax-shaped thatched roofs are the most recognizable characteristic of these communal halls where village gatherings and activities take place. These traditional community centers are the most important and conspicuous buildings for each village.^{[1, 2]}

Directly on the beach north of Nha Trang is an entire village made up of Rông Houses. Upon closer scrutiny, these are actually the numerous villas of a long-failed beach resort project. While the villas display the same tall thatched roofs, they cover the bare concrete shapes of modern design rather than a vernacular wood-stilt house. With the tall roofs making them visible above the fences and encroaching jungle, these mysterious villas have been drawing curious inquiries for many years.

As Nha Trang is known as a popular beach destination for Russian tourists, the original name for the resort was Rusalka which is the Russian word for Mermaid. Development on this isolated peninsula by the tourism company Rus-Invest-Tur (RIT) began around 2000, but before the construction could be completed the Chairman of the Board of Directors was arrested in 2005.^[3] Hereafter, an all-to-familiar prolonged development standstill played out.

coastal view from an abandoned beach resort villa

The resort along with other assets of the company were confiscated by the Ministry of Public Security and the investment license and land use rights were all terminated. In 2010 the chairman was released from prison after being convicted of a lesser crime and the asset confiscation was overturned.^{[3, 4]} Regulatory and debt issues persisted to blight the project.^[5]

In 2013 the site was renamed the Champarama Resort and Spa after being taken over by a new company, although procedural issues deremained. While the villas were left to the elements in the following years, the developer attempted a small land reclamation effort by dumping soil and rocks into the surf to modify the shape of the coastline in the front of the resort. This was not allowed by the development permits, and the company was subsequently fined for this action in 2017.^[3]

reel of a cable spool at a unfinished resort

By 2019, the original design concept featuring the tall thatched roofs was discarded, and the property was transferred again to new owners,^[3] with demolition quickly commencing. With the original buildings out of the way, development began on Vega City, a new multi-use project which is significantly more ambitious in both scale and scope. Although the site construction proceeded throughout the tourism downturn of 2020 and 2021,^{[6, 7]} it remains to be seen if the current plan will be cursed by any combination of unfortunate circumstances.