Exploring Bali’s Haunted Amusement Park
If you love urbex as much as I do (that’s a lot!) or you are curious to try it out for the first time, then I would highly recommend paying a visit to this abandoned amusement park!
Riding to Bali’s South from Ubud
Our trip to Bali was brief, as it was a holiday within a holiday for Tony, who visited Australia from the UK for the first time, right after the West Australian borders reopened. It was one of my spontaneous ideas – I wanted to give Tony a taste of Asia while he was over this way. I also wanted to give Bali a second chance as it hadn’t really impressed me the first time I went.
Since we only had 4 days to explore and relax, I threw in the biggest and best urbex spot I could find, in range of where we were staying. I wanted to show Tony why this is one of my favourite pastimes!
We hopped on our scooter and did a 1 hour trip from Ubud to Padang Galak beach, which is on the Southern coast just West of Denpasar. I was bubbling with excitement as we pulled up and spotted the entrance to the abandoned amusement park, Taman Festival!
The park opened in 1997 but it was never fully completed. It was a multi-million-dollar project that was supposed to be a major tourist attraction, including cutting edge laser shows and Bali’s largest pool. When things started to go wrong in the park, the locals said it was cursed by demons. The final cherry on the top was when the laser equipment was struck by lightning and destroyed. By the year 2000 it was deserted.
After the park closed, there were all sorts of rumours circulating, including one suggesting that crocodiles were left in the park to cannibalise each other. The dead crocs ghosts now haunt the park, as you would expect. I heard something about giant demon bats living there too…I didn’t see any, but there were definitely mosquitos, so take some repellent.
This location is an excellent spot for urbex beginners, as you are permitted to enter by paying a couple of dollars (20,000 IDR) to a guy sitting at the gate (the groundskeeper) and it is highly impressive if it’s your first explore!
We parked our scooter outside and bought a drink from a lady selling snacks at a beachside stall. Paid our fee and went past the old ticket booths, through the large entry gates. Once inside you can go anywhere, exploring hidden nooks and crannies. Old buildings and statues are covered by impressive graffiti art and slowly being reclaimed by the jungle. It’s a post-apocalyptic photographers paradise!!
As you can imagine it’s very run down, so watch where you step. Some of the first rooms we went into had swallows flying around inside them, so also watch out for swooping!
Ruins in the jungle…
From the entrance gates, we spotted a fountain with an elaborate winged Balinese creature as a centrepiece. Heading towards the right, spectacular arches towered above us and I was excited for a closer look. I’m unsure what this building used to be, but today the remaining ruins hold some pretty amazing artwork and scenery. It’s all pretty overgrown too, the roof is long gone, and creeping plants hang amongst the remains. If you’re brave enough to climb the steps to the top, you will see the sea through the missing walls on the beach side.
Continuing through a doorway, we descended some steps and came across a clearing which had a large tree with some peace offerings that had been left by the groundskeeper, to appease the ghosts. To the right was a very cool old theatre building, draped in vines like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Inside there isn’t much left but you can see where the screen and projectionist would have been, and the seats below.
Carrying on from that area, the jungle started getting quite overgrown but we bush-bashed our way through and discovered a few hidden rooms with more graffiti. Further along a mosaic path, we came to another overgrown structure with two doors surrounding a fountain. We wandered through and discovered some freshly dug pits, which looked to me like they were the right size for graves…slightly creepy!
Moving on quickly from those, we found more buildings filled with vines, broken windows and graffiti. We explored the area and eventually found ourselves back near the starting point. The buildings to the left of the entrance appeared to have been old toilets and possibly a café at some point.
I’m not sure how long we spent there, but it was an awesome experience. The vibe was eerie… all quiet except for the sound of locals in a pool nearby. Most locals won’t even enter the park because of their superstitions, and we only briefly saw a couple of tourists near the front of the park when we arrived.
Taman Festival is definitely an amazing place to put on your bucket list if you love urbex as much as I do! Or perhaps you are curious about exploring abandoned places and want to start off with something gentle – if crocodile ghosts and cursed theme parks are gentle enough for you!
On the way home from Taman Festival, we stopped in at a grocery store and discovered some delicious indonesian treats. If you are an experienced rider like Tony is, hiring a motorbike or scooter is a fun way to travel around Bali. You you won’t have to rely on a driver everytime you want to leave your accomodation and you can explore til your heart’s content.
To see more of my urban exploration photography, check out my other wesbite – Pigby Urbex
We also spent a day travelling to the North East of Bali on this trip and discovered some quirky purple elephant themed hotpools!
