This was an unexpected post, but definitely the kind of experience I wanted to get down in my blog, so I felt like it deserved its own little corner of the internet. When looking up things to do near Sanur, Tom (one of the friends we're travelling with) discovered an abandoned theme park, called Taman Festival, which we decided we had to go and explore.
There is a group of local men hanging around outside the park that try to stop you as you enter to extort money from tourists, but, as they have no authority, if you just ignore them and walk straight in, they quickly leave you alone.
The place was built in the late 90s and was due to open around the millennium, but, because of lack of funding, construction on the park was never finished and Taman Festival was left to decay.
Rumour has it that they had already released the crocodiles into the crocodile pit before closing for good, and the reptiles were left to fend for themselves in the swamps around the park.
There are no rides in Taman Festival, the construction never got that far, but while all the attraction buildings were put in place, 16 years later the park has become a bit of an attraction in its own right.
The abandoned buildings are eerily fascinating, and the graffiti that has spread over their walls in the years they have stood empty just adds to the strange beauty of the place.
The creepiest place we found was definitely the nearly pitch-black theatre. How has nobody made a horror film here yet?
And who are the people in the pictures strewn over the floors? Creepy.
Taman Festival is every photographer’s dream.
The park was almost empty. In the three hours that we spent there we only came across two other small groups of people who appeared to have had the same idea as us. As long as you’re careful where you step and don’t touch anything you know you really shouldn’t touch, you’ll be fine. It was a really surreal experience and it’s amazing to see what sixteen years of neglect will do to a place.
Definitely go and have a look if you’re ever near Sanur, although I’m not sure I’d recommend going there at night or alone. I doubt it would seem like such a beautiful place with the lights out!
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