A Ghost Town in Bali: An Abandoned Amusement Park

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If you’re a ghost or mystery junkie type of traveler, abandoned places would be among your top must-go places. In the tropical island often dubbed as paradise, apparently, Bali is not short on places that fit this particular niche. If you search abandoned places in Bali, there’s always one place that turns up; Taman Festival Bali. Located in Padang Galak Denpasar, this place is one of the largest abandoned places in Bali. It is a place that would feed your inner paranormal junkie for a taste of adventure.

A perfect venue straight out of a horror movie

The Taman Festival is a place that was planned to be an amusement park. Except it never got a chance to see the light of the day. The whole operation was canceled even before it started. The amusement park boasts a whopping of eight-hectare land. It is located just next to the beach. But with the thick greens and

The crocodile legend

The victim of the shutting down of Taman Festival isn’t just the humans who lost their investment. Animals too. There was a crocodile pond that was planned to be one of the attractions. And when the amusement park shut down, these crocs got neglected as well. Legend says that they resorted to cannibalism. Until now, a lot of locals around are still thinking that the crocodiles may have still been around. The areas of the crocodile pond until now was some sort of a forbidden area to roam around in, thanks to the urban legend.

Bring your camera with you

Taman Festival Bali is simply brimming with amazing photo spots. Every corner you turn, there’s that instagrammable scene waiting for you to snap them. The Travelfish website described this place as “photographers’ dreams”. And they were more than correct. Spot crews filming or photo-shooting every now and then if you get lucky.

Don’t go all by yourself

And we don’t just mean because it’s creepy out there. There are people, which we will address later in the next point, who would probably make you very uncomfortable. This area is also largely uninhibited and virtually anyone could enter from all sides. Going alone is probably going to be okay, but you may not be able to enjoy it safely.

Lookout for unauthorized payment collection

You will be asked for payment to go inside by a group of locals who seemed to do nothing but play cards as they lounge in a gazebo. Just pay them what they asked. The amount of the payment was according to their heart’s content. For locals, it’s 5,000 or 10,000 each person. Foreign-looking people are most likely to get charged more. Paying would get them off your back, but do know that it was merely a “pungutan liar” (unauthorized payment, obviously) by the local bandits.

Bring mosquito repellent and wear protective clothes

This is a must! Everywhere in Taman Festival Bali you’re going to encounter the one creature that populates the place: mosquitos. Don’t ever forget your repellent! And by wearing protective clothing, we actually just meant the usual jackets or sweats that covers the entire arms and legs. And nothing tight either. You won’t want to end up like me. I used pretty thick tights during my visit there and the mosquitos still got through. Although materials like denim should be fine. Once you’re all geared up, you should be fine adventuring.


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