Inside Bali’s Saddest, Most Abandoned Theme Park

“Have you ever seen a ghost?” I asked the gatekeeper. “Everyday,” he replied nonchalantly, gesturing to the bench he was sitting on. “Sometimes the kid ghost sits with me.”

If Disneyland and Stranger Things had a child, the result would be Taman Festival: an abandoned Balinese theme park that nature has beaten into dilapidation since its closure in 2000. With a fake volcano, a pit full of crocodiles, and the world’s first entirely inverted roller coaster, the park was constructed at a cost of around $100 million and was anticipated to change the face of Balinese tourism.

Sadly, it didn’t. Today, jungle vines lock the crumbling buildings in a chokehold. The crocodile pit has run dry under the sun, and the wedding chapel is…