It is Halloween in a few days, the spookiest night of the year. One of the things that I enjoy when travelling is exploring abandoned places where nature is claiming back its territory. This is as fascinating as it is spooky and abandoned places also happen to be amazing for photography! When I posted about my visit to the airplane graveyard in Bangkok, @itsben told me about the abandoned theme park in Yangon. I had to check it out!
This amusement park was opened next to the zoo by Myanmar's junta in 1997, some say as a distraction from the brutal actions of the regime. Nobody seems to know why the park was closed down some years ago, but it has been abandoned ever since. Most animals in the zoo next door were moved to Myanmar's infamous empty new capital Naypyidaw, but contrary to the amusement park, the zoo is still open. The company formerly running the amusement park went out of business in 2015 according to Mashable1, the future of the site is uncertain.
Nobody ever bothered to close down or sell any of the rides and some are still functional now, strolling through the overgrown amusement park feels like discovering the remains of a lost civilisation. Many of the rides are actually still working and while the electricity is cut, it takes nothing more than a little poke to get them running again:
In the second part I will share more photos from this fascinating place and finally, in the third part, how to get to this hidden spot, how to find the entrance and how to prepare for a visit. Stay tuned!
