Jerudong Park was one of the strangest places I visited in Brunei. Built during the country’s era of enormous oil wealth, the park opened in the 1990s as a major amusement park and was originally offered to visitors with free admission.
By the time I visited, things had changed considerably.
The park was still beautiful and well maintained, but much of it felt almost abandoned. Huge sections were dark, rides sat silent, and at times I honestly felt like I was the only person wandering through the entire place.
The Crystal Arch
One of the symbols of Jerudong Park is the Crystal Arch near the entrance. Even during my visit, when much of the park had fallen quiet, the entrance still gave some idea of how ambitious the original project had been.
This wasn’t built as a tiny local carnival. Jerudong was designed as a major amusement and entertainment complex with roller coasters, water rides, games, gardens, and large public spaces.
A Beautiful Park With Almost Nobody In It
The strange thing was that Jerudong didn’t look completely neglected.
The gardens were still cared for, walkways were clean, and many areas looked attractive.
There just weren’t many visitors.
Attendance had fallen dramatically from the park’s earlier years, and when I visited it felt much more like a ghost town than a major amusement park.
Walking Through the Darkness
Admission was almost nothing when I went, so entering the park still felt essentially free.
Once inside, I wandered through huge areas where rides were switched off and there was almost no activity at all.
Every once in a while I’d pass an employee sitting alone inside a booth.
They would smile and offer me a ride on a small roller coaster or try to interest me in one of the games.
I couldn’t help thinking they were probably happy just to finally see a customer.
The Empty Carousel
This was probably my favorite view in Jerudong aside from the Crystal Arch.
The lights, gardens, and amusement-park decorations still made the place attractive, but the lack of crowds gave everything an eerie feeling.
It was like walking through an amusement park after everyone else had gone home, except technically the park was still open.
Apparently I Wasn’t Completely Alone
For much of the evening, I felt like I had the entire amusement park to myself.
Occasionally I would pass a couple or a family.
And once I passed this enormous snail.
At that point, the snail might have represented a significant percentage of the evening attendance.
Finally Finding Everyone
Toward the end of the night, I finally noticed what looked like a reasonable number of people gathered in the distance.
So that’s where everyone had gone.
The crowd had gathered around a fountain and light show where the water constantly changed colors and patterns.
After wandering through so many nearly empty areas, suddenly seeing an actual crowd made this feel like the center of the park.
Trying to Photograph It Before I Owned an SLR
These photographs were taken before I owned an SLR camera.
I loved the camera I had at the time, but nighttime photography definitely wasn’t its specialty. The light show looked much better in person than I was able to capture.
What Happened to Jerudong Park?
What interested me most afterward was hearing that Jerudong eventually changed its approach.
The huge amusement-park model clearly hadn’t worked the way originally envisioned, and some of the major rides disappeared or stopped operating. Later, I heard that the park had shifted more toward family entertainment, smaller attractions, shows, and events.
I was actually happy to hear that.
There had obviously been an enormous amount of money and effort put into creating Jerudong, and it would have been a shame to watch the entire place simply disappear.
My Time at Jerudong Park
I have been to bigger amusement parks and certainly much busier ones.
None of them felt quite like Jerudong did when I visited.
I walked through beautifully maintained gardens and dark amusement-park rides with almost nobody around, occasionally encountered an employee waiting hopefully for someone to play a game, found a giant snail roaming the grounds, and eventually discovered that nearly everyone in the park had gathered around the same fountain show.
It was strange, eerie, and completely different from what I expected.
That’s exactly why I remember it.
If I return to Brunei someday, I’d like to visit Jerudong again and see what became of the almost-empty amusement park I wandered through years ago.
