Riding back into Melaka from the bus station yesterday we noticed a deserted monorail theme park, so with it being within walking distance why not go and explore further?

It’s a deceptively short distance from where we are staying, the one way system around the city must have made the journey longer by car! In no time at all we can see the track running alongside the river and the inhospitable looking ‘Sky Tower’ towering over – well, pretty much nothing…

The land looks like it has been stripped of all it’s attractions, a few shells of buildings are all that remain, and then suddenly as we turn the corner there is an old rusting train sat astride the rail. It doesn’t look like it has seen life or movement for many a year. We look for the best angle for a photograph and see the rusting sign, Monorail Theme Park and Studios.

Having seen it, in all its ‘glory’ we read up about it… It opened in October 2010 – and then closed a few HOURS later when it ground to a halt with twenty passengers stuck inside. By December they had discovered that it wasn’t compatible with rain, which is a big flaw when you have built it in a tropical country! In 2011 it could be seen running in the dead of the night, nothing ghostly just making test runs.

It briefly reopened in December 2017, ran for a few months before being mothballed again for good, just seven short but disastrous years after that maiden voyage.

If one abandoned discovery wasn’t enough we made a second on our way back into the city. What was once a grand looking villa is now a graffiti covered shell that has rotted from top to bottom. With a tree trunk making its way through the floorboards nature is now beginning to take it’s hold.

With no fencing around the building, or signage to say otherwise it seemed a perfect opportunity to step back in time. Lovely archways suggest that it had once had big double doors and was three large rooms deep. The stairways had long gone, and most of the flooring from the rooms above had either rotted and fallen through or been eaten by bugs.

Around the city we have spotted a handful of buildings like these, it is intriguing as to why such grand properties have been allowed to deteriorate into such a state. Even Homes Under the Hammer wouldn’t touch these, yet in their prime they would have been the most beautiful of homes.

• Wat Thawet – Garden of Hell
• Old Sukhothai Kingdom
• A Day & a Half in Phitsanulok
• Cycling Don Det and Neighbouring Don Khon.
• Wat Phousalao, Pakse