The Abandoned Croc Park

I took the day out of the kitchens and decided to have Giri (Karen's son) show me around Bali and take me to some of the local attractions. His first recommendation was snorkeling and some other very common touristy things that seemed pretty ordinary. He then mentioned that about a year ago there was a huge crocodile amusement park that went bankrupt and the management decided to leave the Crocodiles there because they were out of money. This immediately struck my fancy and we hopped in the car.

We drove up to the park that was out of town and it looked like a place from Disneyland or a haunted house in a movie. We paid the security guard 10,000 Rupiah ($ 1 USD) to let us in and we walked around an abandoned park. The statutes were falling, the leaves and vines were overgrown, and the entire complex was falling into complete disrepair. After walking about 100 meters to the Crocodile pit and crossing a very ramshackle bridge (see photos) that was over the Croc pit we were able to see them. The security guard explained that there was at one point over 150 crocodiles...now there were about 70. A lot of them are poached for their skins and others simply disappear. The entire Croc pit is full of collapsing rocks from their retaining wall and the loading ramp in which they could get out has been barricaded with a couple of fallen trees. When asked how the Crocs were able to stay alive and eat, the security guard explained that people throw them live chickens and that the airport food catering company comes by and throws the left over food wastes into the croc pit. Giri and I are now considering returning with a few live chickens...

All in all, I thought that his was a ridiculous example of how something like this would never fly in the USA. The abandoned Crocs are a perfect example of Bali attractions. See the pictures below.