If you have ever driven down the MRR2, you might have spotted a strange sight in the Pandan Perdana area. Have you ever noticed an old, abandoned shopping complex with green and white walls and an Econsave signboard? If you had time to look up, you might also have noticed trees and… giraffes looking down at you from the rooftop. What on earth is going on up there? Well, you have just found Safari Lagoon Waterpark, an infamous abandoned site with a sad story to tell.
Once upon a time in 1995
Image Credit: Malaysia Time Tunnel on Instagram (Left), Neoseven07 on YouTube (Right)
When it first opened its doors in 1995, Safari Lagoon was one of a kind. While the still-popular Sunway Lagoon was older by two years, Safari Lagoon held the honour of being Malaysia’s first rooftop water theme park. Located above six floors of shops and a department store, the theme park was also the third of its kind to be built in Asia. Because of its unique location, construction is estimated to have cost up to RM28 million.
Jungle in the city
Image Credit: Ramlah Ramli on Facebook (Left), Malaysia Time Tunnel on Instagram (Right)
For that amount of money, Safari Lagoon was designed to resemble an African safari. The park was themed around being a jungle in the city and the designers evidently took their jobs seriously. Visitors to the theme park often found themselves impressed by the canopy of tropical trees and (statues of) wild animals roaming the area. The theme park offered visitors a variety of attractions, including waterslides, a lazy river, a wave pool and children’s playgrounds. It also helped that Safari Lagoon was located between Ampang and Cheras, two rapidly growing suburban districts. Many locals would visit on the weekends to let their children have good, wet fun.
A tragic accident
Image Credit: Canva
Unfortunately, it was not to last. Though the theme park was popular with the public, the glamour of Safari Lagoon was hiding serious problems in the background. This came to light in 2007 when a tragedy occurred at Safari Lagoon. While trying to retrieve a visitor’s belongings in one of the pools, an employee was trapped by a high-pressure water pump and drowned. An investigation soon followed. Shockingly, it was discovered that for the past several years, Safari Lagoon didn’t have an operating licence from the MPAJ. In fact, the park had ignored orders from the council to cease operations in 2005!
End of the line
Image Credit: Malaysia Time Tunnel on Instagram
With the cat out of the bag, it was an uphill battle for Safari Lagoon’s management to preserve falling public confidence. They did try, by opening a restaurant named Anjung Kayangan Steamboat & Seafood Restaurant to replace the theme park. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take off. Maybe people just didn’t want to eat in a place where someone had recently died under horrible circumstances. As this last-ditch effort amounted to nothing, the once-beloved Safari Lagoon was a ghost town by 2014. Even the shopping complex downstairs didn’t outlive the theme park by much, shutting down the following year.
What next?
Since then, there has been little news about whether Safari Lagoon will be demolished or given a new lease of life. A 2022 Berita Harian report stated the shopping complex and the theme park had been sold to a local development company for about RM9 million, but there hasn’t been much visible activity at Pandan Safari since then.
If you think about it, Safari Lagoon has a few similarities to another infamous abandoned theme park in Malaysia, namely Mimaland in Gombak. They were both highly popular tourist attractions, which saw steep declines after being the site of deadly accidents. Will Safari Lagoon ever make a comeback? Who knows? But for now, it will continue being a thing of local legend and an object of curiosity for passing motorists.
Address: Pandan Safari Lagoon, Pandan Perdana, 55300 Ampang Jaya, Selangor
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Feature Image Credit: Berita Harian (Left), Malaysia Time Tunnel (Right)
