Once upon a time there was a plan for a new International Airport between Rawang and Tanjung Malim. Adventurous and greedy developers started already to build a new town at Bukit Beruntung. But the plans changed, the new airport was built far away, near Sepang, and the development bubble burst.
This is what remains, an abandoned township.
When you go to Fraser’s Hill or Chiling waterfall, and want to avoid the traffic jam in Rawang, a good alternative is to take the highway exit at Bukit Beruntung, from where you can reach Rasa on the trunk road nr 1. I have done that numerous times and was always intrigued by the many desolate and neglected residential areas along the route. Recently my Dutch friend Paul and I decided to explore these abandoned and often never completed neighborhoods. It was a fascinating trip
Some streets looked just unfinished, like the first pictures shown. Other parts were already overgrown with bushes and weeds. People were using it as rubbish dumps. When nothing happens, the jungle will take back these parts of town in a few decades.
The unfinished residential complex in the picture below has a kind of strange atmosphere. Notice that there are a few apartments with sunshades. So there must have been people who have dared to move in here!
And some people must still be living here. A dog was barking behind the gate. The fencing looks recent. Not surprisingly this part of Bukit Beruntung has a bad reputation regarding crime. I would be very reluctant to go here at night.
What I like about these desolate places, is that you can often take quite nice, scenic pictures. We had perfect weather during our recce, misty weather with some rain would have been even better…:-). Here is a collection.
Here is a GE map of the region, with red markers at the location of abandoned projects.
After Rasa there is a green marker. That is another abandoned project, but not related to Bukit Beruntung. A number of low-cost bungalows, unfinished and almost completely overgrown now.
How bizar, bro! This is similar to the Prora (see the link below) on the German peninsula of Rügen. We had the same kind of desolate experience there, although they try to do something with by means of a museum and a youth hostel.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prora
Hi Jan, it must be impressive to walk around in such a ghost city. It reminds me of our visit to the Prora complex on the Island of Rügen in Germany. There Hitler built a holiday resort for the German workers, but it never got finished. Now partly in use by dwellers with an own subculture, but recently they start to realise some luxerious appartments in a few blocks.
Hi Jan, Some years ago I took a short cut and found myself in this film set for a post apocalyptic Malaysia or zombie movie.
Lets celebrate yet another failed Malaysian project
See
http://www.dokumentationszentrum-prora.de/seiten_english/dokuzentrum.html