Over the Hills and Far Away: How a ‘Deserted’ Amusement Park Brings To Fulfill One’s Childhood Fantasies

Once upon in 2017, many began to grow their curiosity over the hills of Lemery, Batangas, as there are castle towers to be spotted at. Some thought it to be a magical place, coincidentally being built in the middle of the woods just like how fairy tale books could describe such places, while some speculated that it could be a sign that monarchy once existed in the Philippines.

Heathcliff Phoenix

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The Unfolded Truths

4 min readMar 5, 2021

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This is the story of a ‘Disneyland Philippines’ that still delivered to serve people’s fantasies despite being abandoned. (Credits to the Photo: Wow Philippines Blog)

But the landmark itself has its own story to tell, an enchantment that was once promised to be created, a dream of a businessman that was to be fulfilled, yet its mossy walls that make the place eerie tell otherwise over the years.

Fantasy World as it was called, became more of a trend after the YouTube channel Exploring With Josh, which is famous for featuring different abandoned places worldwide, visited it when their team went to the Philippines.

It was discovered in the video that it was an unfinished amusement park, supposedly one of the targeted contenders of famous amusement parks nationwide such as the Enchanted Kingdom in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Star City in Pasay City, and the late Fiesta Carnival in Cubao, Quezon City.

Started to be built in 2001, it planned to be an alternative “Disneyland” for Filipinos, as with the fact that not all could avail to go on Hong Kong and France just to explore through its branches. Yoshke Dimen, an author for the @poortraveler website reminiscent of his and his classmates’ memories over the announcement of its construction.

“The whole class was so excited when the rumor that a version of Disneyland would be built not too far from our school. My body was a big sack of glee just imagining a huge castle surrounded by a theme park in the foothills of our town.” he described. “‘But don’t get too excited,’ our teacher said. ‘It will take years to finish.’”

Yet it turns out, their teacher was right, the writer added. It was not just a normal interruption though, as through its billion-peso fund, the company that managed it, ECE Realty & Development, led by Mr. Emilio Ching, bankrupted when he got ill, according to the Fantasy Island employees who asked to be anonymous, even being involved into other controversies such as the change of location of his Central Park Condominium that supposed to be located originally in Makati City yet suddenly switched to Pasay City, making clients rage over the company.

Due to this, the tourist attraction continued to fail on submitting the needed requirements for its construction, resulting in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suspending its operation. With the unfortunate incident, many lost their jobs, as well as the magical dreams of children to experience the enchantments within the fairytales that they read, and of course, its promise that it would boost more the Philippines’ economy as it creates an unprecedented reputation over the country’s version of Disneyland.

But apart from the idea of many that it was deserted for a very long time, it was far away from that. Even its construction was suspended, its maintenance is still ongoing, evidently on the plants shaped like birds inside the place still in good condition.

And what could be a piece of news worth to be heard was that in 2016, new rides were set into its grounds, yet still not to be operated including a dragon rollercoaster and a fountain installed at the middle of it according to some of its caretakers.

Also known to be a filming location of then Global Media Arts (GMA) 7’s TV show Majika starring Angel Locsin and Dennis Trillo, its growth in popularity just does not stop there. Now being owned by the homeowner association of the nearby condominium, silver lining popped during the last parts of the last decade, being talked about on different vlogs and articles on social media, it creates more money for the renovation of the said amusement park due to its sudden popularity.

As more and more visitors went to the are whether, for relaxation or photoshoots of their birthdays or pre-nuptials, the place adds more feature too, including in which the experience for people to be royalty themselves, at least for the dresses they could rent for as low as 50 pesos per person and 300 pesos for a photoshoot. And just for a day, one could fulfill their whole childhood with an entrance fee of 100 pesos per each (formerly cost with the minimum price of 1,000 pesos but with the maximum of 10 people).

Once upon in 2017, many began to grow their curiosity over the hills of Lemery, Batangas, where dreams started to be built, as well as excitement within the hearts of innocent children, and hopes and promises that there will be a more fruitful Philippine economy and socio-culture that were all formed back in 2001, yet it just all shattered apart inside the walls of the Fantasy World. Yet now, it creates a new reputation, not anymore for being the country’s version of its Disneyland, but for its own ways to fulfill the promises it once gave as its renovation goes on.

And as it opens more opportunity for many, maybe they are young or just young-at-heart, it glows again its magic and enchantment, through its mossy walls that were once called eerie.

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Over the Hills and Far Away: How a ‘Deserted’ Amusement Park Brings To Fulfill One’s Childhood Fantasies

Written by Heathcliff Phoenix