Abandoned places

There are a number of abandoned villages in the northern borderlands of Hong Kong’s New Territories. Few, however, are quite as creepy as K*k Po. This deserted strip of houses once had a population of around 1,000, who farmed rice and other crops in nearby fields. Now you’ll find only the odd vagrant inside the crumbling buildings. If you ever make a trip, make sure to visit the strangely moving empty village school, a section of which has been converted into a small temple.

The lifeless amphitheatre. The long-neglected water slides. The crumbling, three-storey dragon. There’s a lot to take in at abandoned water park and marine life centre Hồ Thủy Tiên in Vietnam. The park opened to much fanfare to 2004, but closed within a few years due to financial trouble. Until recently, there were still crocs swimming in some of its pools – though, happily for visitors who fancy a pretty unusual dip, all have since been taken to an actual, still-functioning wildlife park.

A former nineteenth-century sanatorium for those with lung diseases, this derelict military hospital to the south-west of the German capital treated a young Adolf Hi**er during World War I. It also served as a field hospital during WWII, before being occupied by the Russians and treating patients from across the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years. Since 1995, the surgery ward, psychiatric ward and much of the rest of the 60-building complex have been left to decay amid the lush surrounding woodland.

The sign on the castle’s side (‘Bannerman’s Island Arsenal’) offers more than a hint at this sprawling ruin’s frankly bizarre backstory. The Bannerman Castle complex, around 50 miles north of New York, on Pollepel Island on the Hudson River, was initially built as a storage site for munitions merchant Francis Bannerman in 1900. A year later, the Bannerman family added the crowning Scottish estate-style castle. In 1920, some 200 pounds of shells exploded, destroying a huge section of the complex, while a fire in ’60s also contributed to the ruin. Tour groups are now a regular sight here – and for good reason.

This art deco-inspired house was built by Singaporean architect Ho Kwong Yew for wealthy Chee Guan Chiang, the son of a banking tycoon. After World War II, it briefly became accommodation catering largely to international visitors, but following a legal battle in the ’70s, the building has remained completely empty. Peep behind the stylish façade these days, and you’ll spy a thriving forest of shrubs and trees, along with fully decades’ worth of graffiti.

Comprising five hotels built for Yugoslavia’s military elite on the Adriatic coast, the once-exclusive Kupari resort has been left in looted, torched, ivy-smothered ruins for nearly three decades. Thousands of military officers and their families would holiday here every year during its heyday (even a certain President Tito).