Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Singapore's urban legends a.k.a ghost city

Don't ask me why but the other day I thought it would be interesting to look up some of Singapore's urban legends. Not surprisingly, there turned out to be a fair few - many of which involve ghosts.

Anyway it turns out that apparently Singapore is Asia's most haunted city . So I thought I'd share some of my favourites here which struck a chord with me for one reason or another, and wondered whether if you live in Singapore if you or maybe someone you know have encountered or believe in any of these...

1. Great World City shopping mall - the site of an old fairground where somebody was killed back in the 1960s and said to be the site of a former cemetery. Apparently some people will not even go there to shop because they fear it's haunted. Next time you need to control your retail fix you can just think about that.



2. The caves at Bukit Timah Hill - which were allegedly used as torture chambers during the Japanese occupation in World War II. Some say that during the Hungry Ghost Festival, when you walk near the caves you can hear the cries of the souls who were tortured here.

3. Changi beach - this has actually made it on to a top 10 most haunted places in the world list. The beach was a killing ground used by the Japanese during World War II where thousands were tortured and killed. People have allegedly reported being slapped by an unseen presence, hearing  crying and screaming, and seeing heads flying in mid air  and headless bodies walking on the beach.  That is a very scary thought.


4. Sentosa - yes the fun packed pleasure island was once the place for beheadings by the Japanese during World War II. Apparently the spot of the beheadings was somewhere near Universal Studios.  In fact the old name of Sentosa is Pular Blakang Mati which literally means dead from the behind! You can imagine a variety of situations how an island came to be named that! Thank goodness it's name today means peace and tranquility in Malay is all I can say.

The above is just the icing on a cake - if you want to read more on this you can check out the Singapore Paranormal Investigators website here.

It's certainly made me see these places in a different light...




2 comments:

Kuen said...

Hehe i don't think people care much anymore but i wonder if the world totally ban any sort of ghost publication or talk for 2 generations, will people in the future still know what a ghost really is to be afraid of them.

Ms Demeanour said...

I think if people stop talking about things they start forgetting about them. Hey even if they keep talking about them they forget or alter the facts and before you know it it's a whole other story!