To commemorate Hungry Ghost Month, Star2.com gathers stories of supernatural encounters in the second of a three-part series. Do you have a spooky story? Do share it with us in the comment box below.
One scary drive
Four years ago, a young couple was driving back to Kluang from Johor Baru on the rural roads.
“After 45 minutes, we came to a stretch with trees and bushes on both sides of the roads. There was no other car. Then, the music in our car stopped playing. It wasn’t from the radio but a USB flash drive. At the same time, the car’s GPS failed to work and we could not get any line on our phones. We were baffled,” says Joon Meng.
Then all of a sudden, the couple saw a house that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Joon Meng recalls, “It was a wooden house decorated in a Chinese style. What’s eerie was there was a coffin outside the house. We also saw a middle-aged couple at the wake. I stopped and asked a man there for directions to the highway. At first, he did not answer.”
Joon Meng and his ex-girlfriend then decided to pay their respects to the deceased. Holding joss sticks, they prayed and also asked for a safe journey home. After that, the man gave them directions.
“He told us to drive for another 50 minutes along the road to reach the highway.
True enough, the couple found themselves back on track and on the brightly-lit highway. They breathed a sigh of relief.
Hitting nothing
Ten years ago, Muthu was travelling back to Kuala Lumpur from Kota Baru in Kelantan on the old trunk roads one evening. “I drove past stretches of road which was pitch black. Just before midnight, I saw a woman wearing a whitebaju kurung waving at me at a bus stop. I remembered my father’s words, ‘Don’t stop for anyone’,” he says.
“But 2km later, I saw a woman, also in white, standing in the middle of the road staring at me. It was past midnight and my instincts told me it couldn’t be human as there were only palm oil estates around me. So, I accelerated my car. But before that, I flashed my headlights at the woman. She didn’t move an inch. I couldn’t swerve to the side to avoid her as I would land in the ditch as the road was narrow. I drove through her and there was no impact. But it felt like I was driving through light,” Muthu recalls.
Muthu drove on until he reached a petrol station in Gua Musang. He slept in his car outside the closed station.
Seven apparitions
Five holidaymakers were on the road at 1am when a car zoomed past them. The strange thing was that there were no passengers in the car.
Soon after that, Adrian the driver stepped on the brakes. The other passengers who was asleep were jolted awake. Everyone was stunned into silence as they had a paranormal sighting.
“Seven apparitions were crossing the road – two elderly folks, followed by two younger adults and three children, The apparitions had a white and bluish glow about them,” says Adrian
Shocked by what they had witnessed, everyone prayed hard. Soon after, the apparitions vanished into thin air.
“Of all my road trips, this was the creepiest. Even as I shared this story, I still shudder because it was a true experience.”
Ghost hitchhiker
A group of friends were in their 4WD vehicle, travelling down a remote road in Sibu, Sarawak, past midnight.
“Our car was speeding. The speedometer showed 140kph but strangely, we felt like we were travelling at 20kph,” Felix reminisces.
“No matter how hard the driver stepped on the accelerator, the car seemed to move at an incredibly slow speed.”
Then came a lorry which started to honk at them. The passengers in the car were irritated and thought the lorry driver was a road bully.
“The lorry driver gestured us to wind down our windows. The driver and his attendant then shouted to warn us. They were frantically pointing as if to indicate something on top of our vehicle,” says Felix.
“He spoke in Malay, ‘Ada benda kat atas. Doa.’ (There’s something on top of the car. Pray.)”
“We were petrified and started praying in our hearts. It still took some time before our car seemed to gain speed. ”
When things seemed normal, the driver asked us to look at the rear mirror.
“From a far, we saw a woman with long hair and in white standing in the middle of the road. She was staring at us. We all looked at the rear mirror but none of us dared to turn around to look back!”
Haunted hotels
Before entering a hotel room, Helen always knocks on the door a few times.
“After I enter the room, I’d say aloud that I’d be staying in the room for a few nights. I’d also ask the spirits not to disturb me.
“Basically, it’s a gesture to make peace with any beings and avoid any hauntings in the hotel room. It is also to enjoy a pleasant stay and a good night’s sleep,” says Helen who does it for her peace of mind without caring if others think she is being superstitious.
Once she checked into a hotel suite in Batu Pahat, Johor, with her family members and a friend. At about 10pm, everybody felt uneasy because they kept hearing noises in the bathroom even though it was empty.
“We heard the toilet being flushed constantly,” she says. As everyone felt uncomfortable, they decided to check into another hotel.
Sarong ghost
Three years ago, advertising executive Daniel T learnt that you never knew when you’d offended some spirits.
“When we checked into a heritage hotel in Penang, the concierge showed us a cupboard where sarongs were kept for guests to wear. We decided to take pictures of ourselves striking funny poses with the sarongs.”
That night, as he was dozing off, he felt someone brushing against his hand. Thinking that it was his girlfriend, he reached out but grabbed thin air.
“When I opened my eyes, the doors of the cupboard flung open. We were so spooked we rushed to the lobby and insisted on changing our room. A friend said the spirit must have been angry as we were fooling around with the sarongs,” recounts Daniel.
Pinched by a ghost
Two years ago, a couple went for a holiday to Langkawi with a group of friends. They stayed at a kampung-styled resort, surrounded by padi fields. Each kampung hut was over 100 years old.
“On the first night, there were incessant knocks on our door. But every time we opened the door, there was no one there,” says Mona, a housewife in her 30s.
“When I woke up, I had bruises all over my body as if someone had pinched me. No one else in our group experienced it though. I will never ever go back to that resort. Obviously, I’m not welcomed there,” she says.
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