5 Signs Your Neighbourhood is Haunted

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Whether you live in Bishan, Bukit Batok or Bedok, you’ve probably heard of spooks in your area. Strange suicides, invisible harassment and mysterious happenings all send a shiver down your spine. Do you really want to know if your neighbourhood is spook central? Here are some clues to help you find out.

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You hear strange noises at night

You’re trying to fall asleep, but people upstairs are so bored they’re bouncing marbles or shifting furniture around. Sometimes they are in the tree outside your window, peering in and whispering till the wee hours, or screaming loudly for no apparent reason from the void deck. It’s a rare human neighbour who’s that crazy, so if your upper flat is empty, and there aren’t usually getais staged in your neighbourhood, you may have an otherworldly hooligan haunting your hood.

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You live near a big park

Trees represent calm and serene nature till night falls, when they become the favourite haunts of pontianaks, the original tree huggers. These spirits are said to spy on folks, so beware of women in white perched up high. Bishan Park’s spectre is so dogged, she’d follow you home, and Telok Blangah’s spectre of Madam Xue proves that hauntings transcend race and religion. However, if you’re walking by Sembawang Drive’s forested area, don’t stop to investigate. You might get a totally different case of the heebie jeebies.

You live in an old estate

Some old estates were cemeteries in a past life, or are built very close to one, including those in Bishan, Orchard and Mt. Pleasant, where guttural shrills can be heard like clockwork, as the cemetery was a favourite haunt of pontianaks. One sign of haunted ground is red buildings. Ngee Ann City’s cherry tone was chosen to appease spirits disturbed by Orchard Road’s development. Even innocuous places have seen eerie events. Last October, CCTV from a bar in an old building in Chinatown showed an empty chair tipping itself over, and a small amorphous figure flitting past perplexed customers. 

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You live near a water body

Rivers and reservoirs are beautiful, but are also the sites of drownings or covert body disposals. Last year a woman’s body was found floating down Kallang River and in 2011 a mother and son were found dead in Bedok Reservoir, dressed in red, a colour associated with vengeful spirits. Even swimming pools can be haunted. Raffles Institution’s pool is famous for being 1m shorter because of a cache of skeletons found during construction, and Singapore’s first public pool, Mount Emily Swimming Pool, was the site of many drownings.

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You live next to a MRT line

The MRT lines have seen their share of tragedies, with suicides as well as accidents adding to the body count. From the cases of the selfish ghost who took off her head and placed it on another seat, to ghosts so shy they don’t leave reflections in train windows, it seems apparitions might be using the rail system to expand their haunting grounds. Who knows what you can see out your window if you have a view of the MRT tracks? For more spine-chilling goodness, check out our story on haunted MRT stations in Singapore.

Even if your area has all these features, don’t fret. If you didn’t notice anything, that’s a good sign. However if you were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a ghostly encounter, do share your experiences with us in the comments below.