What I Found At Singapore’s Most Haunted Spot | Hidden Hustles Ep 49
- [Voiceover] Are you... Are you guys ready? The things we inherit from the past endure with or without our permission. And the speakers seek to interpret this haunting in a way that unifies past and present. Dark tourism. Tourism that involves travelling to places that are associated with death and suffering.
You sure you’re ready? I’m Wendy. - [Eugene] I think our third and final isolation (test)... - [Voicoever] I’m going to be your guide for tonight.
- You should be the one doing it. - And this is Hidden Hustles. - [Eugene] Hello Wendy. - [Wendy] Hi, this is Eugene. Are you excited for this? - I’m excited but I’m frightened for you as well.
- Huh frightened? I’m not I’m not ready to get frightened. - Because we are doing this in the middle of seventh month. - It is. - [Eugene] It’s a Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival. - On top of that, we’re doing this on a Thursday night. Thursday night is malam jumaat it’s when the spirits are most active. - So we had to pick today to come down to, of all places the most haunted spot in Singapore.
- [Stanley] Wait, wait. Sorry. - [Eugene] Got dog.
- [Eugene] So you’ll be probably wondering why I dragged you guys to a lone tree in the middle of nowhere. That’s because this particular tree has a reputation of holding spirits inside. So in this case, if you can tame the Djinn there’s the belief that the Djinn will grant them wishes. So, I’m gonna explain how this works.
This is the REM pod. This is what we use to detect spirits around the area. So if there’s a spirit that comes by it’ll light up.
This is two separate radio frequencies AM and FM going at two different speeds at two different directions. This is what we’re gonna use for spirits to come and communicate with us. So if we hear voices and words we know it’s not natural. - We’re gonna leave Giang here for about forever! Twenty minutes and he’s going to try to communicate- - Giang, you’re going to try to communicate. - [Giang] Okay.
- Don’t tell them to go away and leave you alone, that defeats the purpose. - Bye bye. - [Crew] Bye.
- Goodbye people. - [Wendy] It’s not dangerous right? - [Eugene] We don’t know because we’re dealing with spirits of the unseen. But we can say that we are not there to be disrespectful we should be okay.
- Hello? Hello? I would like to invite you here and communicate with me. Through this device in front of me and this device in front of me. - Coincidence? That it’s a little bit eerie because just now one of our monitors fell from our cameras. Secondly, we have this one of our crew’s earphones split like, just snapped into half.
And this has never happened to her before on a shoot. So... Yeah, we’re off to a great start. - This entire stretch of board walk is famous for pontianak (female spirit) sightings. Now where you can see behind us as we’re standing here are two graves. According to hearsay you can’t seem to touch it.
The bulldozers and nothing could work. In the history books, we couldn’t find anything. But there have been some rumours that it might’ve been...
- [Amanda] A Sheikh. - Sheikh Thanauddin. - Thanauddin. - Sheikh Thanauddin. - [Amanda] Who was actually a very important Muslim religious leader. - [Eugene] All tombs, the body should be facing towards Mecca.
But the grave marker its position is not facing towards Mecca it’s like 30 degrees off. Is it on purpose or not? We really don’t know. Could the pontianak sightings here be due to the pontianak being guardians of the tomb? Or are they something entirely malicious? - Crystal? Solo? - [Crystal] Can we do it together? - Together? - [Crystal] Can we do it together? Okay sure. I mean the husband and wife are together so... That didn’t stop anything. - [Eugene] Try not to go too far in Just out there is fine.
- [Crystal] In here? - Yeah. - [Crystal] In here? Okay, so if that thing lights up means there’s something there. - [Crystal] Hello? Oh my god.
- There’s an entity there right now. - Oh, hi. - There’s an entity there right now. - You can communicate with it.
- We come in peace. - You can communicate with it. - [Charmaine] We mean no harm. - Like, are you are you perhaps the protector of the tomb? If yes then you can go green. - [Charmaine] Or are you...
like... [REM pod beeps] - [Crystal] Oh, they are the protector. - [Charmaine] Okay, um... We’re sorry, we don’t mean any harm.
- Yeah, we’re just here to like shoot content. - Yeah, I hope that you don’t you’re not offended. - Yeah, we’re here in peace and respect. - Respect, yeah.
- [Crystal] We mean no harm. - [Charmaine] Thank you. Um... - Spirits...
Deities... I would like to experience or see something with my own eyes? Say “potato” if you can hear me. - I think we can just sit in silence for a while. - Yeah. - [Charmaine] You okay ah? - I...
am okay as long as Like Like you’re here. - Okay. Hi, have you been here for long? - Oh, they have been here for long. Wow. Um... - [Charmaine] We’re sorry again.
- Yeah, we’re - just here in peace. - We mean respect - just here in peace. and... - [Crystal] Yeah, if you’re okay with us for another ten minutes then you can light green? - [Charmaine] Are you... Do you want us to go? Do you want us to stay? - [Wendy] I realise you seem to know quite a lot of folklore.
- Mm... - It’s interesting for me. My heritage is a different folklore it’s more witchcraft, black magic, this kind of stuff. - So, I grew up knowing all the (local) superstition. Okay, seventh month, don’t look between your legs don’t come home after a certain time, don’t swim. - You grow up scared but not knowing why you’re scared.
- Yeah. There are some reasons behind the superstitions and I also cannot say that every single superstition I hear makes sense to me. It’s really open to belief. Some cultures have no paranormal influences at all. Like Jerusalem, for example. If you ask them about ghosts like ‘woo woo’ kind of ghosts they don’t have it.
Then you talk about the westerners they don’t the things that we see here, why? An entity who understands your fear would manifest in that personification to trigger your fear. - [Eugene] Just off the light and get everyone out. - [Wendy] Wait Giang, how was it? - [Giang] It was okay. I think cause there’s a lot of bright lights and technically I can still see y’all. Actually, can I do it again? No lights? - Um... I just got
I think she’s still typing in the chat, oh no. I think she’s really scared. She just said that she can’t do twenty minutes.
Are you okay Charmaine? - [Charmaine] We got good footage. - Okay, as in? What happen? - [Crystal] It kept like blinking. - Yeah, we’re just gonna sit here and not do anything else. Just Just gonna sit here. For like ten more minutes. Like, is that okay? Or...
should we go? Oh, maybe we should go? - Okay. - Yeah, okay. - Alright. - We will go. We are asking our friends to come and pick us up. - And then we will - [Charmaine] Give us a while please.
we will immediately go. - [Charmaine] Sorry they are coming back now. - Yeah.
- Then we will leave. - Yes. - I’m telling them to come. - And thank you for being so patient. - Yeah, they’re coming now.
- Then whenever (Eugene) come, it will stop. - Ah... - And then when he go away, it will start blinking again. - [Eugene] Are there any entities here who want to show themself? Are there any entities here who’d like to show themself? Go to the REM pod. Give me a signal. You were making contact the whole time.
We just want to speak to you. I’m gonna go away again. right. I’m not gonna be far, okay? I’m not gonna be very far.
[REM pod blinking] - Oh, hello. You’re back. Oh wow.
- [Eugene] Oh wow. Oh wow. - Okay. Yo. - Okay. - Yeah, then at first we were like, “Hmm, is it the phone?” But then we kept the phone away and we experimented with different distance.
- Oh. - But it didn’t light up. I feel like the atmosphere, sort of like change? I think when he came, it suddenly became very light. - But nothing on the— Was there anything on the voice box? - No. - No. - Dang, I’m so sorry Charmaine.
- [Charmaine] I know you all were stalling. - So I’ve read that there’s different kinds of tourism like dark tourism is about visiting places of death, tragedy and to kind of preserve history through that lens. - [Stanley] Yeah, I mean it’s definitely pretty different from the kind of tourism that most people usually know. I personally feel that it’s quite sad that a lot of our history is kind of erased and there are always new buildings being built on top of all these historical ones.
That’s also kind of why we decided to team up with Eugene. For us, with our love for buildings which already tells so much history together with the you know, all the folklore that is... - Why do I hear sounds? Sorry. - [Crew] I heard something. - Right? - [Crew] I heard something.
- I heard [imitates sound] like that right? - Yeah. - Huh? Really? - Like that right? I also don’t know where it came from. - [Crew] I heard it in the earpiece. - Yeah, I heard it. - [Voiceover] So, at this point it was the second time some of us heard this sound. And, honestly we thought we were hearing things but when we went back to review the footage and the soundwaves, we realised that it was as if someone was speaking into her mic.
- Yeah, I mean it was definitely pretty different from the kind of tourism that You know, all the folklore that - Like I just heard someone talking so I thought it was - Huh? so I thought it was - so I ignored it first time. - [Crew] I heard it. and then, right? - Yeah, there was, I think twice ah? - Twice, right? - Yeah, twice. - Twice, right? - [Crew] Just heard the sound. - What kind of sound? - It’s like a [imitates sound]. - Yeah! - [Crew] It sounded exactly like that. - One longer and one shorter, something like that.
- Maybe someone doing something inside then. - That’s what I thought. - [Crew] No but it sounded very close. - Yeah, it sounded like, near us. - [Crew] Like at the mic.
- Okay. - [Stanley] Maybe it came from me. - Okay. - Okay, composing myself. - [Eugene] Alright, so now we’re going up to the final destination which is what Changi is most famous for Old Changi Hospital. I believe it’s a storage area because there’s no window so it’s not like a guard post.
But in that building there are a couple of dominant entities. Let’s see if you can sense what I sense and others have sensed before you. So, when you’re going in pick one. You will either get the REM pod or you’ll get the spirit box. - I don’t want the spirits to talk to me otherwise I will know if they’re just there. - [Voiceover] So I know I just said that I don’t want any spirits to talk to me but it seems that they were communicating the whole time because this was captured in Eugene’s mic.
Only heard this when we came back to review the footage. So, when you’re going in pick one. This was unexplainable.
This was— this was a little bit creepy. It was as if like, they were responding to us and acknowledging Eugene’s questions. - [Crew] Are you sure you want to do this? - I will say I will do it. Ugh I will do it, yeah. Nothing will get onto me right? - [Eugene] Now we come here and we usually do offerings. Asian culture, we treat the ghost like humans with respect.
- I don’t want any trouble. Breathing in breathing out. [REM pod beeps] Okay.
Is there something here? [REM pod stops] Oh god. I don’t mean any harm right now. I’m just here to see. I come in peace. I really feel that there’s something here but I don’t know if there is.
Is there anybody here? [REM pod beeps] - Okay. [REM pod beeps] Are you here? If you are here touch the REM pod. Oh my gosh. [REM pod stops] If you are here please touch the REM pod. If you are here and would like to make a connection you can let me know by touching the REM pod. Let me try a different method.
Is there... Oh my gosh. - [Wendy] Sorry! [REM pod beeps] [REM pod stops] - [Eugene] Has it been ten minutes already? - [Crew] She’s out.
- Sorry - [Crew] She’s out. - [Stanley] Oh why? You okay? [REM pod beeps] - [Crew] You okay? - It’s just I... There was nothing for a while then there was a bit of beep beep beep then I was like, “Okay, you know what? try another method.
Is there anything here?” Then I heard a [imitates sound] Oh my god, I cannot. I felt it (in) the whole room. Let me try a different method. Is there... Oh my gosh.
- [Crew] What are y’all gonna record? The audio is it? Like hear the spirit box? Oh okay. - [Eugene] If there’s any entity here that wanna make contact please speak through the device. Through the white noise. Or light up the REM pod to indicate your presence. Ooh... Woah.
I felt it. [REM pod beeps] Oh shit! [REM pod beeps] - [Giang] Okay, okay, okay. - Okay. Thank you for letting me know you’re here. - Thank you. - I’m gonna ask you a few yes-no questions.
[REM pod stops] Thank you. Are you the spirit who lives in this place? If it is yes, please beep the device. So I didn’t get any read.
Uh, there was a beep that went off. And I asked if it was the entity of this place. It beep then like that it all just died on its own. So that was just one off.
There was no EVP or at least I thought there were some voices coming through but I cannot make out the sound. Similar to how it was just now at the second station where the minute I go to the device it stopped responding. I think this might be just my chi or something that’s pushing them away. - [Wendy] So I must honestly share that today was a test of my skepticism.
- Mhmm. - I was definitely stumped by what I experienced. That was... Yeah I can’t deny that experience.
- I see spirits as I see humans. There’s good, there’s bad, there’s neutral and if you treat spirits that way as well then you’re not so afraid anymore. - Why are you so passionate about this? You spent ten years of your life right? So, she (Eugene’s then girlfriend) was possessed multiple times over the course of two years.
Uhm... I had to find a solution for her. That’s where I really went down the rabbit hole looking for spiritual help. When it comes to spiritual help there aren’t many places you can go to.
So I really spiraled into that entire industry. And doing Supernatural Confessions and being a paranormal tour guide it’s something that I wanna bring to the table and normalise. In your perspective what do you feel paranormal investigation is? I have a distinction between paranormal investigators and paranormal entertainers.
There’s nothing wrong with being an entertainer. But being a paranormal investigator you are trying to discern and come to the understanding of what we are dealing with. So when I do actual paranormal investigation work it’s not with the public like that, with the cameras.
It’s going to someone’s house understanding what’s this entity I’m working with who’s haunting this place and why. I started off ten years ago being this gungho (eager) guy. There was this whole era where I go “Everything is about the ghost.”
Now it is no longer that, now is using lore, culture and heritage to piece together a plausible reason why a place is haunted or not haunted. - For me, I feel like it’s an interesting perspective because, the supernatural to me is always like ghost stories right, and like sometimes how true can it be? When you tie these stories to culture to history then I feel like, it brings a lot more flavour and a lot more personality to maybe what happened in the past. Do you feel like the Singaporean identity can exist without this realm? - I think the Singaporean identity wants to exist with this realm. We keep saying “Oh ghosts don’t exist.”
But when you gather around the army camp you gather around a campfire everybody wants to have their story. And that is why I always say Changi is haunted because we want it to be haunted.
2024-12-28 23:38
