August happens to be 7th month in Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is believed that hell gates opened up and hungry ghosts are everywhere. Visitor levels to Pulau Ubin would drop during this period as people prefer safety by staying indoors. For us, August is as good time as any to tour Ubin by night.
Ubin’s hell guards (黑白无常). Their job is to catch ghosts and send them back to hell. Link warning. Scary pictures.
We hoped to make a spirit themed walk to Bukit Puaka area, a place considered by Ubin islanders as being haunted. Residents tell stories of being lost even in broad daylight in places they were familiar since childhood.
Despite being skeptics, we are hoping to be caught up in the same paranormal phenomenon. But this time with high tech tools to help us. My GPS is logging the location of every step we made. Its recording will show if we have been walking in circles or taken to Mars by alien probes.
We are also armed with the latest flashlights. This time with RA clicky high CRI LED lights fitted with longer lasting 17670 batteries. The lights also enable us to take better colored photographs. I also brought a Thrunite 300 lumen P60 style XP-G R5 3 mode drop-in. This drop in allows me to use Surefire 6P heads with forward clicky, fitted on Solarforce 18650 tube. They would be our high tech amulets against ghosts.
The walk was leisurely while taking nature photographs along the way.
Located 100 meters away from Malay Kampong, this bamboo clump was inhabited with interesting creatures including including a scorpion, slugs and insects that crowd and move together.
Spooky stories about banana trees have been passed from kids to another for generations. When I was little, I was told that the the banana flower is where the banana ghost hides during the day. If you tie it with string the ghost will grant you any wishes to free herself.
The village provision shop was still open late into the night. We soon found ourselves engaging in swapping ghosts stories. The one told about Noordin famous white ghost with a baby on her arms is most frightening. Another is sightings of a blue colored giant mountain spirit walking the hills of Bukit Puaka. And that was way before the movie Avatar came out.
Time passed, we decided to postpone our ghost trail after allowing ourselves to be spooked, discretion being the better part of valor.
We went to Ubin jetty. Fish were biting and this angler landed a snapper.
On the way back we heard mewling high up the trees. It turns out to be a rarely seen spotted wood-owl. It’s a juvenile bird calling for its parent. Adult wood owls emits a loud and eerie frightening sound which is commonly heard at Malay kampong area.
Pictures above are all taken illuminated with RA high CRI clicky flashlights by photographer Andy Ho using a high iso Nikon D3s camera.
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Updated: June 2010
