Supernatural Confessions: Walk with Hantu, Changi Edition – I don’t know what’s real anymore
Why are we drawn to the things that make us uncomfortable, that unsettle us, and terrify us? The Supernatural Confessions Walk with Hantu series yanks you out of your comfort zone and shoves you headlong into the pit of the unknown.
…and you can volunteer for the privilege!
Supernatural Confessions Walk with Hantu: Changi Edition (S$85) is a 3-hour story-tour of the creepy side of Changi you knew existed but never delved into. Led by Supernatural Confessions superhosts Eugene Tay and Jonathan Lim, it is a distillation of some of the most mysterious urban legends plaguing our little blood-red dot.
It runs Thursdays and Saturdays from 7.30pm. Find all the details on their website.
Changi has long been associated with the supernatural. Today, much of that reputation is linked to the incredible pain, suffering and death that eastern Singapore witnessed during World War II. However, the real stories go back centuries, perhaps millennia.
Old Changi Hospital and Changi Beach are two of the most chilling names in local ghost-hunting circles. It’s painfully ironic that the hospital served as a prison camp where soldiers and civilians were reportedly tortured to death.
Changi Beach was the scene of an untold number of executions during the Japanese Occupation, with victims hastily buried in unmarked graves. Many more were made to walk into waist-deep water before being machine-gunned in the back. Most of those corpses were lost to the sea.
Some say that the high incidence of unexplained events on the islands of Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong (ask any NSman) off our eastern shore may be attributed to souls left adrift after these massacres.
Me, I am an out-and-out sceptic and that’s especially true for tales of the supernatural. In an age where everyone has a camera phone, the lack of convincing ghost footage irks me. So, it was quite puzzling what happened right as we began our walk from Changi Point Ferry terminal. Even more puzzling was the end.
My Supernatural Confessions Walk with Hantu: Changi Edition
Just a faulty light, no big deal. Our party of 11 laughed when I pointed it out as we began our walk from the ferry terminal. Later, we passed the notorious abandoned Chalet M. Of all the lamps on the street, only the one immediately in front of it was not working.
Jonathan and Eugene told tales at 10 spots along the walk, leaving Old Changi Hospital for last. A narrow sloping road leads up to that decrepit structure. We expected the area to be eerily deserted. Instead, there was a line of about 15 cars parked on the side of the road.
Old Changi Hospital has become such an enigma that the government has installed a designated offering-burning metal cage outside its gates. The people we saw were just completing their rituals and leaving as we arrived.
Eugene and Jonathan narrated some of the most well-known stories about the premises. One of them has had personal unexplained experiences inside. Then, it was time to go.
Me being me, I lingered the longest and was last to leave the gate. When I turned around to join the others, my back— from shoulders to a third of the way down to my waist— felt cold. Being the rationalist that I am, I told myself it was my imagination and walked on after everyone.
A few steps later, the feeling dissipated. I turned around to look at the building and… nothing. Before I walked away, I took a picture from where I stood but didn’t view it properly till I was writing this article.
It is the last picture I will upload for this piece and you can see it for yourself below.
Not sure why but I didn’t tell Jonathan or Eugene, or any of the others what I’d felt when I rejoined them. We walked down the sloping road and the tour ended. Funny thing is, my upper back still feels slightly tingly/painful as I write this, 2 days later.
Final thoughts
I don’t know what to think. (Although I am especially not liking the sound of “Final thoughts” right now)
Does that black space between the 2 plumes of smoke seem like a humanoid figure either climbing into or out of the offerings cage? Why is the plume of smoke splitting into two like that?
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t scare easily and neither do I overreact. Certain stories Eugene and Jonathan told did make me pause and think while others were almost comical. All pale in comparison to the sensation of coldness on my back in the last few minutes of the walk.
Supernatural Confessions Walk with Hantu: Changi Edition is for the brave souls (hah!) willing to explore the dark side of our outwardly clinically-clean city. Steel yourself for a mix of unsettling locations, disquieting legends and disturbing history.
As for my back, I had a crick in my neck last week so it’s probably just an extension of that. Right?
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