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The Lady in Red of Bang Pakong River

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Sitting on the railing in her red dress, the ghost waves her victims closer, urging them to jump to their death. This is the tale of the Lady in Red of Bang Pakong River. 

Over the river, there is the bridge Saphan Bang Pakong. Over the years, this has been a place where a lot of jumpers have tried to kill themselves according to legends as well as the local police force. And local police reckon that there has been over 60 suicides since 1992, at least that they have record on. 

The legend is believed to be of a spirit who drowned in the Bang Pakong River which is situated in east Thailand. Who she can be and if she is real at all, is still speculated on by people crossing the bridge in the dead of the night. 

The Wave to Their Death

The legend of the Lady in Red drew attention from the media when the story of a 25 year old lady who was pulled from jumping from the bridge in 2018 was published in the local papers. Afterwards, the lady claimed that although feeling stressed, she had no intention of killing herself that day. So what happened then? Why did we then find her at the edge of the railing? 

According to the woman herself, she was driving home when she noticed someone sitting on the railing of the bridge. She parked the car and followed the person, as it was something that drew her towards it and the bridge. A waving motion, a feeling of despair growing. At the same time the woman had this vision, another man came by on his motorcycle and saw the young woman approaching the railings of the bridge. He stopped and came to her rescue. He called out to her, but she wouldn’t answer and he knew immediately something wasn’t right. 

Both the woman herself and her rescuer o n the bike talked about seeing a middle aged woman with shoulder length hair, waving at her trying to make her jump before she herself threw herself in the water. 

The Many Victims

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This was however not the first report on the matter, and might not be the last. Over the years iI i is often from the bridge witnesses claim to have seen her spirit at night. Many of these legends also tell of a middle aged woman, often seated on the railing, waving the people towards them, urging them to jump. The victims often describe a sense of blackout or a trance like state until they hopefully are helped by a person that can pull them back from the railing. 

Rescue teams have also told stories about people they have helped that told the story  of a lady in red they tried to help when she jumped from the bridge. All with the same story, either waving at them from afar or looking like she is jumping to her death. 

Who is the Lady in Red?

The legend of the Lady in Red is a fairly new one. Many connect her to a case from 2006, where a body of a woman was found floating in the river on November 23rd. She was wrapped in a green sheet, with her hands and feet tied up and her mouth covered with a rope around her neck. After this it is said that her spirit is seen sitting on the rails of the bridge, or hitchhiking underneath it, waving before jumping in the Bang Pakong river. To this day her death is still not cleared, and the mystery surrounding it all is just as when she was first found.

The Lady in Red in History

She is sometimes said to be dressed in white, but most often, it is the stories of the red clad lady that are mostly reported on. Something that quite often pop up in ghost stories.  

When talking of ghosts that are described as a woman clad in red, it is often in the same street as a lady in white or lady in black. The one difference is that often, the lady in red has a story of a jilted lover, being a prostitute, often killed in a fit of passion or a vain woman. All in all, a woman victim to objectification. Especially in western ghost stories. 

However, in Asian legends particularly, the lady in red is sometimes connected to jumpers. Just like this story, as well as in the Malayan legend of the red woman on the ninth floor in an apartment building in Little India in Malacca, an area known for jumpers. Can this be a trend of the ghost stories itself or the nature of the ghosts? Only the Lady in Red has the answers, and it looks like she doesn’t want to share.

A Scary Ghost or Cry for Help?

In the case of the lady in red on the bridge over Bang Pakong river, we can only speculate what the truth is. About the origin of the story, or if the countless cleansing rituals that have been done to purify the bridge has helped at all. Or if the ghost story is more of a solemn reminder of the importance of an open conversation of mental health, not only in Thailand, but everywhere a legend of ladies in red is told. 

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ผวาวิญญาณหลอน บนสะพานบางปะกง

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Ghosts of Canyon Hill Cemetery

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The haunted rumors of the haunted cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho includes everything from a female jogger to an old lady. So much so that it even draws paranormal investigators inside the gates of Canyon Hill Cemetery. 

The cemetery is located at 2024 North Illinois Avenue in Caldwell in Idaho. Canyon Hill Cemetery is an old cemetery that dates back to the early 1800s and houses many souls as their final resting place. But some will have it that not all of the spirits resting there, are at peace. 

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from USA

People have thought the cemetery haunted for a long time. Those claiming Canyon Hill Cemetery to be haunted say they can feel the temperature change suddenly, becoming colder the second you enter the cemetery. There are also rumors about a strong smell no one can explain or figure out as well as the feeling of someone following you. 

Haunted Cemeteries

Haunted cemeteries have long been the subject of chilling folklore and spine-tingling tales. These resting places of the departed are believed to be inhabited by restless spirits, giving life to stories of ghostly apparitions, eerie sounds, and inexplicable phenomena. In the moonlit hours, legends tell of tombstones that come to life, shadowy figures that wander among the graves, and mournful whispers carried on the wind. Whether fueled by superstition or genuine encounters, haunted cemeteries capture our imaginations, inviting us to ponder the mysteries of the afterlife and the ethereal connections that bind the living and the dead.

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Cemeteries

Several paranormal investigators have taken the trip to the Caldwell Idaho Cemetery themselves to have a look. There are especially two ghosts that most people tell of. 

The Old Lady at the Bench at Canyon Hill Cemetery

Apparently there are rumors about an old lady who only sits on the bench late at night at Canyon Hill Cemetery, not saying anything to those passing the graveyard. According to those who have claimed  to see here they looked away for just a second just to find her gone when looking back. 

Who she is, who she is watching over no one knows. She is however not the only one said to haunt the cemetery.

The Lady on the Bench: Who is the ghost of the old lady just sitting on the bench. Some sort of a watcher of the graves? Perhaps she herself is six feet under the earth of one of the tombs in the Caldwell, Idaho Cemetery

The Midnight Jogger at Caldwell, Idaho Cemetery

The Midnight Jogger is a ghost story that is told to haunt Canyon Hill Cemetery in addition to the old lady on the bench. Apparently the ghost of the jogging female appears when you park between the trees that are overlooking the cemetery just ahead. According to the stories she appears as you drive past her, but are gone as soon as you turn to have another look.  

Read Also:

The Running Lady of Beeford

A ghost haunts the roads of small English village. She is known as the Running Lady and according to legend, known for causing accidents.

Some reports that she doesn’t have any legs to carry her and just floats above the ground around the Caldwell Idaho Cemetery. Some even go so far to claim she comes over to knock on the window of the car, although her intentions are unclear.

Ghosts of Canyon Hill Cemetery

As the rumors of hauntings continue to circulate around Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho, the curiosity of paranormal investigators and daring locals alike grows stronger. Despite the chilling tales of the old lady on the bench and the ghostly midnight jogger, the true nature of these apparitions remains shrouded in mystery.

Whether fueled by superstition or genuine encounters, haunted cemeteries like Canyon Hill Cemetery carry with them an undeniable allure. So, if you ever find yourself passing through the gates of Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho, take a moment to feel the shift in the temperature, listen closely for whispers carried by the wind, and keep an open mind. Who knows what spectral secrets await those who dare to explore the haunted grounds of this ancient cemetery?

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Haunting at Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell

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The Ghost that Designed Iulia Hasdeu Castle

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Through the power of spiritualism, the bereaved father built a castle designed by the ghost of his dead daughter. And today, the Iulia Hasdeu Castle still stands as a mysterious and haunted place. 

Iulia was the beloved daughter of Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu (1838-1907) in Romania. He was a Romanian scholar of both history, philology and a great writer. Iulia was somewhat of a prodigy child as well and read by the age of two. Like her father, she was fluent in many languages and spoke French, English and German fluently by the time she was eight. At only 16, she got her degree in philosophy with plans to continue her studies in Latin and Greek Languages at the prestigious University of Sorbonne. 

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But then on the 29th of September 1888, just a month before her 19th birthday, she tragically died of tuberculosis, a tragic but common way to die in this time. She left behind her many poems, manuscripts and plays to her father who couldn’t move on with his life. That is when he turned to less common ways to keep in contact with his dead daughter.

The Seances to Get in Touch with her Spirit

He was deeply in grief and turned to spiritualism to get in contact with his beloved and missed daughter. There are recordings of over a hundred summaries of these sessions, saying something about his obsession with it.

The Ghost: Portrait of the young prodigy Iulia Hasdeu.

And after he moved to Câmpina which is a bit further north from Bucharest , he spent the time at seances together with the metropolitan bishop, three generals and a processor. All in hope to get a glimpse of his daughter.

He also built an altar for her in their family vault at the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest that looks more like a Greek temple to pay tribute to her. But this altar was not enough for him to keep as a memento and after six months of trying to reach her in the spirit world, he made contact, and she gave him instructions to build a castle that would later be known as Iulia Hasdeu Castle. 

Together with his wife, they went to a mansion in Câmpina they decorated as almost a temple to their dead daughter to sort of keep a part of her with them in this world after it was built. He named it Second of July after his two Iulias as his belated daughter was named after his beloved wife.

Then the plans of the castle started to take form. Hasdeu claimed that he had received messages about the building plans for it through the spiritualism seances he took part in. 

The Building Designs of Iulia Hasdeu Castle from Beyond

Work on the Castle began in 1893 and took a lot of Hasdeus’ time, energy as well as wealth. It is more of a folly house than a full fledged castle. She would advise him to use the numbers three and seven, something she considered to be magical numbers. That is why these numbers repeat themselves throughout the building with three underground rooms, three towers and seven steps to every staircase. 

The building was completed in 1896 and has since seen its fair share of tragedy befall it. It required a lot of reparation, even when Hasdeu was alive. During the first world war as well as the second world war, the earthquake in 1977 where it suffered many damages. But the castle fought back. There even is a legend to this that during the second world war, the Germans tried to loot the place, but failed as they were ‘struck by some mysterious force.’

Spiritualism: During the turn of the century, seances and spiritualism was a big thing. This is a Seance scene in the classic German silent film Dr Mabuse (1922). People would get together with a medium in hope to make contact with a spirit beyond the grave.

Today the Iulia Hasdeu Castle is still a sort of altar in Iulias memory. With her personal belongings as well as transcripts of the seances that her father attended. The castle itself is described to have a spooky vibe over it, perhaps because there are entire rooms designed specifically for spiritualists rituals, with seats made for the attending ghosts. A shrine like this was bound to get more sinister rumors about it, and it was claimed that Hasdeu used it to worship Satan rather than memorializing Iuelia. 

The Ghost of Iulia

The Iulia Hasdeu Castle is not the only place she is reported of haunting. Also back at the cemetery in Bucharest, the ghost has been spotted, dressed in all white while walking through the cemetery in Bucharest holding daisies. 

Back In Câmpina at the castle they have also felt her presence. In the night there is the sound of piano playing with the applause and cheering from an old man. So many rumors that the museum itself had troubles finding someone to take the nightshift at the museum. 

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Discover Iulia Hasdeu Castle | Daytrip

Iulia Hasdeu Castle: The Eerie Romanian Castle Designed by a Ghost

Iulia Hasdeu Castle, where mystery and culture go together

Iulia Hasdeu Castle

Iulia Hasdeu Castle: Spiritism, romance and science all in one – The Romania Journal

http://www.muzeulhasdeu.ro/index.php?meniu=71

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The Haunted Ghost Street Calle Jaen in Bolivia

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In the secluded and mountainous streets in La Paz, Bolivia, the ghosts of the past are still roaming the streets. Both dangerous widows and Bolivian freedom fighters. 

The street in La Paz has rumors of ghosts roaming. And it is not an anonymous ghost we are talking about. The ghost that supposedly roams these streets is the Bolivian folk hero, Pedro Domingo Murillo, who played a key role in Bolivia’s independence. 

Calle Jaen is one of the old streets in La Paz and it looks like a ghost of colonial times with the architecture. This is the place where Murillo used to live. The streets are also known for the ghostly apparitions that are seen both by the locals and the tourists visiting. 

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The Ghost of Bolivia’s Freedom Fighter Murillo

He is reported mostly appearing to both locals and tourists by the museum during sunset where he tries to communicate with the people seeing him. They even put up a green cross at the end of the museum to ward off spirits that don’t belong in this world anymore. 

Haunted Street: Jaen Street, named after the revolutionary Apollinar Jaén, is the best-preserved colonial street in La Paz with its cobbled streets and Spanish architecture. The houses date from the 18th century. One of the homes was owned by Pedro Domingo Murillo.// Photo: Dan Lundberg/wikimedia

Murillo is known for leading a rebellion against the Spanish crown. He was eventually captured and hanged in 1810. He had this to say:

“Compatriots, I die, but tyrants won’t be able to extinguish the torch I ignited. Long live freedom!”

Many see him as a spark that ignited the battle to free South America from Spain, and each year, there is a parade through central La Paz with lit torches in his honor. 

The Black Widow of Calle Jaen

He is not the only ghost of this street though. The ghost of a widow crying for her dead husband begs for help in her black mourning clothes. She looks innocent and manages to lure kind people, especially men. When they try to help her, they will disappear forever. 

The staff working at the bars in the streets are serving Ajenjo: a Bolivian variety of absinthe. They claim that the hallucigen from the drink has caused people to see both ghosts and spirits after a few sips, especially the ghost of Pedro Domingo Murillo.

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Featured Image: Casa Jaén, 5 November 2012, source: LucianaDeckerOrozco//Wikimedia

Bolivian Express | THE GREEN GHOST OF LA PAZ

6 Haunted Places to Visit in Bolivia

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Madam Koi Koi and The School Hauntings in Nigeria

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‘Koi Koi’ goes the sound of high heels in the hallways. And this sound is terrifying for students at the haunted boarding schools in Nigeria. Because Madam Koi Koi is after them in this terrifying urban legend about a dead teacher out for revenge. 

The myth of Madam koi koi and her high heels is an urban legend about a ghost of a female teacher in Nigeria that has spread throughout many African countries and is today a well known legends among students. The ghost of Madam Koi Koi is said to have been haunting boarding schools in Nigeria for decades and there is no way of telling where the now urban legend surfaced. Many sources attribute the legend to the surface in the 90s. However, on the internet, she first appeared in the forums as Madam Koi Koi in 2011. 

As the fear of Madam Koi Koi grew, it spread to more countries as well and the ghost of the former teacher goes by many names. In Ghana for instance, she is known as Madam Moke, Ghanian for high heels. She is also known as Miss Konkoko in Tanzania and Pinky Pinky in South Africa. 

The Urban Legend of Madam Koi Koi

With such a popular and saturated story, there are bound to appear variations of the legend of Madam Koi Koi as all good urban legends do. But the most popular goes something like this: 

Madame Koi Koi was said to be a beautiful and fashionable teacher in a federal government secondary school. She was known for her beauty as well as her red high heels that would make a sound every time she walked the hallways of the boarding school where she worked. Thereby the name: Koi Koi as it mimics the sound of clicking heels. 

Madam Koi Koi: The ghost of Madam Koi Koi is described as the ghost of a mean teacher that used to wear red high heels that you could hear clicking when she came down the hallways of the school she worked at.

Although beautiful, she was not known for being a kind woman and was also said that she was a very strict teacher and mean to the students. She was a brutal and violent woman that would beat the students up for no reason and enjoyed punishing them. This is also why she was deeply despised by them. 

Madam Koi Koi was eventually fired after another violent incident where she took it too far and hit a female student. The slap she gave the young student was so hard that Madam Koi Koi injured the little girl’s ear. On her way home that day, Madam Koi Koi got into an accident and died. But before dying, she swore revenge on both the school as well as the students for firing her. 

From the Netflix Adaptation: In 2023 Netflix made a mini series about the urban legend from the 90s called The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi .

After her death, the students at the boarding school said they could hear the clicking of her heels during the night throughout their dormitories. Even today the story persists and it is told between frightened students that Madam Koi Koi comes out in the night to haunt the students that wander out of their beds in the night. 

The Different Versions of Madam Koi Koi

Another version of her ending was when the students took matters into their own hands after they couldn’t take anymore beatings from her. In this version of the legend, the students captured and gagged her and beat her to death. To conceal their crime they threw her body over the school fence after realizing what they had done and hoped they would blame someone else.

But although they had their reasons, she came back for revenge. One by one, the students that killed her started to disappear from the school and ended up dead. After the last person involved with it died the school was shut down forever as they had no way of knowing how to stop the wrath of the former teacher. The students that were transferred started new schools and spread the urban legend about the teacher that haunts boarding schools. 

Popular Urban Legend: In Nigerian schools, especially in boarding schools, they tell the story about Madam Koi Koi to each other and is known as some of the most famous haunted stories in Nigeria. //Photo: Emmanuel Ikwuegbu

Sometimes the legend is retold that she loses one of the shoes, and she comes back to haunt the premise for her other one. Or sometimes, as in the Ghanaian version, it is specified that she was given the rude and bad students and that they one time locked her in a closet where she died and she was more of a victim than a perpetrator.  

Read More: For more ghost stories from schools around the world, check out the The Kong Kong Ghost

In the South African one where she goes by the name Pinky Pinky and is a very different version than the Nigerian one. Here she is only part human, animal, male and female and prays in children’s school toilets to rape the girls if they wear pink underwear. The boys can’t see her, but feel the presence through a slap or scratch on the cheek. 

No matter the version is told, she is always after the students. You can always hear her before you see her. She walks the corridors, opening doors, singing and whistling while her shoes click on the floor. And if you are caught by her ghost in the hallways or in the toilets, she may become violent.

Netflix Series About the Legend of Madam Koi Koi

In 2023, Netflix released a two part series about the urban legend called, The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi that are based on the story of the former teacher haunting the schools.

The series focuses on a young student named Amanda that are sent to an isolated boarding school called St Augustine Catholic College in the 1990s. The school is plagued with a history of sexual violence that seemingly has gone unpunished because of the powerful parents to the perpetrators.

At the new school, Amanda has troubles to fit in and starts having nightmares about something dark that are lurking in the forest outside of her school. Meanwhile, inside of the school she has to deal with the sexual harassment for the male students and the urban legend about revenge starts to unfold.

The Legend about Madam Koi Koi

In conclusion, the legend of Madam Koi Koi continues to captivate and intrigue students and Madam Koi Koi legacy has left an indelible mark on the haunted boarding schools across the African continent. And for every year that the new students arrives at the schools, the legend about Madam Koi Koi evolves.

So the next time you find yourself near the haunted boarding school, take a moment to reflect on the tales of Madam Koi Koi. Listen closely, and you might just catch the faint echo of a haunting laughter or the distant sound of high heels.

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The legend of the dead teacher who haunts secondary school students | Pulse Nigeria

Was Madam Moke real or not? – Opera News

https://www.nairaland.com/search?q=madam+koi+koi&search=Search

The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi (TV Series 2023) – IMDb 

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Maidens of Uley

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The spirit of the girl so disappointed in her life on earth she can never move on, continue to echo through time together with the Maidens of Uley in Sibir, Russia.

The Eastern part of Russia can be ruthless. A vast empty land on the map, it is sort of forgotten when looking at pictures of St. Petersburg or Moscow. But there are people there, and they have been there for a long time. And if the Trans-Siberian Railway didn’t pass through it in 1898, we might never have hear about Irutsk Oblast, an area in the southeastern Siberia.

Where we are going the weather is cold. So cold it is almost inconceivable. For almost six months during October to April, the temperature usually is below 0 °C (32 °F). But that is the average, the winter hits harder. In Irutsk the temperature is around −25.3 °C (−13.5 °F) in January. The summers on the other hand is warm, although short. So short.

This is the domain of the tundra. The mountains extend up to almost 3,00 metres (9,800 ft), almost with nothing growing on them.

The Little Song in Love

In the village of Ulei (or Ungin) a legend of the west buryat people have been told for a long time. The Buryats or Буряад are a Mongolic people and the largest indigenous group in Siberia. For a long time they maintained their nomadic lifestyle until being taken over by the Russian Federation were agriculture was more profitable. Although most of the Buryat lives in the federal subject of Russia, some still live in the northeast of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia in China. This is where the legend of the Maidens of Uley comes from.

The Buryat People: Buryat tribe in traditional costumes in the district of Selengiski in South of Sibir. From the early 1900s from the traditional folk museum in Novosibirsk in Russia.

A young lady by the name or the nickname of Bulzhuuhai Duuhai lived in this place. (Duushin means singer in Buryat, Duuhai means something like ‘Little Song’. She had no wish to be married off, but fell in love with a young man that her parents found beneath her and tragedy followed.

But this was wish was not to be granted to Bulzhuuhai, and like so many women before her, she was married off to a richer man her parents found suitable. Some claim he was from Khalyuta, some say he was from Tarasa.

She needed an escape from her home she had with her husband. He was not treating her with respect as she was locked up in a black yurt, and in some legends even chained down, not a traditional white one. In some accounts, it wasn’t necessarily a black yurt, only an empty one.

The White Yurt: The traditional white yurt she was supposed to live in. Novosibirsk State Museum of Regional History and Folk Life.

She asked of her loved one is he could run away with her, but he had nowhere to run to as he was a poor man. She had nowhere to go.

While imprisoned in her yurt, she sang. Every girl that passed her by could hear her song, but there was nothing they could do to help her. All they could, was to throw flowers through the chimney, which was her only source of light.

The Eight Days of Freedom

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For twenty days, she was in chains inside with nowhere to go, but she managed to escape. Eight days of freedom was all she got. Along the road she met many people, and along the way she met a group of people carrying the bride to a wedding in Tuglo. She joined them and sang in the wedding. Many men tried to get her attention, even the shamans, every day until the wedding was over.

After the wedding was over, so was her life she felt, and she fell in a deep desperation and loneliness. She had nowhere to go to. She could not go back, and there was nothing ahead of her either.

After the eight days of singing and dancing in the wedding, she hanged herself in the barn, not being able to take it anymore. But this was not the end. There were so many more like her.

The Call of The Zayan Spirit

Maidens of Uley: Women’s Khori-Buryat costume//Photo: KoizumiBS

After she died she became a zayan-spirit, as those killed by their own hands are called. They can find no rest or find their way to Erlen-Khan which is the Lord of the Underworld. They are not necessary malicious spirits, but can call upon the inner thought of female despair.

Instead she called upon other spirits with a similar fate and a group of girls flocked to her. Around 350 Maidens and spirits just like her answered her call. These spirits are called Olon or Many of Uley by Idin and Osin Buryats.

To this day the Maidens of Uley are supposedly forbidden to sing after sundown because of the danger of being captured and turned into one of the Maidens of Uley.

It was a group of around 350, or even more. Maidens of Uley like her on a revenge mission. They haunt the fiances on their wedding day, mesmerizing them with their beauty. Once taken, they lead them to the underworld where they are never seen again.

Now remembered in folklore for the locals, the story of the Maidens of Uley is passed down to the next generations. Like in this theater play by the Buryat Drama Theatre:

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Featured photo: [Photo/IC]

Special thanks to Reddit user: Witson1991

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The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island

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What would you have wanted as an offering after your death? According to this Singaporean legend, this young girl wanted a Barbie doll to appease her spirit in her afterlife. This is the story of the haunted Barbie doll in the shrine on Pulau ubin island.  

On Pulau Ubin, a boomerang shaped island in northwest Singapore, a peculiar yellow shrine still stands. Hidden away in the forest as one of the last remaining places in Singapore free from urban development, concrete buildings and paved roads, people come to give offerings and pray for their good luck in gambling to the deity of a young German girl that died and remained on the island with only a haunted Barbie doll as comfort. 

Read about: More Haunted Ghost Stories from Singapore

Pulau Ubin used to be a bigger population here, bustling with different businesses like plantations and granite mining. The very word Pulau Ubin means ‘Granite Island’ in Malay. Today, the granite quarries are empty or at least, abandoned. Reclaimed by vegetation or filled up with water.  

Pulau Ubin: The idyllic island is now a well known place to hike the trails and enjoy the nature in Singapore.
Photo: Zairon

The island used to have a few thousand settlers, but today, there are not even forty people left after the work in the quarries dried up. However, the one that still remains, is the spirit of the German girl that to this day, name is unknown. Several attempts have been made to trace the family of the girl back to Germany, but lack of public records of the family has still not been found. 

Now considered a taoist deity, the temple on Pulau Ubin is full of taoist offerings as well as more unique offerings. Most notably a haunted Barbie doll sits between the incense and the food offerings. People still pay tribute to the shrine and the haunted Barbie doll, in the form of make-up, nail polish, mirrors and small feminine things. This to appease the girl who asked for the doll beyond the veil. 

Background For The Haunted Barbie Doll

At the start of the 1900s, uneasiness spread throughout Europe and a full fledged war rippled through the rest of the world as well. Although WWI didn’t quite reach south east Asia in full force as other places, the effects were still real for many of the European settlers in the colonies. 

Singapore, being a part of the British Crown, was not very German friendly. During the 1910s, the island was home to two German families, the Brandts and the Muhlingans that ran coffee plantations according to the legend, although the proper sources for this are missing. 

In July 1914, the British started detaining Germans for security reasons as they were considered enemies to the crown. A military force was sent to Pulau Ubin to detain the two German families residing there. The Germans were, according to the story, sent to a detention barracks on mainland Singapore, mainly in the Tanglin Barracks. 

But the detaining would not go without a dramatic turn. A young daughter of one of the families became frightened and fled from the British forces into the wooded area and disappeared into the dark, never to be seen again. 

The Deity of the German Girl

Days went by without finding her body. And when she finally was discovered by Boyanese plantation workers, she was covered in ants. They concluded that she had died by falling down a cliff near one of the quarries that sustained the community on the island. The workers covered her body with sand and laid flowers on it. When they walked by the place, they said a prayer and lit incense for the girl. 

This was her resting place at Pulau Ubin until Chinese workers recovered the remains of the body and buried the girl on a hill above the quarry. Being a roman catholic, they placed her Jiangsu urn with a crucifix and a number of coins as well as a few strands of her hair.

What happened to the family is still a mystery, but during the war, all German property was confiscated and their business halted. Today only the ruins and foundation of the plantation can be seen. In some versions of the legend, it tells that the family returned to Pulau Ubin after the war, searching for the remains of her daughter, but could’t find her tombstone due to language barriers. Little did they know her remains were kept in the Chinese Taoist temple in an urn on the hill. 

Bitter and sad about it, they left Pulau Ubin and Singapore, never to return. Which is an odd addition to the legend as the family supposedly managed a business on the island before the war, and it’s weird that there suddenly were a language problem when they returned, supposedly to the same people that lived there before they were detained. 

She has since been addressed as Na Du Gu Niang, meaning Datuk Maiden. Sightings of her ghost by the local villagers at Pulau Ubin have kept the legend of the nameless girl alive as well as the peculiar offerings to the shrine that eventually were erected in her honour. 

The Yellow Shrine on Pulau Ubin Island

The Shrine: The home of the deity and the haunted Barbie doll has gone through many changes. Here as it was in 2015.
Photo: Pascal Vuylsteker

While the granite business was still alive on Pulau Ubin, a quarry company built a more permanent shrine in 1974, which is the small yellow chinese temple that still stands today. It is named Berlin Heiligtum, meaning Berlin Sanctuary. 

They transferred the lock of hair and iron cross to the new temple. But when the man who helped to place the remains in the new vase in 1974 checked in 1990, it was already gone, at least that is one of the tales this particular man told over the many years.  

When the shrine was constructed over the grave, it became associated with good luck, especially for gambling as rumours told about people winning the lottery after praying to the shrine. Therefore gamblers from Singapore as well as Malaysia came to the shrine to make offerings, in hope that the German girl would bless them with good luck.

And today the offerings are perhaps more to a young girl’s taste with nail polish, makeup, perfume and the now famous haunted Barbie doll. 

The Haunted Barbie Doll in the Shrine

Today a haunted Barbie doll is placed as an important object in the shrine to the German girl in an enclosed box. Although not haunted as many other objects are rumoured to be, as in being possessed by the soul or a ghost, the origin of the doll is quite haunting. According to legend, and this is a more recent one, the legend will have it that the haunted Barbie doll was requested by the girl herself beyond the grave. 

Pink offerings at the altar: The German girl still gets many presents, many things are of what people think would suit a young girl. Like the now very well known haunted Barbie doll//Photo: Source unknown/via Tineye

An unnamed islander from Pulau Ubin who had moved to Australia kept having these strange dreams back in 2007. He dreamt of a European looking girl for three nights in a row that led him to a specific store with a specific Barbie doll. She asked for it to be placed at her altar back in Singapore. So when he found the same store and doll as he had dreamt of for so many nights, he bought the now haunted Barbie doll and brought it to the shrine. 

And over the years, the haunted Barbie doll itself has gained its own mysteries and haunted stories, giving new life to the story about the girl still not having crossed over from the mortal world entirely.

For more stories about haunted dolls lole Okiku, Ruby or Letta:

Ruby the Haunted Doll

This porcelain doll named Ruby will give the people playing with her an instant sorrow and sense of sickness, just by holding her. Family legend has it that the doll is haunted by a little girl that died with Ruby in her arms.

Keep reading

The Legends of Lies?

So who was the girl? Was there ever a girl? There is today no human remains in the grave as a definitive proof of the legend. Still, many people take the legend at face value today. But that is overlooking all the different tales that have been told throughout the years. Dr William L. Gibson, is one of the people that really took a deep dive into the legend and by just comparing the sources, found many discrepancies to the story told today in his excellent and detailed research you can read here.  

Many sources point to one man, named Chia Yeng Keng, a local on Pulau Ubin. The same man that claimed to be there when they transferred the lock of hair and the cross to the new temple. He has changed his testimony about the girl several times over the years. From claiming that the girls parents were Dutch for example. But seeing that Dutch citizens were not interned as Netherland was neutral during WWI, the story changed to German instead. Could it have just been a glip of details? Or a more elaborate story? As late as 2004, he claimed to not know anything about her at all. 

Although proof that a German family ran a coffee plantation on Pulau Ubin once, it is not proven that they ran it until being detained because of the war. According to The Singapore and Straits Directory, the only plantation on the island in 1914, was run by an Anglo-Irish, with no women recorded as living there.  

The first mention of the grave on Pulau Ubin was actually in 1985, in a Malayan newspaper that told the story of a princess from Java that fled to the island and died there. She was said to haunt the hill as a hantu puteri, meaning a ghost princess, seducing the many quarry workers to meet a terrible fate. The article included a picture of the shrine today known as the German girl shrine. But also this article as well as the story itself lacks proper sourcers. 

So for now, the haunted Barbie doll on Pulau Ubin belongs to a young girl that may or may not rest here. Better safe than sorry.

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References

Featured image: Unknown original source/via Tineye

Unravelling the Mystery of Ubin’s German Girl Shrine

German Girl Shrine 

Mysterious Pulau Ubin German girl shrine still sees visitors after 100 years in existence – Mothership.SG – News from Singapore, Asia and around the world

The Legend of a German Deity at Ubin | Remember Singapore

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The Ghost of La Faraona Haunting the Agua Caliente Hotel

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Haunting the iconic Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel in Tijuana, the performer known as La Faraona remains like a ghost from the Golden Age of the Sin City.

During prohibition times in the US in the 1920s, people flocked to the borders to have a drink and a good time. The border towns also become a hot spot for smuggling activity and flourishing establishments that would quench peoples thirst. 

Tijuana was one of these border towns that saw a golden age and growth during this time. People came from the whole world to get a drink while gambling at their casino and watch horse racing and bullfighting. For the conservatives, Tijuana became known as a Sin City or was even called Satan’s Playground. 

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The demand for a good time was profitable however and attracted many people south of the border, and many resorts were established for this particular need. One of these places was Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel that opened in 1928. It was like the American Monte Carlo and Deauville that attracted American celebrities, Mexican politicians, diplomats, gangsters and gamblers alike during the 30s. This is the time that is remembered as Tijuana’s golden age. 

The hotel in Tijuana in Mexico in Baja California is said to be haunted now however, and the glamor it once held, is now under the layer of dust and only a footnote in history. It is now a high school and many of the reports of the haunting come from the students themselves. There are many stories, and especially about a woman walking past the student, whose feet don’t even touch the ground. The legend of this ghost has been called La Faraona.

The Dancing Ghost La Faraona

Agua Caliente is a place where performers had the chance of being discovered and making it big. Rita Hayworth was one of those while she was playing a show at the hotel. She went on to be a famous Hollywood star and a cultural icon. But there was not every performer that managed to get out of Tijuana. 

Satan’s Playground: The Agua Caliente was a famous tourist spot for a weekend away. It was also a place were many performers were employed and made famous. On the other end it was a place were many illegal activities took place. // Photo: Guy Sensor Landscape Photo, courtesy of San Diego History Center Photo Archive.

It is said that a female performer haunts the former hotel that was built atop of a natural hot spring. In many versions she worked as a singer, but in the most detailed stories, she was a dancer in one of the more popular shows. A flamenco dancer from Spain. The stories told at the school call her La Faraona, apparently her stage name as the star in one of the many shows at the casino at the Agua Caliente. 

She was supposedly also known as being somewhat of a good luck charm to keep at your side by the gambling tables at the casino. By her many admirers, she gained a lot of wealth in the form of diamonds and jewelry and there are rumors that she hid her treasures by the minaret which is the place her ghost has been spotted many times.

Crime of Passion

La Faraona: According to the legend, La Faraona laced her lovers drink with poison and they both ended up dead.

She was in a relationship with a man at the resort. Some call him Mr. Patrick, a British gentleman and a dealer that had made money on the alcohol smuggling business. In some accounts, he was even in Al Capone’s mafia. In all accounts however, it ended in tragedy when La Faraona killed him.

Why she did it differs from one version to the next, but it is usually by poison. In some accounts, she only poisons him, but in many versions, she does it to both of them. She supposedly poisoned her lover after stealing his money or after she realized he wasn’t intending to bring her back with him to England. In some versions it was because she saw him with another woman.

Apparently she laughed in his face when she poisoned him and even told him there was an antidote for it that she wouldn’t give him. He ran after her to get the antidote from her but didn’t get it. He then shot and killed her. 

This also meant that he would never find the antidote to the poison as well and he too died. Or they both died by the poison she laced their drinks with. Now they both haunt the former hotel where they ended their days. 

A Real Murder at the Hotel

When we look at the historical facts, there are only one murder registered at the Agua Caliente, although who knows how many that never made it to the public really happenend, we will never know. 

But a dancer working for the past four months at the Agua Caliente was found on 26. March in 1934. Named Esperanza López was found murdered in one of the bungalows at the premise that were kept for the artists at the casino. She had been shot by her husband who also worked at the hotel named Rodrigo Prieto. 

The hotel closed down in 1938 when the prohibitions were lifted in the states, and Mexico forbade gambling. Then the building was turned into a private school named Lázaro Cárdenas High School where the stories about the hauntings mostly came from.

And the students at the school keep insisting on seeing her ghost roaming about the place as she is never leaving the Agua Caliente.  

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References

Encyclopedia of Haunted Places, Revised Edition: Ghostly Locales From Around the world Av Jeff Belanger

Tijuana Was Once “Satan’s Playground” | KPBS Public Media

In Tijuana, searching for Al Capone – The Washington Post

La bailarina del Aguacaliente | Noticias de Tijuana | EL IMPARCIAL

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Myrtles Plantation and the Ghosts that Remains

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Now a quaint Bed and Breakfast, the old Myrtles plantation manor houses more ghosts than living guests. 

The old splendor of a plantation in Louisiana, not so far from Baton Rouge, is still quite clear when looking at the Myrtles Plantation. The antebellum mansion was first built in 1796 and is decorated with hand-painted stained glass featuring a French cross to allegedly ward off evil, the walls filled with Aubusson tapestry and from the ceiling, Baccarat crystal chandeliers hang. 

But among the Carrara marble mantels and French furnishing there is something more sinister, more primitive than any riches, gold and luxury can cover over — The blood stained history and the legend of ghosts still haunting the place. 

The old plantation was handed down from many people and in 1950, the house was sold to Marjorie Munson. It was she who started noticing strange things happening around the Myrtles Plantation and started talking about ghosts, that we still talk about today. 

And the tales that are told are many — supposedly, the old plantation is one of the more haunted places in America with reports of at least 12 ghosts inside this Creole cottage style manos sitting on a hill. Although it is only historical records about the murder of William Winter, the number of murders in the house is allegedly 10. 

The Legend of Chloe

The most famous ghost on Myrtles Plantation is without a doubt Chloe, or in some records, Cloe. She was supposedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff, who took over the plantationin 1817 after Saras father, General David Bradford, who first built the plantation. 

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In 1992 a picture surfaced after the plantation took some photos of the property to send to the insurance company. When looking closer at the picture, something that looks like a girl can be seen. This is believed to be the ghost of Chloe, who still haunts the Myrtles Plantation with her green turban. 

According to the stories, Chloe was one of the slaves that worked in the house rather than out in the field, which was a much more straining work than inside doing the cleaning and cooking. But perhaps it came with other dangers than grueling labor. According to the stories, she was forced by Clark Woodruff to become his mistress.  

In some accounts though, Woodruff started having an affair with another girl and Chloe feared she would have to start working in the fields instead of in the house. And she started listening in on conversations to find out her faith or pick up on something that she could use against them. 

In any case she was caught listening by the doors and punished by her slave owners. One of her ears was cut off and she wore a green turban to conceal it. 

The Revenge

The Haunted Mirror: Where the spirit of Woodruff and her children lingers.
Photo: Chris Light/1999

But it wasn’t the end at all, as Chloe planned her revenge on her slave masters. She baked a cake that she had poisoned with oleander leaves, which is extremely poisonous. Even the question of why she poisoned the cake is up for discussion. 

Most accounts claim she did it for revenge after cutting off her ear. Another variant saying she was trying to gain favor with the family again as she was planning to cure the family for the poison and come out as a hero instead. 

But according to the story, the plan backfired and only Sara Woodruff and the two daughters ate the cake and died from the poison. Chloe was then hanged by the other slaves and thrown in the Mississippi river, as a sort of final punishment for her or to not be punished themselves by Clark Woodruff for harbouring her. 

A mirror in the house is supposedly holding the spirit of Sara Woodruff and her children. According to custom at that time, the mirrors were covered by a cloth so the spirit would not disappear into them. But after the poisoning, this particular mirror was forgotten and the ghosts of the victims can be seen in the mirrors and there are reports of handprints being left in the mirror, as their spirits are now trapped in the mirror. 

The story about Chloe as a ghost is also told by the previous owner, Frances Kermeen, who also wrote a book on all the strange hauntings that she herself reported about experiencing on her second night in the house: 

 “I looked up and standing over me was a black lady. Her head was wrapped in a green turban,” I could see her [holding an] old-fashioned tin with the loop in it [through] the candlelight and I lost it. I started screaming…I reached my hand out to touch her, I could tell she was a ghost because she was see-through, but as my hand passed through her, she faded away.”

Frances Kermeen told the podcast Mysterious Universe in 2015.

The Uneven Facts

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Do historical records support this though? There is currently not found any records of the Woodruffs owning a slave named either Chloe or Cloe. The legends say that Chloe killed both the wife and the daughters, but one of the daughters, Mary Octavia, survived and grew up to become an adult. And it is said that Sara and the other daughter, Cornelia, were not killed by poison, but by yellow fever in 1823 and 1824. 

Either way, despite the historical records refuting the story, the legend about a woman wearing a green turban haunts Myrtles Plantation. Perhaps trying to tell a story that no historical records can?

The Other Ghosts

There are several pictures you can find on the postcards found in the souvenir shop at the plantation, the Chloe postcard being one of them. Another picture that stirred up quite some stories was the picture of a young girl dressed up in classic antebellum clothing that seems to look out from a window. She is now referred to as “The Ghost Girl” on the plantation. 

Burial Ground

But the legend of Chloe is not the only claim of ghost sightings at the plantation among the Spanish Moss hanging from the giant oak trees. There is the classic tale that the house itself is built on an Native American burial ground, a trope of American ghost story tales that rarely can be substantiated. But even so, the ghost of a young Natice American woman has been reported. 

In this case, the burial ground would be of Tunican tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, and the truth is that the land the manor now stands on used to belong to the Natives before being seized by the Spanish. 

Civil War Soldiers

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Another legend is about the Civil War and about how the houses were ransacked by union soldiers, and three people were killed. But exactly who was killed? The soldiers or the people living in the mansion? At the time, it was then Ruffin Gray Stirling and his wife Catherine Cobb that lived on the plantation with their slaves. It is true that they were robbed of their fine furniture and luxury items. 

According to some of the  variations of the legend though, it was the Union soldiers that were shot dead on the premises by the Confederates. 

But something that is more up for debate is the supposed blood stain in the doorway, around the size of a human body remains that never will be completley clean after the supposed murders that happened then, no matter how well you scrub it. 

The Voodoo Practitioner

The plantation is also the home of the ghost of a young girl that died in 1868, sometimes thought to be the girl in antebellum clothes from the picture. She was treated by a local voodoo practitioner in one of the 22 rooms in the manor, but died. She appears now in the room she died in and has been reported to practice voodoo on people sleeping in the room. 

William Drew Winter

One of the other ghosts haunting this place is someone that either staggers or crawls up the stairs. He always stops on the 17th step. This is rumoured to be the ghost of William Drew Winter, the verified murder victim in the house. He was shot on the front porch of the house by a stranger. To get away, he crawled up the stairs but only reached the 17th step before he collapsed and died. 

Several guests staying at the now B&B have claimed to hear the crawling coming from the stairs, and believing it could be other guests have gone to check. But when reaching the stairs, they find that no one is there, or worse, the apparition of his ghost, begging for help. 

Although here, we have discrepancies in the story as a local newspaper reported that Winter died of a single shot that killed him instantly, and he had no possible way of crawling the stairs after the shot. But did he manage to in his afterlife?

The Plantation

No matter the fact we can now verify, the stories found of plantations from way back cast long shadows. All from the first contact between the natives and Spanish, throughout slavery and a bloody war. The darkest chapters of this plantation, is most likely the stories that we don’t know about. 

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Featured image: Bogdan Oporowski

The Myrtles Plantation

Legend of Chloe And Ghosts | Myrtles Plantation

The South’s Most Haunted Plantation – Myrtles Plantation Louisiana

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Nale Ba – The Bridal Ghost of Bangalore

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In the 90s, rural parts of Bangalore in India were haunted by a fear of a ghost walking from door to door. To protect themselves from death, they used to write Nale Ba – come tomorrow. 

The sound of a knock on the door can be one of the more terrifying things when you are not expecting someone. In lores and legends, opening the doors for strangers are the biggest mistakes you can make, as you have no control once the door is open.

But what if the voice on the other side sounds familiar, like that of a friend or a family member. What do you do then? Before the big urbanization of Bangalore in more recent times, there used to be some pretty rural parts where a particular urban legend struck fear in those who lived there. 

Nale Ba or Come Tomorrow

Haunting the streets: The movie Stree’s take on the legend showed the ghost of the Nale Ba legend as a ghostly woman in red sari.

The story of Nale Ba is a popular folk legend that is told primarily in Karnataka, in the south western region of India that truly blew up in the 1990s, making it perhaps more of an urban legend than folklore as it was centered around the more developed areas.

During the crazy times in the 1990’s there were around 5 million people living in Bangalore and city experienced a rapid urbanization that turned the place to one of India’s most populated cities.

But this was then and many of those living there lived in fear of Nale Ba. Villagers wrote the words Nale Ba on the walls and doors for many years to protect themselves, giving the name to both the legend and the creature haunting them. Nale Ba or sometimes spelled Naale Baa (ನಾಳೆ ಬಾ) is a Kannada phrase that means come tomorrow in English. 

They wrote this exact phrase to protect their home from an evil spirit that tries to break in. What type of entity Nale Ba was supposed to be, was unclear. She was often referred to a so called Bridal Spirit as she was out to get a man to stay with her for eternity. She is also sometimes also referred to as a witch more than a ghost.

What her intentions were varied, but in some of the earlier versions she wore ragged clothes, had messy hair and asked for alms like a classic ‘do not open the doors to strangers’ legend.

But one of the more popular and retold stories is that she is roaming the streets hunting down the men to claim for herself. 

The Manhunt of the Bridal Ghost

In some variations of the Nale Ba legend it is a bridal ghost that is looking for a husband among the villagers, and she will stop at nothing to get him. Although the legend will probably never be as infamous as it’s peak in the 1990s, the urban legend have a habit of popping up from time to time.

What is also curious is that it is very similar to the widow ghost legend in Thailand where there also is a female entity hunting down the men:

The bridal spirit will usually go for the only son or the man of the house who is the only member of the family earning money, and therefore bringing bad luck not only to the poor man that is taken away, but to the entire family as they are left in ruin. 

Nale Ba: According to this legend there is a bridal ghost that goes from door to door in Bangalore in search of a man she can take with her to the afterlife.

She goes from door to door in the night and knocks on the doors, trying to get in. When she speaks through the door she speaks in the voice of your kin or familiar person, calling you by the name, so that you will open the door for her. But if you open it, you will most likely die according to the Nale Ba legend. 

This is why the villagers came up with the idea of writing Nale Ba on their doors and walls of their homes to protect themselves. The idea is that the bridal ghost or witch will read the words and come back another time. And the cycle will only continue and you will be protected. 

Leaving Nale Ba in the Past

The legend of Nale Ba, the haunting bridal ghost roaming the streets of rural Bangalore, continues to captivate the imaginations of locals and visitors alike. While the fear it once instilled may have subsided, the tale remains an intriguing part of the city’s folklore.

Over time, as Bangalore underwent urbanization and transformation into a bustling metropolis, the legend of Nale Ba gradually faded into the background. The growth and development of the city brought about new stories and urban myths, yet every now and then, a whisper of the infamous bridal ghost resurfaces.

In today’s modern era, the streets of Bangalore are abuzz with the sounds of progress and innovation, leaving behind the ghostly echoes of its past. Yet, hidden beneath the surface, the essence of these legends lingers, shaping a city that embraces its rich heritage while moving fearlessly towards the future.

So, next time you hear a knock on your door late at night, remember the spirit of Nale Ba and the importance of remaining vigilant. And should you ever encounter the whispers of an ancient legend, embrace it as a testament to the vibrant history and enduring spirit of the city of Bangalore.

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Ghosts are important

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