More Singapore Stories II BY Rozie

When the Brunei Government acquired a piece of land from Singapore an embassy or referred as a high commission for Commonwealth countries was built along Tanglin Road just outside Orchard area. The first impression people got when they saw the embassy was that it looked like a fortress because of the way it was built and the gates around the compound...

The local Singaporeans, especially the taxi drivers in the old days never like that place, there were stories of them picking up a lonely female passenger or she's carrying a baby in the middle of the night only to find her disappear and leaving behind leaves and stones in the back seat when they reach their destination, usually near an old graveyard which had been relocated, and the passengers would always originate near the location of the current embassy now. I remembered that plot of land has always been empty because people were scared. In a way I think the Singapore government got a good deal as they managed to get rid of that particular plot, but that's my theory.

I remembered after we moved into the residence that was built in the compound next to the embassy building the house had three levels. The ground floor, first floor and the basement. The first floor was cosy as it had only three bedrooms and a small family room. The ground floor was mainly the large living space with two guest rooms on the left and the kitchen, dining rooms on the right of the space. And the stairs leading down to the basement on your way towards the guest rooms. The basement was basically a large open space, with the intention for the place to be used for entertaining as it also have a kitchenette which links up with the main kitchen via a dumb waiter, and the dumb waiter have an intercom. One of the stories was came from the maids, when they're in the main kitchen, they would hear noises coming from the intercom like people talking, and they very well knew there was nobody home at that time, let alone in the basement.

Another story was in the room I stayed in, it was late at night, I was up reading a book, all was quiet. I had large windows on two sides of the room and one side overlooked the embassy, and the other window lead onto the roof of the house, and the curtains were drawn. All of the sudden I heard three sharp knocks coming from the window that overlooked the embassy, I know very well it's impossible for anyone to knock on the window without having a ladder at least. I debated on whether to flip the curtain to look or pretend I didn't hear anything. Curiosity got the better of me and I took a look. All I saw was the pale yellow glow of the street lights outside casting shadows all around. I tried to see if there was a figure or anything to indicate a presence that might have lead to the knocking, a bird at least. Nothing. I went to bed with the lights on that night.

There was one time I had a friend who stayed over, she and I were were really into ghost stories and was really into that whole True Singapore Ghost Stories books that were really popular. At that time, I had positioned the bed between the door and window which faced each other, basically you open the door and you're looking straight out the window, so the bed is in between. It was a double bed so I was sleeping facing the door and my friend was facing the window. That night, half asleep, I remembered vaguely that the door was slightly ajar, and I remembered locking the door and thought oh she must have gone out to get a drink or something and went back to sleep. I woke up again when I felt like as if somebody was blowing across my ear, this cold wind, and I thought she was trying to freak me out, and I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction she woke me up and ignored it and fell back asleep. The next morning I asked her why on earth was she blowing across my ear for when I was sound asleep. She looked at me all quizzically like as if I've gone mad, because as far as she was concerned, she was asleep and didn't wake up at all until morning.

Remember the story of the dark figure that was sitting by the steps at the colonial house in the previous entry? Well, I guess it must have followed us when we moved. This time it was the steps that lead to the pool that was on the other side of the embassy. The security guard was doing his rounds and was just descending the steps that was leading towards the pool when he saw a dark figure sitting on the steps. He thought it was his buddy as there are now two guards on duty at any one time, and approached the figure. As soon as he was next to it, the figure rose, looked at him straight in the face and disappeared. The other security guard came around looking for his buddy when he didn't turn up after a while, only to find him passed out on the steps.

These happen to be the few incidents that was involved when I was staying there, wasn't there for long as my parents got sent of somewhere else and I went back to Brunei to continue my schooling, I don't know if there were anymore incidents regarding the embassy and surroundings, probably are, just haven't heard about it. Wouldn't it be great if we do...