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Highway Nightmare
Special Thanks to >> AzNBaBiEGrL4u206 on iamkhmer.com
Along the North-South highway in Malaysia, there are various spots marked
with sign alerting drivers of crosswind. The dual carriageway is one of the
world's most advance expressway and hence, when designing it, one would
assume that the planners would not have built it with crosswind sections. The
expressway is open for 24 hours and thousands of vehicles use it everyday.
However, there is hardly anyone who has seen the wind indicator marking the
presence of such claimed crosswind.
I found out later that these sections are actually black spots for 'mystery
accidents'. As all these sections are neither winding nor slippery, the
authorities could not find any explanation of those accidents. A study revealed
that those areas are either cemetery sites of the local tribe before the highway
was built, or they were the so-called 'dark' areas by the local tribes. Therefore,
those crosswind warnings were put up just to warn drivers so that they are
more alert and careful as they were driving along those stretches, especially at
night since the highway is not lighted.
None of the accidents are, however, worth mentioning here. No one has ever
reported seeing a ghost or spirit driving them away from their senses or any
sort of unexplained phenomena happening there.
Nevertheless, there is an incident that happened on the highway that has
caught the attention of a lot of people. This incident does not happen along
any of those crosswind sections but, instead, near the tunnel on the northern
section of the highway. Before approaching the tunnel, drivers will go through
highly areas with the hill on one side and a sharp cliff on the other. The sharp
bends caused the authorities to put the speed limit down to 80kmph
(110kmph for most of the highway).
This story went public the first time when someone called in to the radio during
a ghost story programme. What make this story even more interesting are the
several calls later from witnesses and relatives to verify that the story is true.
The incident happened on a Malay couple with a small baby. They were driving
along the expressway on a late night. It must have been past 2am then and
there aren't many private cars at those hours. As they got near the tunnel,
their car broke down. Perhaps it is the hilly road, which put a lot of stress on
the car, that caused the car to broke down more than anything else.
The man stopped his car along the emergency lane and got off the car to see
if there was anything he could do. His wife was sitting at the back of the car
with their baby then. He got off the car, opened up the engine and apparently
was doing something there. The wife just waited in the car with their baby since
she is the type of people who has the slightest idea about cars.
As the engine cover was turned up, the lady could not see what her husband
was doing in front. Then, there was no noise at all. She started to get worried.
Perhaps more worried about not being able to get out of there than if there
would be anything wrong with her husband. Then the baby started crying. She
carried her up and tried to calm her down. However, the baby kept crying and
crying.
Afterwards, she noticed two police cars drove by. They slowed down as they
past her. As she thought they would stop, the police cars suddenly sped off.
Then she heard a shrieking break of the police cars ahead. Apparently, the
police stopped their cars under the lights of the tunnel about 100 metres
ahead.
Then, she started hearing the policemen shouting at her. They shouted at her
and asked her to get out of the car and run towards them. She got panic upon
hearing that. Then, worry about her baby's and her own safety, she grabbed
her baby, got out of the car and started running as fast as she could towards
the policemen. As she was running, they kept shouting at her to hurry and
asked her not to look back. As she almost got to where the policemen were,
she suddenly thought of her husband. She turn her head back to take a look
while continued running.
To her horror, she saw three 'pontianak' (see notes) with lots of blood on their
mouth. She saw one of them holding her husband's head and licking off the
dripping blood while two others were busy sucking the blood from the man's
body.
Two policemen, fearing that she may stop running upon seeing that, rushed to
her and dragged her into one of the police car. They shot off as fast as they
could after that. Seven policemen witnessed this incident. When the police got
there, the man was lying there headless and 'bloodless'. The police, after
interviewing the widow and the seven policemen who witnessed the incident,
decided to close the case.
In the radio programme, someone called up later to say that he was one of
the policemen there at that time while another called up claiming to be the
victim's uncle. He said he refused to believe the story and had applied for the
case to be reopened for investigation. He believes it was a murder case.
Another caller said his sister, the widow, was distressed after the incident and
he appealed to all listeners to believe that the story is true and be more
careful on the highway.
Notes on Pontianak':
Otherwise known as 'hantu kuntilanak among the Indonesians'. There are
many stories of the Malay vampire, commonly known to the locals in Malaysia
as pontianak. They have long hair and are usually thought of as females.
They kill their victims and then suck their blood. There are, however, different
opinions on the origins of this pontianak.
The most common belief is that the pontianak is usually the ghost of a
woman who died during childbirth, and she returns as a vengeful spirit who
hates to see other women have what she couldn't. So these spirits would
seduce men by appearing to them as a beautiful woman, and once they've
lured the unsuspecting males, will proceed to suck the life out of them. They
are also known to turn up at a childbirth and 'steal' the new-born baby away.
They do steal young women's life too as it is believed that the latter's blood
will keep them going.
An Indonesian friend of mine told me that hantu kuntilanak are actually
victims of road accidents who had lost a lot of blood in those accidents.
Therefore, they transform themselves into bloodsucking ghosts.
Perhaps the only reason they are called vampire is because they suck blood.
Otherwise, pontianaks do not have characteristic of the Western version of
vampire. They have more characteristics possessed by ghosts but are much
more violent. Hence, in my opinion, the term 'vampire' may not be such a
suitable term to call them but 'pontianak' should be a more appropriate term.
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