Ghost stories
Dumas Beach · Black Sand
The sand at Dumas Beach is black, said to be the ash left from the cremations carried out here by the British. There have been many drownings, and the local...
Dumas Beach · Black Sand
The sand at Dumas Beach is black, said to be the ash left from the cremations carried out here by the British. There have been many drownings, and the local...
Kuldhara · A Village Emptied in One Night
Kuldhara once held several hundred households. It is said that a local man of power wanted a woman of the village, and that the whole village left in a single...
Kuldhara · A Village Emptied in One Night
Kuldhara once held several hundred households. It is said that a local man of power wanted a woman of the village, and that the whole village left in a single...
Bhangarh Fort · Entry Forbidden After Sunset
Bhangarh is a ruined fort and an emptied village in Rajasthan. The settlement inside the walls was abandoned, and entry after sunset is officially prohibited. The stated reasons are practical...
Bhangarh Fort · Entry Forbidden After Sunset
Bhangarh is a ruined fort and an emptied village in Rajasthan. The settlement inside the walls was abandoned, and entry after sunset is officially prohibited. The stated reasons are practical...
Krakatoa · An Explosion Heard Half a World Away
When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the sound was heard four thousand kilometres away, the tsunami rose above thirty metres, more than thirty thousand people died, and the sky stayed red...
Krakatoa · An Explosion Heard Half a World Away
When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the sound was heard four thousand kilometres away, the tsunami rose above thirty metres, more than thirty thousand people died, and the sky stayed red...
The Coast of the Southern Sea Goddess · Do Not ...
Parangtritis, on the south coast of Java, belongs to the Queen of the Southern Sea. She is said to rule the waters to the south, and the sultans of Yogyakarta...
The Coast of the Southern Sea Goddess · Do Not ...
Parangtritis, on the south coast of Java, belongs to the Queen of the Southern Sea. She is said to rule the waters to the south, and the sultans of Yogyakarta...
Tangkuban Perahu · A Boat Built in One Night
From a distance Tangkuban Perahu looks like an upturned boat, and the story told below it is that of Sangkuriang: refused by his mother, he swore to dam a river...
Tangkuban Perahu · A Boat Built in One Night
From a distance Tangkuban Perahu looks like an upturned boat, and the story told below it is that of Sangkuriang: refused by his mother, he swore to dam a river...
Mount Bromo · What Is Thrown into the Crater
The crater of Mount Bromo smokes all year, and its ash has piled into a black sea of sand. Before dawn, more people come up for the sunrise than there...
Mount Bromo · What Is Thrown into the Crater
The crater of Mount Bromo smokes all year, and its ash has piled into a black sea of sand. Before dawn, more people come up for the sunrise than there...
Bali’s Mother Temple · Black Clouds Above a Hun...
Besakih, the mother temple of Bali, stands on the slope of Mount Agung, approached between rows of black shrines wrapped in palm fibre that is replaced once a year. Before...
Bali’s Mother Temple · Black Clouds Above a Hun...
Besakih, the mother temple of Bali, stands on the slope of Mount Agung, approached between rows of black shrines wrapped in palm fibre that is replaced once a year. Before...
Toraja Hanging Graves · Family on the Cliff
The Toraja treat the dead as patients: the body stays in the house for weeks or years, until the family can afford the funeral. Coffins hang from the cliff faces,...
Toraja Hanging Graves · Family on the Cliff
The Toraja treat the dead as patients: the body stays in the house for weeks or years, until the family can afford the funeral. Coffins hang from the cliff faces,...
Prambanan · The Ramayana Taken Apart
The spires of Prambanan are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, and the galleries carry the whole of the Ramayana carved in relief. An earthquake in the sixteenth century brought...
Prambanan · The Ramayana Taken Apart
The spires of Prambanan are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, and the galleries carry the whole of the Ramayana carved in relief. An earthquake in the sixteenth century brought...
Borobudur · The Tower Buried Again in Volcanic Ash
Borobudur is the largest Buddhist structure in the world: nine terraces of a mandala, with more than five hundred Buddha figures arranged along the galleries. Less than two hundred years...
Borobudur · The Tower Buried Again in Volcanic Ash
Borobudur is the largest Buddhist structure in the world: nine terraces of a mandala, with more than five hundred Buddha figures arranged along the galleries. Less than two hundred years...
Pontianak · The City Named After a Ghost
The city of Pontianak takes its name from the ghost of the local tradition — a woman who died in childbirth. She appears at night, and it is said you...
Pontianak · The City Named After a Ghost
The city of Pontianak takes its name from the ghost of the local tradition — a woman who died in childbirth. She appears at night, and it is said you...
Lawang Sewu · The Building with a Thousand Doors
Lawang Sewu means “a thousand doors”. It was the office of a Dutch colonial railway company; the basement once held prisoners, and executions were carried out there as well. Today...
Lawang Sewu · The Building with a Thousand Doors
Lawang Sewu means “a thousand doors”. It was the office of a Dutch colonial railway company; the basement once held prisoners, and executions were carried out there as well. Today...
Ipoh Old Town · The Dance Hall Above the Empty ...
Ipoh grew rich on tin. Old Town is left with rows of two-storey shophouses and several empty buildings; by day it is a district of murals and coffee shops. The...
Ipoh Old Town · The Dance Hall Above the Empty ...
Ipoh grew rich on tin. Old Town is left with rows of two-storey shophouses and several empty buildings; by day it is a district of murals and coffee shops. The...
Cameron Highlands · The Old Road Through the Te...
Cameron Highlands was developed by the British as a hill station, its valleys laid out with tea plantations, fog drifting from the corner of the road across the surface. Drivers...
Cameron Highlands · The Old Road Through the Te...
Cameron Highlands was developed by the British as a hill station, its valleys laid out with tea plantations, fog drifting from the corner of the road across the surface. Drivers...
The Niah Caves · A Person Buried in the Cave fo...
In the Niah Caves of Sarawak, human remains 40,000 years old were found at the West Mouth. The caves were also used by generations of swiftlet-nest collectors, who drove a...
The Niah Caves · A Person Buried in the Cave fo...
In the Niah Caves of Sarawak, human remains 40,000 years old were found at the West Mouth. The caves were also used by generations of swiftlet-nest collectors, who drove a...
Mount Kinabalu · The Woman Who Waited on the Su...
Mount Kinabalu is one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia. Its summit is a bare granite platform, and at sunrise a sea of cloud passes below your feet. The...
Mount Kinabalu · The Woman Who Waited on the Su...
Mount Kinabalu is one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia. Its summit is a bare granite platform, and at sunrise a sea of cloud passes below your feet. The...
St Paul’s Church · The People Buried Under the ...
St Paul’s Church in Malacca was built by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Dutch took it over and used it as a burial ground and a fortification; today...
St Paul’s Church · The People Buried Under the ...
St Paul’s Church in Malacca was built by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Dutch took it over and used it as a burial ground and a fortification; today...
Mahsuri’s Tomb · The Ground the White Blood Ran...
Mahsuri of Langkawi was falsely accused of adultery. Before her execution she said that her blood would be white, and that if she had been wronged Langkawi would not prosper...
Mahsuri’s Tomb · The Ground the White Blood Ran...
Mahsuri of Langkawi was falsely accused of adultery. Before her execution she said that her blood would be white, and that if she had been wronged Langkawi would not prosper...
The Snake Temple, Penang · The Snakes That Came...
The Snake Temple in Penang is dedicated to Chor Soo Kong, and numbers of venomous snakes lie coiled inside it. Worshippers share the hall with them, and the snakes mostly...
The Snake Temple, Penang · The Snakes That Came...
The Snake Temple in Penang is dedicated to Chor Soo Kong, and numbers of venomous snakes lie coiled inside it. Worshippers share the hall with them, and the snakes mostly...
Pudu Prison · The Mural Is Still on the Wall
Pudu Prison in central Kuala Lumpur was built in 1895. Over more than a hundred years it held tens of thousands of people, and it was also where the death...
Pudu Prison · The Mural Is Still on the Wall
Pudu Prison in central Kuala Lumpur was built in 1895. Over more than a hundred years it held tens of thousands of people, and it was also where the death...
Genting Highlands · The Empty Rooms in the Resort
Genting Highlands stands on a summit at 1,700 metres and is the only legal casino in Malaysia. Fog lies on the mountain most of the year. Several stories circulate here...
Genting Highlands · The Empty Rooms in the Resort
Genting Highlands stands on a summit at 1,700 metres and is the only legal casino in Malaysia. Fog lies on the mountain most of the year. Several stories circulate here...
Kellie’s Castle · The Lift That Was Never Insta...
Kellie’s Castle at Taiping was built by a Scotsman, Kellie Smith, for his wife. He died in Portugal while the work was half done, and the house was never completed....
Kellie’s Castle · The Lift That Was Never Insta...
Kellie’s Castle at Taiping was built by a Scotsman, Kellie Smith, for his wife. He died in Portugal while the work was half done, and the house was never completed....
The Ifugao Rice Terraces · Fields Built Over Tw...
The rice terraces of Ifugao were built by hand two thousand years ago, stone carried and laid along the mountain up into the clouds, with irrigation water led down from...
The Ifugao Rice Terraces · Fields Built Over Tw...
The rice terraces of Ifugao were built by hand two thousand years ago, stone carried and laid along the mountain up into the clouds, with irrigation water led down from...