By Nicole Lee from Weekender, edited by Mothership.sg.

We asked five taxi drivers for the scariest places in Singapore. Let’s start with the mildest story:

1. The one with the mountain

Source

Driver Hock Huat was picking up a student from NUS. The student was heading to Ang Mo Kio. He decided to take the usual road, which is a drive along from PIE to Thomson. He was going to take a turn at Mount Pleasant when the student said, “Please take another way, I am not comfortable with Mount Pleasant.”

Hock Huat just told the student that his recommended route was faster and there is no point making a turn. And that was when the student then touched him on the shoulder.

“Why me?”

In shock from the touch, he immediately turned backwards and realized there was no one left in the taxi. Scared and confused, he turned back to the road and mistook a tree’s shadow for a man and swerved to avoid him.

He never went back to Mount Pleasant after that day.

2. The one with the leaves

 Source

Driver Jaffar was driving at night along Old Tampines Road when he saw a man in red flagging his taxi. He was rushing home, tired from a long day at home so he intended to ask if he was heading to the same area.

Jaffar realized the man was a lot older than he thought, as if he aged 10 years in the 10 seconds he took to drive closer to him. He decided to fetch him anyway as he did not want to leave a poor old man stranded all alone.

He said he was going to Changi, which was just a short distance away. He was yawning and turning up the radio as he was getting sleepy. When they went through a tunnel, the radio distorted so he turned it off and started to chat with his passenger to keep awake.

But when he turned around, he was gone. In his place was a small pile of leaves.

Jaffar decided to put them in the boot of the taxi, for fear that something bad would happen if he discarded them. And as it turned out, he started having spectacular luck picking up passengers for the month of the incident.

He never went back to Old Tampines after that day.

3. The one with the uninvited

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Driver Seng was on his way to his usual waiting spot at Jurong West at around 2am. He saw a teenager flagging a cab. He seemed drunk and tipsy, so Seng, being a father himself, wanted to ensure the passenger got home safe. The passenger was very quiet throughout the trip and there were no beeps from the passenger’s iPhone.

Seng finally arrived at Joo Koon and the passenger sobered up immediately, passing him $10 on each hand. Seng thought it was strange at first until the passenger got off.

He swore on his life that only one passenger came in. But two passengers exited his cab.

He never went back to Joo Koon after that day.

4. The one with the curse

Source

Driver Ravisatham was heading back from Sime Road after sending off a drunk party-goer from Zouk. Tired and disgusted by the puke left in his taxi by the passenger, he thanked his lucky stars that the shift was ending.

He saw an old lady with long gray hair in a white dress flagging his taxi. In that instance, he felt his goosebumps stand and he decided to drive past her.

Instantly, the stench in the taxi changed from the nauseating smell of puke to a heavy scent of jasmine leaves.

He thought nothing of it. But strangely for the rest of the month, every toddler who enters his taxi would start crying hysterically, every child who sat in his taxi would end up quietening down immediately and every other day he would find new aches in his arms, legs and body.

Eventually, he approached a master and was told there was a dead woman and her child sitting in his taxi for the past month. After saying the relevant prayers, the master managed to chain the spirits into a tree and immediately, he felt his aches improving.

He never went back to Sime Road after that day.

5. The one with the scariest tale

Source

We will let Driver Jackson take over from here:

“I was driving along Changi after dropping off a Caucasian couple. I saw these two teenagers in the distance flagging my cab so I decided they would be my last passengers of the day. Just nice they were heading to Yishun (where I live) too so I thought okay, I’ll end my shift after them.

They were very quiet throughout the whole trip and I think they were texting each other instead of talking to each other, so I thought maybe they had a quarrel or something. It was none of my business so I just drove faster and finally we reached Yishun.

And the minute my cab stopped, one idiot ran out of the right door and the other idiot ran out of the left door screaming “KUAI DIAN” (hurry in Chinese) and I can tell you girl, they run faster than ghosts! Scariest passenger award goes to them already.”

So now we know: ghosts are not the scariest thing in the world – non-paying customers are.

Top photo from here.

Original article contributed by Weekender.com.sg can be found here. For more articles on fun, food, travel, and what to do in Singapore, visit Weekender.com.sg