My Scary Story: Wangsa Maju Part 2

Part 1 here

I thought they were trying to scare me, so I refused to believe that they were ghosts! Back then that seemed so nuts, and I thought it must be a cultural difference. I mean, in UK you hardly hear about haunted places and then all of a sudden I come to Malaysia and I start experiencing all this madness!

I went down to the bottom floor and went to see another friend of ours, a girl who lived on the ground floor. I really liked that girl and she seemed so straightforward, no bullshit type of girl. She used to smoke which is kind of looked down on for females over there, but she didn't care. She had big dreams about her future and really wanted to go to the UK for Uni. I found her outside her condo, smoking away with her mum hanging out the washing. I asked her about the pool. I didn't even get to tell her about what happened when she told me to not swim in it. She said that some kids had drowned and that apparently one little boy that had drowned in it, and that he had been with his dad when it happened. Apparently the kid was swimming just fine but then drowned and the father didn't even notice it happening right next to him. Her mum was saying stuff as well in Malay that she translated, about how the place was haunted, and that I should pray and not pay attention to them.

After talking to her I went back up, and my hubby said that he had remembered something that had happened to him when he was younger in the pool. He said that one time he had gone swimming with his brother and sister and that the pool was not that deep. He remembers swimming around and then dipping underneath the water as kids do. He then told me that he remembers trying to go up to the surface. when something grabbed his leg and held him under. He struggled for a bit until his sister noticed and pulled him up. My husband is a very honest man so I have no reason to doubt him.

That evening more friends came over and they started sharing their stories of that block. They all had lived in it at some point, or were frequent visitors. Most were just seeing shadows etc but one scared me so much. So in this certain block of flats you usually enter the place through the car park. We were staying at the top level but you can take an elevator down to the ground level, so you are kind of below the car park, with big concrete blocks. This guy said that one time he went down there to smoke, and that he looked up and saw a ghost/demon/evil looking man glaring back at him. He was between the 2 pillars and supporting himself by putting his legs on either pillar to hold himself up. He stared at this guy in an evil way and this guy was freaking out but started saying a prayer and decided to silently walk away without annoying the thing further. Since then he didn't go down there. But funny thing is that when I used to leave the car park to get into the lift, I also got a creepy vibe from looking down at the lower level. I think he mentioned that someone had hung themselves down there.

Well that's pretty much all I got for Wangsa Maju apart from seeing some shadows in the apartment, but who doesn't see shadows right??!! :p I have a couple more stories from Malaysia, I'm starting to think the whole place is haunted, as well as stories that other people have told me. Til next time!

My Scary Story: Wangsa Maju Part 1

I don't post on here very often anymore. But my scary story I did nearly 3 years ago about Genting Highlands Amber Court still gets so many hits! I thought I would share another one with the internet world, I seem to have collected a few over the years :) This one is based again in Malaysia, in an area of Kuala Lumpur known as Wangsa Maju.

I spent a lot of time during my late teens/ early 20s in Kuala Lumpur. My husband is from there and after we graduated from high school, we used to spend our summer vacations going over. One of those summers, we stayed at Wangsa Maju. His parents owned a condo there with a lovely view of the KL towers (I won't say which block of apartments they were). They were still abroad working for the Malaysian government, so we were pretty much alone apart from the odd visit from his brother or his uncle. The place was alright, although I really didn't like the vibe of the place. But I didn't mind it so much. Around the back was a tennis court and a swimming pool. Sometimes at night we would go down and place basketball and just sit around. We would sometimes go very early in the morning (we were teenagers, our body clock was nuts).

One night, around 11pm we decided to go down to the tennis courts to play some b-ball. You have to walk from the lift all the way down this path, past the swimming pool to get to the court. My husband was bouncing the ball, doing silly tricks etc and then something caught my eye. There were 3 kids in the swimming pool, one small boy, and 2 girls. I hadn't noticed anyone in the pool from when we first got out because of these huts that were blocking our view of the pool. My husband was talking away and I just stared at these kids as we past them. The funny thing is that they didn't make any noise, and they were playing beforehand but when they saw me staring, they all stopped what they were doing and stared back. It was very creepy to say the least. My husband saw them too but he kept bouncing. These kids would not stop staring at me, and we looked at each other until we got out of sight. When we were down at the court I asked my hubby why they were allowed to play so late? In UK usually you aren't allowed in the pool at night and I was surprised that no adult was with them. I couldn't see anyone looking from the window either so I was kind of worried for the kids. Another thing was that they were all wearing white clothes, no bathing suits. We went to the far side of the court so I couldn't really see them anymore, and we played our game and when we headed back they were not there, so we assumed they had come to their senses and gone inside.

The next day, my husbands friend came round, and my hubby asked his friend at what time the pool is supposed to shut (he lived in the same block). He said that it shuts at sundown, so around 6-7pm. He asked us why and we explained how we saw the kids playing around and how we were kind of worried. His friend looked very shocked and started speaking in Malay to my husband.

My husband turned to me and said that 3 kids had drowned in the pool in the past at different occasions, 2 girls and a little boy...

part 2 coming soon!

Holiday to Malaysia!

I have booked my holiday to Malaysia and will be going there at the end of March, which I am excited about :) There are a few things I wanna do when I go there, which I haven't done yet in the last 3 times I have been there.

I think I have done pretty much everything else in KL, maybe I can be a bit more adventurous and go outside of KL :)

Book Review: Burqalicious

I just finished reading Burqalicious by Becky Wicks. The synopsis goes like this:

"As a sassy young woman used to blagging, blogging and slogging her way through dreary London, the call of a glamorous, tax-free lifestyle in sunny Dubai just couldn't go unanswered. During two and a half years, an entire city rose from the dust around Becky, along with a good few rungs of that hard-to-climb career ladder. She was a celebrity editor in a land where sex definitely does not sell and spent most nights in a five-star blur of champagne luxury. For two and a half years, Dubai gave Becky everything, but it all got a bit messy - not least because a wealthy jealous Arab made her his mistress. These days, shamed rule-breakers and failed entrepreneurs are a dime a dozen in Dubai, but it wasn't always so tragic. Becky lifts the burqa behind the razzle-dazzle and what it was really like to live in the world's fastest up and coming city." 

I enjoyed reading her blogging account of her adventures in Dubai and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is thinking of moving there, especially if you are a western non-Muslim. You would probably relate to her better if you are a fun-loving, beer drinking Brit as the majority of her stories revolve around her bar-hopping and being a rich Arab guys mistress :p It's definitely a page turner but like other Dubai-based books I have read, it has left me feeling like the Dubai dream is over, as her dream of a glamorous life there begins to slowly unravel. I give it a 3/5 :)

Book Review: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Rarely do i watch a film and then read the book it was based on, but here is an exception :)

I saw the film a couple of years ago and even though it got bad reviews, i still enjoyed it. It was quite conflicting with the girl being so innocent and sweet vs. the dark side of her killer. Watching the movie definitely gave me chills and so i wanted to read the book to see if it was even better than the movie.

To be honest, i preferred the portrayal of the girl in the movie as in the book she seems a bit tougher and more upfront, and the killer did not come across as menacing also. In the movie I actually cried towards the end, maybe because i am a mother now and i am all emotional about innocent children, but i thought the cinematography was brilliant.

In the book i got a little bored towards the end and actually just scanned over the last few chapters as it got kind of mundane. Overall i think the plot is good, and i enjoyed the way the story was told. I would rate the book 6/10 and definitely recommend the movie!

Book Review- Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

 

 

my latest book read is of “Princess”. This book is told in the first person by “princess sultana”, a member of the the Al Saud royal family. her story is of her life as the youngest daughter of her family through to raising her own children, and she also shares stories of other women from Saudi Arabia that she has heard and experienced over the years. The stories are shocking, and by the end of it I am really appalled by the actions of some individuals that she came across. I think it is a very important read, just to really open people’s eyes to the life of a woman in Saudi Arabia. Although princess sultana is one of the very lucky few, the women's lives around her are very saddening even though they are incredibly wealthy.

 

without giving too much away i am happy for her by the end of the book, but i know her life story is not over yet. if you are curious to learn more about the workings of the saudi royals, you should deffo read this book! I believe she has written a few more books which i look forward to reading in the future as i am curious to know about her daughters lives.

whilst reading this book i hear news that saudi arabia has finally allowed women to vote! i know i should feel happy, but deep down i honestly think there are more important issues to deal with than letting a woman tick a box life child brides for example, but that’s for a different post!

peace! xx

Book Review: Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody

I just finished reading Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody. It has always been a book that I have wanted to read as it is a hot topic and certainly a worrying one for myself. it is based on a true story of Betty, an American woman who marries an Iranian man and ends up going with him for a 2 week holiday to Iran with their 5 year old daughter. Unfortunately for her, her husband was never planning on returning to USA, and so she is trapped in Iran and subjected to her abusive husband and his family.

To be honest, the book definitely was very drawn out, with not much really taking place until the last few chapters of the book. a lot of the book was just describing what ingredients she bought for dinner, and about her daily schedule. but i have to remind myself that this isn't a fiction novel, but an account of what really took place, so from that perspective i can see that she has to include all these mundane tasks to add to the plot as that is exactly what her existence in Iran was like; mundane at best.

the description of her surroundings is very colourful and helps you to imagine the living conditions she was in, actually after the first couple of chapters i felt a bit sick :(

I was impressed by her bravery, but also surprised that she would put her daughter in that position, when it comes to planning her escape. As much as i wouldn’t like to be stuck in a country i don’t want to be in, i don’t think i could put my child at that much risk.

All in all it was a good read, but I was left wanting to know the husbands side of the story!