With the borders now wide open and travelling made easier, more and more people are discussing and planning to go overseas.

One of the easiest countries to enter without needing much planning is our neighbour Malaysia, as the country is just a short bridge away from Singapore.

Singapore Uncensored ask several Singaporeans what are the things they worried about the most when travelling to Malaysia or other countries and here are the responses.

Robbery and Petty Crime

Crime rates are higher compared to Singapore but it is really not as bad as one would imagine. Just think of the people commuting daily to work in Singapore.

A Malaysian told Singapore Uncensored: “Just don’t appear to be flashy and don’t wear jewellery or branded stuff, you will be safe”

Vehicle Theft

In Malaysia, vehicle theft is common. According to statistics reported by the Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia Bhd or known as VTRERC, they published a study stating that in year 2020 every 75 mins a vehicle is stolen countrywide.

A local Malaysian said that “No matter how old is your vehicle, always use a steering wheel lock and park in well-lit areas”

The steering wheel lock acts as a deterrent as carjackers will realise that it will take a longer time to steal the vehicle, therefore, giving up and looking for another target.

Kidnap

This is a crime that is very rare in Singapore but not unheard of in Malaysia.

Back in November 2021, a 13-year-old girl escapes from a kidnap attempt right in front of her school, reported Malay Mail.

The victim was taken onto a vehicle and drove for 400 meters before the young girl escaped.

Here is a statement published by the Malaysian Police:

“Police received a report on the attempted kidnapping incident that went viral on social media and investigations found that after the victim got down from her school van, she was approached by a man driving a Perodua Kancil car asking her to deliver a form to the school.

“The man then asked the victim to get in the car but she refused. The victim was then dragged into the vehicle and the suspect then off before the girl managed to escape about 400m away from the scene of the incident,”

Corrupted cops

This is nothing new and most veteran drivers going to Malaysia will always prepare a small amount of spare cash in the car.

This is also known infamously as the “Kopi money”.

A Singaporean once shared an incident at Johor Bahru Pelangi stating that a Malaysian Police gave up after realising that he could not get money out of it.

“I was at Pelangi and I made a U-turn, moments later a Police stop me and told me that I made an illegal U-turn. I straight away told him I have no money and its no problem if he issued me with a ticket.

The officer step away from the vehicle and discussed with two other Police officers before returning and said “You are free to go”

Recently an old video of a Police officer accepting a bribe has resurfaced on Facebook with over 1,000 shares

The story I’m going to tell you is true. It happened at my previous house at Toa Payoh (Location: the block opposite Phillip Factory Lorong 1). I shall not expose which floor I actually live so as not to frighten the existing occupant (just in case they read this site).

This incident happened many years ago. When my parents got married, they bought this unit and a year later they got me. At first, no eerie incidents happened but the moment I was born… all the nightmares began!!

You see, my parents were young at that time (25 yrs old) & still working. So, most of the time they’re not at home. Sometimes they sleep at my grandparent’s house. But only after they got me, that they spend more time at home and my mum resigned from her work to take care of me full-time.

According to my mum, when they first brought me home from the hospital, I refused to step into the house by crying hysterically as if noting there was an existence in it.

But my parents ignore the signs and brought me in without having a second thought. And on that night itself, something happened….

Mother

At around 3 am, my parents who were sleeping in the living room with me, heard the clinking sound of keys, as if worn around the waist of “somebody” in the kitchen toilet..

The sound grew louder and water gushed out from the tap in the toilet as if someone is relieving his “business” there. Then the toilet door was heard to be swung open and footsteps walking towards the living room!!

My mum and dad were terrified but kept cool and recite all the prayers they knew. My mum managed to keep her eyes slightly open because she was curious to see who it was. To her shock, there… standing at the Kitchen door was this tall black guy staring down at her with his bright red eyes before quickly disappearing.

Due to that incident, my mum was down with a fever for many days. Even by then, I was still crying day & night… even some of the neighbours popped in to ask what happen to me!! (I guess my cries have caused some inconveniences in their sleep!!)

My mum told them she do not know why I kept crying. Then, came the revelation of the strange happenings in the house…

History

According to one of the neighbours, a Chinese family ever reside here and the elderly man hangs himself in the room (which is my room, no wonder!), later the rest of the family moved out of that unit because one of the grandchildren actually saw their grandfather walking IN the kitchen wall…

That explains why during my primary school days I always wonder why there is a kind of hole (a metal hook) at the ceiling in my room… came to think about it maybe… that is the place where he hangs himself!! (Err, scary man..) Well, this is not all… wait till you hear what my dad encounters!!

One night, my mom & dad quarrelled over some small matter. My mum got so angry, she picked me up & went to her parents’ house leaving my dad alone at home.

Father

Everything seems ok but not when it was about 12 midnight… My dad was sleeping in my room (you know, that room!), and he heard someone in the kitchen washing dishes. He thought it was my mum but then he recalled, no, it was not his wife because his wife has left earlier on… Who is this in the kitchen??

He tried to console himself that it was his imagination but no, he heard footsteps coming towards the room… Guess what he saw?? A lady who exactly looked like my mum (his wife)!! He trembles, close his eyes and began to recite prayers. At that moment he can feel the cold smooth hand touching his own hands and caressing him, he then feels “her” lying down beside him.

Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe it. Fancy having a ghost sleeping beside you.. that must be a “gatal” (means mischievous) ghost!! But that’s the truth.. My dad tried to reach for the “Surah Yassin” that is placed above the bed head but seems that his hands got numb and heavier every time he tried to stretch it further… (Must be that ghost trying to prevent him from doing so!!)

So, do you know what happened next? The ghost hugged my poor dad throughout the whole night and left by dawn. And the moment she left, my dad quickly ride on his bike and find my mum at his in-law’s house and told her the whole story. My mum laughed at him and even joke, why didn’t he make love to that ghost?? But my dad was too shocked and trembled that he stayed dumb the whole day..

OK, you have heard about my dad’s encounters.. now it is my own encounter..

Me

There were always these 3 things that disturbed me throughout my 20 years living in that room. (Practically, it happens every night without fail)

1) My bed will suddenly shake in the middle of the night as if someone did it but everytime i check there was no one there

2) I would encounter both legs to be cramped in the middle of the night (after reciting some prayers & rubbing the legs the cramped soothe away),

3) The scratching sound at the aluminium window

And there is only one incident that I could not possibly forget throughout my whole life… it is the nightmare that I had!!

One night I dreamt that I was being dragged by a very strong force from my bed to my room door.

It seems so real because I’m sure that I feel that bed shaking again before being dragged down from the bed to the floor.

I tried to shout for help but my voice couldn’t come out. I choke and couldn’t breathe…I recite all the prayers I know… but still this “fellow” dragged me!

I was in a state of giving up but I tried again this time by shouting “ALLAH THE GREATEST, THE ALMIGHTY” 3 times!! And that “fellow” dropped me so hard to the floor exactly at my room door.

I suddenly woke up from my dream and thank God, I was still on my bed and not at the room door! I was so shaken by the dream (because it seems so real and I can actually feel my back aches) that I slept with my parents for the next 1 month.

Bomoh

Due to all these unwanted incidents, my parents had actually consulted a bomoh to cleanse the house. It is found that the disturbance came from a ghost called “Jerangkong”… (maybe the unrest soul of that elderly man himself)!!

Although the house has been cleansed and the ghost has been thrown into the nearby forest (behind Phillip factory near to Thompson), that “fellow” still comes back to the house… except that he couldn’t enter due to the protection.

Well, funny but true… there’s one time we found a few baby footings in black shade on the upper part of our front door. And in my room itself, at the aluminium window there are four finger print (as if someone is trying to open the window from outside). Though we try to clean it off with detergent, it still can’t be erased… so we paint over it.

And throughout i stay there for 20 years, it was like hell… my parents always quarrelled with each other and they even come to a stage of divorce! Luckily, we are able to calm down and did more prayers together… This helps to improve the unexplained strange feelings surrounding the house…

It’s true, even when we’re performing prayers, we can even feel that something is watching us or surrounding us like a vulcan and its prey!!

We could no longer stand such things and finally agreed to buy this new house at Hougang and move out from that “hell” house!! I’ve stayed at this Hougang house for nearly 3 years and so far no weird incident happen.

Except that I miss the shaking of the bed, you know, fancy living with it for 20 years and suddenly it just gone with the wind.. it is a bit not the norm… (ha..haaa..haaa)

And the best part, the occupant who took over the unit after we left is a Chinese family. And it happens to be my younger brother’s primary-schoolmate.

Well, I wish them good luck… Hope nothing bad happen to them…

Why is everyone so offended that I don’t want a wedding?!

I don’t want a wedding. I just want to go to the ROM. My boyfriend and I both don’t want to do the whole ceremony and formal reception.

He wants a barbecue-type party with friends and family to celebrate, no dj/band or photographers or floral arrangements or anything that goes along with a typical reception.

Both of our families are offended we don’t want to do the wedding thing.

For me, I dread being the center of attention and the idea of everyone I know staring at me all night is my absolute worst nightmare.

My mom saying it’s selfish not to have a wedding and stupid because of all the money we’d receive as gifts. His parents are devastated we never planned on a church wedding(which wouldn’t happen even if we decided to have a ceremony).

My aunt said I can’t ruin her dreams of me having her kids walk down the aisle as ring bearers/flower girls. That is everyone else’s opinions and desires. And not mine.

Am I so wrong as to not want a wedding?

Netizens’ comments

• I’m the same way. Weddings are overhyped, awkward, insanely expensive parties that the bride and groom don’t even get to enjoy.

• our aunt’s big dream of showing off her kids at your wedding?? Sorry, but this is so twisted it’s funny. I wish I was your friend to hug you and laugh together at what families can be. Relax. Tell your aunt she is free to get (another, eventually) wedding herself and torment her kids for the ceremony. Tell your mom everyone must be so perfectly healthy and content in life to make such a big deal over this. Your wedding. Your joyous occasion. They must not spoil it for you. Unless you’re unconsciously using their protest as a way to express your own inner doubts, there’s no reason why you should sacrifice this perfect day in your life for being a people pleaser. Plus, barbecues are fun.

A man recently shared his story of how his Vietnam wife ran away months after getting married.

Here is his story:

So I’m already in my 40s and I don’t really have the opportunity to meet anyone since my company has converted to 100% working from home and letting go of the office for cost-saving reasons and my social circle is all full of married people.

So I took the advice of my friend and went to a Vietnam bride agency, they gave me options to choose a package. Where I can meet 1 or 2 of them or several of them in the VIP $8888 package.

I decided to get the best package as I do not want to save money for finding the right partner. The agency flew 5 of them over after I picked them from the catalogue.

Most of them are in their early 20s and seem to be very young, 4 of them could speak mandarin and 1 could not. One of them caught my eye with a sweet smile and I thought that this was going to be a happy ending.

But deep down I know that there is an age gap and I would be a lot of patience.

Ran away

I did not host a grand wedding ceremony as I was not really proud of “buying a bride”, only my closest friends attended the ROM and we started living together.

Initially, there were some cultural differences and I am unable to eat her food except beef pho as I am not much of a vegetable eater. Luckily, she has some friends in Singapore and I thought that she will slowly adjust to Singapore after 2 months but I was so wrong.

So as per usual, I woke up with the smell of breakfast and I went to brush my teeth. But she was not home.

I assumed that she have gone to the supermarket and I continued working my day job from home. But after a few hours, I called her and the phone was off. Then I realised that there was a paper in the kitchen with the word “Sorry”.

I opened Facebook and contacted my wife’s friend who is also a Vietnamese bride.

She replied to me in a voice message in Mandarin saying “She needs time, She says you are too old she is very difficult with me”

I started to get worried and I called the bride agency but they told me that there was nothing they can do.

This is when I started to recall that all the smiles she had with me were quite fake…

She is an adult and she is not missing and there is nothing much I could do. I tried to contact her friend to get her back but my wife simply refused.

After 3 months I filed for an annulment of the marriage, really burn money…

A man who just graduated and step out into the workforce was kind enough to offer his parents an allowance despite not making a lot.

Hence he started asking the internet if it’s wrong for one to not give their parents an allowance.

His Scenario:

I just graduated from uni and started working with a monthly salary of 3k. When I talked to my parents about giving them an allowance (10% of my pay), they rejected my offer with the following reason:

1. My earning power isn’t alot. They want me to focus on saving up for myself first.
2. Both of my parents are still working. Their salary and savings are more than enough for them to retire. Hence, they don’t see a need for me to give them allowance.

However, after looking through online forums, this seems like a unfilial thing to do. What are your opinions on this?

Here are what netizens think:

• Your parents have already told you what you wanted to know. When you’re earning more, then they’ll probably be more open to taking the allowance. If your parents have already told you, you don’t have to care whether it’s unfilial (from the pov of others) or not, people’s tongues will always wag.

• Its their choice. If they dont need it – dont give. Alternatively take them out for dinners, give them gifts

• You’ve got good parents. Don’t feel guilty please, you have the rest of your life to be good to them.

• This. If your parents don’t want to take your allowance, then they don’t care for it. Meeting them, having a meal with them, or going on holidays with them would be more valued by them than allowance.

• Your parents seem like the really understanding sort. As others may have said, you can certainly express your gratitude to them via other means in all the other little things — help them with housework (if you’re still living with them), volunteer to get lunch/dinner for them, buy the occasional household appliances for them if there is a need. In my experience, parents usually won’t mind us doing that.

My husband doesn’t want our child to call him dad.

My husband (24M), and I (25F) got married almost a year ago. However 6 months ago I found out I was pregnant due to our birth control failing.

We had both wanted children in the future, and this was just a bit sooner than either of us had expected, so I keep the child.

While discussing our future child’s first words; specifically I asked if he thought they would be “dada” or “mama”. This lead to him saying he actually doesn’t want our child to call him dad, because it will make him feel old.

This felt very odd to me. He is responsible for this child being brought into the world, but he wants them to call him by his first name?

When I brought this up he said I have no right to try and dictate, what our child should call him. I am really not understanding this, and when ever I try and talk to him about it he makes me feel like I am the bad guy.

Any advice on where to go from here?

Netizens’ comments

Husband looks like he is going through something deeper.

Surface level response: I will feel old

If that is his true feelings that is ridiculous. He’s 24 years old, having a kid on the early side.

I would want him to reflect if there is more going on here.

Anxiety about parenting? Anxiety about big life change? Things like that. Not “I will feel old if my kid calls me dad.” if that is true jesus, you are in for some rough parenting.

How to deal with dismissive soon to be fiancé/husband, toxic in law?

I am going to get married to a guy.

He doesn’t put in effort in planning things (dates/trips/wedding etc) until after multiple “pushes” and arguments. We had a lot of arguments which resulted in him wanting to handle the remaining items of the wedding. But every time I check in for updates, I can see he doesn’t actively chase for one from the vendors that we will end up arguing.

When we argue, he likes to be dismissive of my emotions and just end up running away/wanting to bring forward the problems to another day. Sometimes when we do have the time to talk things out at night, I get blamed for always starting an argument at night but to me that was the only time we were able to talk things through (without our daily job being in the way), & somehow things always get heated up.

What’s worse is, we both had multiple discussions on shifting the marriage forward (allowing us to save cost & yet spend more time with each other at home instead of going out for dinners/trips). Every now and then, he brings it up and blames me for wanting to shift the dates earlier (bc not financially ready & having to rush the booking of wedding items). We have already signed a few vendors for our wedding and so for him to bring it up multiple times, it makes me rethink like whether I’m the only one who wants to settle down asap. Ps, we already have an excel sheet which I have done up & asked him to look at a few times to let him know how we are financially but he refuses to do so bc he just “doesn’t wanna think abt it”. He only had time to “think” when his mum asked him to calculate how much he can contribute. Somehow, the shifting of our wedding date, was not an issue when he and I have already booked things and make downpayments, it only became an issue when his mum wants things to be done her way and I am not 100% receptive.

Also I really thought his mum was nice and welcoming. I am not a confrontational person and I would try to people please as much as I can. But somehow, I am doubting if I really got the right impression of her and if it’s worth it to give in this much.

Along the journey of our planning for engagement and wedding, we have already gotten her inputs and suggestions. From venue, rings, deco, food etc. She wanted to invite more people and wants to include her own dessert table without consulting me, the other person in this marriage. She also wanted her friend to source our rings for us. But because she was upset at my partner’s lack of communication, she was “forcing” us to accept her and his family’s help for decorating some gifts.

Tbh, it is really a small item out of everything but it was something I had to source for, paid for and agreed with my partner that this was something we wanted to sit down and accomplish together. & given how we had already met most of her demands, I just really wanted this one for myself and my partner. To have something to look back on and smile knowing how much pain we had to go through. I told him multiple times that it’s really nice of her to want to help, but let’s have an attempt at it by ourselves first before we go to her if we really need that help.

Then, his mum started saying unreasonable things to my partner like “if you don’t accept our help, then no one would be there at your funeral”… I was taken aback because why does she have to take it that far? To bring up death during a planning for supposed joyous occasion? & my partner had already tried to explain that it was supposed to be something meaningful where we diy it.

At first she had accepted it, or so I thought. But when my partner are arguing over a trivial matter, he brought it up again and he himself was threatening me saying that since I don’t want to let his mum take over the decoration of gifts, I should at least do it at his house where his mum can oversee things, and if not, it would be the end of us.

I felt so pressured and I just couldn’t sit with that idea. What I initially thought we had agreed on, doing it together without anyone judging us or overlooking us, became something where I had to accept some hidden “terms and conditions”.

You can guess I was distraught at the thought of potentially losing my loved one over something small and so I completely backed down and just gave up having anything to do with it. Instead, I told him to go do it with his family and I’ll just accept whatever the end product is.

I wake up today, still feeling awful. That I have no control over something that I have spent my money on. That I have to swallow whatever harsh things she had said/will say throughout the remainder of our journey. I’m not sure if I can be spineless and just accept every jab of hers.

& I can sense my partner is slowly turning his back against me. I am contemplating whether I should still continue with this relationship with him switching up on his words like this and also already dreading dealing with his mum. I still love him a lot, but how much more do I have to give in/compromise? How do I make this work?