Southeast Asia is more popular for its pristine beaches, tropical weather, amazing dive spots, night markets and rich culture. So it would be quite a shock if I tell you that it has its fair share of creepy places that tourists are still interested to visit. Here are the 5 most haunted places that you should or should not visit in Southeast Asia.

ST JOHN’S ISLAND, SINGAPORE

You wouldn’t expect to hear haunted places in a busy and very progressive country like Singapore, but they also have their own horror stories to tell. The scariest and perhaps the goriest of them all is from the little island called St. John. It was used as a quarantine center for people who have leprosy, beri-beri and cholera centuries ago, after that Japanese Army took over during the WWII. Legend has it that during their past time, Japanese soldiers would play in a human-sized chessboard with their prisoners as chess pieces. Right then and there, captured pieces/prisoners are beheaded. Visitors swore to hear wailings at night coming from the harmless looking black and white board.

DIPLOMAT HOTEL, PHILIPPINES

Enter at your own peril. The hill where this building stands has one of the best panoramic view of the city but that is not the main reason it is flocked by tourists, it is the hauntings seen and experience by locals and other guests here that attract brave souls to visit. Once a grand structure built originally as a seminary for the Dominican priests, now lay in ruins and left to decay. The seminary was then converted into a hotel in the early 70’s but sightings of headless priests and floating nuns are said to haunt its halls at night. Prepare yourself for some hair raising experience when you visit this abandoned hotel.

SOI SAI YOOD, BANGKOK

Cemeteries are instant location for spooky Halloween tales, mainly because it is a place for the dead to rest.  But would a cemetery for old buses and vehicles be as terrifying, too? The answer is yes in an old bus cemetery in Thailand where bizarre things are said to happen whenever a lonesome driver pass by its vicinity. These buses are wreckage from major accidents which most of the time result to fatalities. So it isn’t surprising to see constant apparitions of the dead passengers go running towards incoming cars and suddenly disappear into thin air.

HIGHLAND TOWERS, MALAYSIA

The Highland Towers were home to middle-class families since late 70’s and has 3 similar-looking apartment buildings on site. But one fateful afternoon of December 1993, one of their buildings collapsed along with its residents resulting to 48 deaths. Remaining people were evacuated right away leaving the towers in shambles and decay. But thrill seekers who happen to visit the area for paranormal activity still hear screams for help from innocent occupants who lost their lives from the tragedy.

LAWANG SEWU, INDONESIA

A magnificent colonial estate was headquarters for Dutch East Indies Company. Aside from its attractive architectural design with many doors and arcs, this place is also topping Indonesia’s list of most haunted places. During WWII, Japanese soldiers took over this beautiful manor and turned it into a garrison where the basement area was regarded as their prison. Prisoners of war met gruesome torture and cruelty, even beheaded for leisure. This is why most apparitions are of headless ghosts, while others claim of hearing footsteps of a person with a heavy ball and chain.

These places are not for the faint-hearted. Visit these places if you dare but don’t say we didn’t warn you.