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Maria Labo: The Disfigured Face Of The Aswang · Tales from Incredible Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Just to check, is the correct answer when God asks you,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Am I pretty? Is the correct answer yes?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Is the correct answer yes?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: My name is
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Pha. My name is Wayne. My name is
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Kyle, and this is Tales from Incredible Tales, inspired by
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the classic Mediacorp series where we explore different aspects of
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Southeast Asia's supernatural culture.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Tonight we talk about the Aswan from the Philippines.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Is it a vampire, a werewolf, a witch, or all
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of the above? This episode's topic is inspired by the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: original Incredible Tales episode,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Babyface.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: In an article we read, there's a theory that the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: word Aswan is probably a shortened form of assu assuan.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Which means the likeness of a dog. Despite that possible origin,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the arguably more popular idea is that Aswang is an
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: umbrella term that covers vampires, viscera suckers, which, as the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: name suggests, fits on internal organs where dogs, witches, and ghouls.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Which version of the Aswang have you heard that is
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: most associated with?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Come home from the Philippines.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: OK, OK, OK, OK, knowing, knowing what kind of questions
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we're gonna have later on, I will tentatively say for
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: now that the first version, if we, if we go
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: by the theory that the Aswang is like a blanket
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: term for all the creatures and spirits in the Philippines, right,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I guess Maranaga would be the first.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Filipino first Philippines specific creature and spirit that I heard of,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, likewise, I cannot, uh, I cannot unsee
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: that because, uh, last season you shared with us, uh.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Werewolf of Hougang story werewolf of what? Werewolf of Hougang, yes,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: so last season we, long story short, I basically saw
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: what amounts to a giant werewolf and it chased me.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Oh really? Yes. Here's the thing. When I read the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: phrase were dog, and they're very specific about were dog,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I have to say slightly scary.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all I can think of, all I can think
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: about is a very angry poodle, and I'm like, hm,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: we do, well, yeah, so for me it's, it's, so
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: what your answer is, yeah, werewolf of Hougang.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Let's, let's assume that the werewolf, uh, uh, immigrated from
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the Philippines, or, or, or it could be our local
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: were werewolf la. You can, you can, you can kind
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of pass off the idea of like werewolves or like.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: You know those like vampires because we were colonized, right?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So you, the Europeans, maybe somehow they brought it over, right?
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: We don't know what like I, I love that when
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you say vampire, you pop the full Dracula approach. Yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: How are you, man? What's the, what's the first Aswang
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that you heard of?
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I think, uh, is the Mananaangal.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I think the Aswang is to the Philippines what is
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: to Singapore, Malaysia, possibly, possibly, yeah, I've said it before, lah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Visually, it is of all Southeast Asian creatures and visually
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Maranaangal is my favorite, which is a very weird thing
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to say about any kind of ghost. It's your favorite.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: You like hits?
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, yes, but also it's for me it's
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the wings. It's the wings that Marangga has.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: That no offense to the panangal or or the grass,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: no offense to you, you, you're very scary, but it's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the wings for me that makes it like that stand
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: up above stand out above all other like creatures and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: spirits in Southeast Asia. That's the thing, so I heard the,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I heard of a mananangal before I ever heard the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: phrase Aswang. In fact, honestly, I probably heard the phrase
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Aswang fairly recently, maybe in the last few years.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I had no idea that it was, and the first
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: time I heard it, I remember being very confused like
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: because
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: The first time I heard the phrase Aswang was in
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: relation to witches. So for the longest time I thought
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Aswang was just witches. I thought that was the term
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: for the witches in Philippines. Then only later on I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: find out that no, it's like, um, it's basically the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Filipino word for hantula, basically not the exact translation. Yeah,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, uh, for me, if I want to be greedy,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: there's one more, which I feel like is is quite
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: similar but a bit different like cross the ocean.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Like if you ask Americans what kind of spirit that
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: they are terrified the most or entity they are terrified
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: at the most, a lot of them will say skinwalkers.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the Native Americans, uh, the, the skinwalkers are
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: basically similar to Aswang like uh they were shamans, uh,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: that possess supernatural powers that allow them to shape shift
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: into large animals. Most of the time wolves.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Or dogs, uh, or coyotes, and then, uh, yeah, they,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: they hunt, they hunt, uh, uh, fellow humans, and some
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: of them are already deceased. They are no longer, uh,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: from the earth la. So, and one thing that is
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: quite unique is that they can take, uh, the appearance
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of your loved ones. So they usually they lure you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: into the woods and then they attack you from there, yeah,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and it's straight up for attack. It's not like they
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: just want to treat you.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: But he is like straight
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: up, yeah, they know you they will tell you like, oh,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I'm your loved one and and most of the time
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it's uh your your the loved ones that has already
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: been dead lah so.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that, that actually that is the, the, the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: thing that I think about. It's like, OK, maybe it's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: like there's some similarity to that. Arguably the best known
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: as one is Maria Labo. According to an article that
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: we read, the urban legend of Maria Labo began in
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the 90s. Unable to survive on her husband's income as
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a policeman, Maria travels to the Middle East to work
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: as a domestic helper in the hopes of earning more
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: money for her husband and two children. There, she is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: While recovering in the hospital, through another Filipino domestic workers,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Bow asked Wang power onto Maria. When she eventually returns
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: to the Philippines, Maria is psychologically unstable. One night while
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: eating dinner, Maria's husband called for the children to join them.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Maria then gestures to the container of food. Her husband
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: is distraught when she discovers that Maria has killed and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: cooked the children.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Her husband tries to kill her, but only manages to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: hack her face, which is where Maria gets her name labo,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: which is a word that means to hack people with
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: big bolo knife.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Maria escapes and to this day, people still believe she's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: out there hunting for human prey.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So why do you think this as one more than
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: almost any of them out there has endured all this time?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Technically right, technically, I heard of a variation of the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Maria Labo story first before I ever heard of Maranalanga,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I heard of this first, but it wasn't Maria Labo.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: There was a version I heard and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I was looking into this, there's so many different versions
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of this.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Ah, which also ties into this question. So the version
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I heard was that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Somebody was um killing people.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Chopping people up, making them into curry, and then selling
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the curry to customers. So that's the version I heard.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: It wasn't specifically this person's children. This person was just,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you know, a, a serial killer who was feeding other
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: people humans in the form of
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: curry.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: It doesn't help because I just ate curry just now.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: So now I feel like you king.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Oh my this
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: was it, was it a particularly meaty curry? It it was.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: at least taste good.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Small consolation, concentration, right? I like how we're talking about
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: lunch now. We just had lunch, guys. No, no, no, no, no, it's,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it's all connected. Yeah, so that's if we want to
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: get technical right, that's the first.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Version of the Maria Labo story that I heard and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I've heard like um I was reading up on this
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: because like once you start on Maria Labo and all this, right,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you kind of go down a rabbit hole. So there's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: there's literally a whole subgenre of urban legends of people
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: putting their children in the oven and cooking them.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, whether accidental or not, ah, how, how
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: can I, yeah, how, how does one
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: like, hey, you go inside the oven, hey, I turn
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: on the timer.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I don't like that's why it's urban legend la because
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: like some of the details get left out. So like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to go back to the question that we were asking
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: like why has Maria Labo become almost like the when
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you think Aswang, that's the person you think of like,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: and that goes back to what I was saying before
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: when the first time I heard the term Aswang, I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: thought witch because I think it's tied to her I think.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: This idea of somebody.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Killing other humans and then turning them into food and
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: then unwillingly making other people cannibals essentially, right, has been
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: there for quite some time.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So I think when Maria Labo came about, I mean, there's, there's,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you know, there's there's almost like no pun intended, a
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: fully fleshed out story to her. It's not just an
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: urban legend, it is an urban legend, but it's not
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: just an anecdote. So I think that's why she's lasted
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: so long because there's so much history to this idea
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: of what Maria Labo is.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: But the story is almost like a Mona Fendi story, yeah.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you know, the urban legend, right, when you
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: mention her name, she is more powerful, but
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: she's she's she's gone, right?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Is she?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Damn it, you beat me to it. I was gonna go. No, no, no, but, but, but, OK, OK.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: The urban legend, yeah, yeah, I agree with you. It's
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: like almost similar in that sense, but whereas Maria Labo
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: is still like a question mark, like it could be
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that could be an internet hoax, somebody just wrote it, right?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: But the person that you mentioned was an actual person, correct?
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: And the urban legend is that she, her spirits is
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: immortal la. She's she's out there like she's trying to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: claim more victims.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So it's scary lah.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: But, but the thing is, you know, if you heard
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: that like in prison, right, she was actually like really,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: really nice. Like she, she recites the Koran and you know, she,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: she prays and whatnot. So, so it's like,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: is it fake?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I have no idea. Like allegedly I do, I have
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: no idea. There was, there was a phrase I heard,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know where this phrase comes from, but the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: phrase I always heard.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: In relation to the religion that I was brought up with,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: was even the devil can quote scripture.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: OK, you know, you know, I heard stories of like,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: you know, whenever like, let's say Islam practitioner, you know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: is reciting some prayers.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And then the gene actually corrects him. So you know,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: sometimes the pronunciation might be wrong, right, or this is
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: like this actually. So yeah, it's really scary. That
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: is full on arrogance right there on the genes. I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: was like, no, no, no, I will correct you. You
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: pronounced it wrong. I mean, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: quite natural for evil to test good goodness. I
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: mean, in my religion, right, OK, I give you a
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: bit of like history in my religion, uh, these genes
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: come from Elis. So basically Ilis was once like an angel.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Just because he's very egoistic, he don't want to bow
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to like, you know, Adam, uh, Eve and stuff like that,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: then he turned into, he he he swore that he's
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: going to misguide all the humans, all the human beings.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: So that's the reason why they actually are, I mean,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: they are technically they were Muslim, but then because of ego,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: because of um bad intentions, ill intentions, they turn bad,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: so they will mis misguide. So if you're talking about
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: like prayers, right, they know all the prayers.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: that, you know, they choose to go against it. So
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: that shows that tells you why, you know, sometimes these genes,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: uh they they can correct you when you say a
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: prayer wrongly or whatnot,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: which I suppose explains why.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: She who shall not be named, um, I, I saw,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I saw you the moment you're like you shouldn't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: mention
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: her name I mentioned you Andy,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: he said.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I if if he's very confident,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: he's very confident.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I'm not confident. I'm I'm not confident. He's
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: a, he's a man of strong faith so just I
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: suppose this explains why that lady could, you know, seem
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like such a model prisoner while she was in jail because,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, until it gets to the point
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: where she does her thing, she will, she will just
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: come across as like anybody else, I think that's the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: frightening thing as well.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a, there's there's another, uh, similarity, uh, in Japan.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So Maria Labo because she got like a, like a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: scar on her face, right, there's the, uh, sed mouth woman,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: you know, the cedar mouth woman wears a mask. So, uh,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: it's also an urban legend. So like if you see her,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: she will ask you.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Do I look pretty? and she remove her mask and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you can see like the the scars like hideous like
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: it's freshly cut. Then if you say no, then she
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: will stab you.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Then if you say yes, you say that you're lying
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: because I look hideous, and she also stab you.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Then yeah,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: no,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: so, so the, the, the trick to get getting away
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: from her it says that, uh, I don't know, uh, uh,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: look at the mirror or something.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Then she'll be confused for a second and then you run,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you know,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: there's, there's another story about, uh, Kapi also, right? I
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: like how we suddenly call her Cuppi, OK, for cuppi also,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: you know, like they, they
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: usually
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: careful, so that's
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: why I call her
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Cuppie, and people usually say like they will look in
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the mirror and then they will comb your hair and
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: then they will ask people like, uh, Chantitasa, you know,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and then they will ask in like a very creepy voice.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I look like, yeah, you know, and then,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and then if you were to answer, I don't know,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: you were suddenly like suddenly will love.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So just, just to check, is the correct answer when
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: God asks you, Am I pretty? Is the correct answer yes.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Is the correct answer? Yes,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I swear if she answers. I have no idea. I
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: because I, I'm just gonna collect all these answers like
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: because if, if the slip off womans ask you, Am
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I pretty? OK now I know what the answer is.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: The answer is I don't know when you look in
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the mirror, but I
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: think
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: it's a similar answer, you know, you say yes or no,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: she will still laugh. Yeah,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: yeah,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: everything is funny too,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: so you just say, I don't know. You actually you
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: good you good reason you take out a glass. I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: cannot see. I don't know.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know. My glasses gone already. I throw away.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know. My glasses gone. They run. It's gonna
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: be hilarious, right? If I start doing this for like everybody, hey,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: do I look good like random guy, guy? How do
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I does my hair look nice? I take my glasses
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and through. I don't know. I can't see just run, exactly, yeah,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: but as the oldest person at this table, very clearly, um,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: because I, I do remember hearing the Maria Labo story
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: when I was younger. Oh, OK, because like, like they
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: say lah, it's um.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I think it was from like the early 90s that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the story started circulating.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Some
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: people see Maria Labu's story as an allegory for the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: dire situations of many overseas Filipino workers, women in particular.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Uh, these situations take a heavy psychological and physical toll,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: and it's easy to understand why parallels can be drawn
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: to Maria's tragic transformation. Others have noted that many Filipinos'
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: jovial and boisterous disposition can be attributed to Aswans too,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: particularly ghouls. For instance, there's the tradition of fires that
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: are kept burning beside the coffin at funerals, while the
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: deceased loved ones would keep up the ruckus the whole
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: time to scare off the ghosts.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Aswans and creatures and spirits in general seem to always
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: tie back to social practices. Why do you think that is?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And it's not specifically to Aswangs. It's, I think creatures
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and spirits in general, whereas this idea of all of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: this is basically a cautionary tale.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Like when you think about um what don't, don't hang
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: your clothes at night if not the pananga will drip
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: blood on it like that's, that's telling you like, oh
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: if you hang your clothes at night maybe they'll think like,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: you know, back during the kampong days or somebody come
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and steal your clothes or when they talk about how, um,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: you know, you shouldn't go out at night you're not
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: got pee, you shouldn't hang around like banana trees. You've
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: not got pee will come after you and everything like that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: So that's probably like, you know, don't, don't at night
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: just come back home la because it's dangerous out there.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I mean we've said before, like, you know, um.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: People are much scarier than than the ghosts themselves. So
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I think the ghosts are used as a way to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: like warn children to
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: To, to behave better, at least that's how it starts lah.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Even stuff like this like the whole making noise at
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: a funeral to scare off the ghouls.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: In my experience, at least in my experience, when it
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: comes to uh wakes for my loved ones.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: The more you loved somebody when they were alive, when
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: you go to the wake.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: It almost feels like a party like when, when one
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: of my uncles passed away, his weight was like, you know,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it was just all of us like making it, it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: sounds exactly like this whole lot of noise telling stories
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: about him and it's like whole bit, but then.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: There's the idea that, oh, you cannot, you must always
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: be somber when it comes to death. So I think
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: it's almost a way to kind of marry the two like, oh,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you make a lot of noise at a funeral because
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: you want to scare away ghosts. So then it becomes
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: acceptable in that sense. Yeah, for the, for the, for
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the Chinese is definitely yes, uh, there needs to be
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a fire. Uh, yeah, you need to keep the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: The disease, right, they have the photo, right downstairs is
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the void that they need to keep the tree uh
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: large incense stick burning. One of the job as someone
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: who is one of the family members they have to
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: stay back right, few la to take care of the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the the the diseased coffins and all is to make
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: sure that incense don't run out.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: May I ask what happens if it ran out?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I, I also don't know. We don't know. Like we,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: we asked the, the elders asked, Oh, you must do this.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: OK,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: so we just,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: you just do it
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: without asking. OK, I would imagine maybe, uh, uh, the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: connection to the disease is gone because incense can form
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a connection. That's how you form. It's like the.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: When you like an incense, right, you can attract, uh, spirits. Uh,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: it's also forming a connection with that. It's kind of
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: like setting up Bluetooth la. So that one is the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: long one, so it has to keep burning. So we
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: were told specifically you have to keep your, so you
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: burn the next next round before the, the last one
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: was burned, so that you make sure that it's keeping
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: burning or you also, uh, burn incense paper. Some they
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: burn whole night also so that they have enough money
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to spend.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So I think in the the Malay community, right, back
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: then if uh someone in our family passed away, right,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: this is back then, I think now no one does
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: this thing anymore. So let's say if one of your
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: family members pass away, you know, all the mirrors in
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: your house, you have to cover it with a with
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: a cloth, you know, because they say that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Um, the spirits, the bad spirits will, will get into
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the mirror and it will be there, you know. But, but,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: but that's that's the thing, I think after, after a while, um,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: we don't really practice that anymore. So like, uh, for example,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: like
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Um, just recently, you know, I visited, visited someone that
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: has just passed away, and I see the mirrors all
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: not covered, you know, with glove and whatnot. I think
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: there's more of like a superstition.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: mean,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: we cannot go out without an episode with a few
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: ghost stories, so I'm going to share one that happened
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: at a funeral, uh, actually it was, uh, about 2
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: years ago when my grandmother passed, uh, one of the
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: nights I have to take the night shift to take
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: take care of the, the coffin, uh, with, I think
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: with my.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: My sister. So one thing that uh some of you,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: if you follow Hantu right, you know that I am
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: actually quite sensitive to the spirit world, uh, but during
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that time, I believe it was very close to the
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: 7 month or around the 7 month already. So you know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: naturally it's creepy and, uh, in the Chinese belief right,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: when we have weeks of funerals, right.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: They will attract other spirits that are around the area
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: or spirits of relatives or spirits of uh uh of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: other places lah. So, so we know that that there
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: are things around and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, this was about maybe 2-3 a.m. at night, or
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: very tired already. Then me and my sister were just taking, uh,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: time to look at the, the, the coffee now, just
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: checking the, the coffee, checking the, the incense, make sure
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: everything is good. There's still people around like other people are,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: you know, Chinese, Chinese family then waits I got friends
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: come on. They will stay all the way on.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So, uh, we were just there sitting and looking at
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the photo and then, uh, my sister went over to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: check the incense, right? Then she suddenly felt something, you know.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I can see like she like suddenly like nudged a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: bit yeah like what happened, OK, then she walked, they say, Hey, um,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I heard someone shafted me when I was adjusting the incense.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Then we will always, uh, keep the incense burning la
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: so we will, the big one, right, then we also
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: put a small, we pray then put a small one.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: We keep, keep, uh, refreshing it. So when she did that,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: then she cannot shaft like as if like, you know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: like you like praying right to the photo, right, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: somebody like push you gently or gently excuse me like that.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Then she turned nobody. OK then I'm like, OK, never mind.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Then she walked, she go and sit down. Then my
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: turn I go and do. I felt the same thing, bro.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Someone shoved me at 3 a.m. I.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Uh, at my waist, I remember,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: uh, OK, excuse me, that is really creepy like,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: like
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: it's almost like, excuse me, I want to pass to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: go and see the disease something like that, lah like
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I felt like it's like
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: that it's located in front of the yeah so the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: photo, right, and the incense, then in front is the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: coffin really, yeah, so they're like.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: So I was like, OK la, close to 7 months,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: this is awake, normal. So I, I'm not very scared.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm more tired than anything else. Then, uh,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I want to sit down there and say actually I
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: felt the same thing. She said she saw a lot
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of black shadows darting around the awake, maybe her friends,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know, because my, my when when my grandmother passed,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: she was like 93.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So she had a lot of friends who passed before her.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: So I guess maybe the friends come and find her,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: or maybe it was 7 months. I don't know,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: say goodbye or something. Yeah,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: so that was, that was quite
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: creepy.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, OK, I've been talking about wake. I have this
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: one story as well. This was sent by a listener.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: So there's this one night this this sender, uh, said.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Uh, when he was younger, you know, when you got
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: your license, your bike license, especially, you were always around,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: around around with your friends, right, until like early morning.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: So I think at that day, that day he went
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: back at like 2 a.m. or something and then the
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: multi-story car park, obviously all the level one, level two,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: all no no lots for the person. So go out,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: go up, go up I think level 3 or level 4,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: then he finally found a spot.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Then he parked his bike. So when, when he was
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: reversing his bike, he said that he heard, uh, or,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: or he felt, you know, like someone is watching him.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So he like looked around, he reversed then he looked
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: around like.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: No one, you know, no one, right? And then he
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: parked his bike as per normal. Then when he was
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: walking down to the staircase, right, he noticed again, you know,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: he felt that something is watching him. So when he
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: turned around, he saw there's an uncle, you know, uncle
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: sitting inside the car, like, like I think the driver's side,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I think, sitting around the car just like that.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Then he was like spooked out like why you got
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: someone inside the car, right? So he, he mind his own,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: he mind his own business obviously he's a Malay Malay dude, right?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: So he started praying already like scared, right? Then you
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: go to the lift lobby. So the lift lobby, right, uh,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: from what I recall correctly that the story, the lift,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: the lift is here, then the, you know, opposite the
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: lift lobby there's a staircase, right.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: So when he was waiting for the lift, he heard like,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: you know, those like our fathers usually inside the toilet
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: they were like I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but usually they
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: were like that, right? Then he heard that, you know,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: then he was like the sound, so he was waiting
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: for the lift. he was standing in front of the lift, right?
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: So obviously the staircase behind him. So the sound he
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: heard coming from the stairs. So when he turned around,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: he saw the exact same uncle he saw in the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: car just like, you know, like this.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: OK, and then the next few days, uh, the next
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: few days, there's, uh, he saw, like, you know, the tent,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: the tentage, the white color tentage right under the void deck.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: He saw the tentage, then he, he figured, you know, oh, what,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: what if when I walk past, when I see the picture,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: he's the uncle, so he decided not to see. Yeah,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: don't know. It is a creepy story and I see
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: why he had that theory.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: But it's just the idea of the uncle peeping out
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: like you know that one, that
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: one, you know, staircase, right, like when, when, when you
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: climb the staircase, it is like there's a very like
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: 80 degrees right so it's just like that.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: yeah, that was, that was super
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: creepy.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: That's one of the like hanging stories that I've read before. Hello.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I just remembered one story. This is from my mom's experience.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: It's not really about awake, but, uh, OK, so back
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: then my mom, uh, before, I think before my eldest
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: brother was born, they live at Toa Payoh, I think
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: the old houses at Toa Payoh, so they have this neighbor, um.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: It's a very old grandmother, la. So usually, right, this
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: grandmother because she's very old, uh, she likes to the
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: the when whenever she walks, right, she drags her feet,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: you know, so like it's normal, like sometimes my mom
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: at the living room, she hear like because dragging the feet, right,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: and then most of the time like when there's a
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: when the grandmother going for medical checkup or what then
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the the the grandchild will help, will help her like
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: will help her walk to the leave, right.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: So there's this, uh, there's one point of time, the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: grandmother passed away, the grandmother passed away, and then that, that,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: that particular morning, if I'm not wrong, my mom and
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: my dad all went down, I went down to pay
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: their last respect, right. So that night, um, when my
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: mom was all alone at home because my dad used
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: to be a taxi driver, so usually he go back
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: like very late at night.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: So there's this one night uh when my mom was
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: uh watching the TV at the living room, the door
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: was closed the door was closed by the way. Then
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: she heard, she heard like.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Like dragging the feet, the sound of dragging the feet,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: and she was like super spooked out already. She just
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: heard that, you know, super spooked out already. The next morning, uh,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: when my mom was, um, when my mom was watering
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the plants, uh, the grand, the grandchildren of the grandmother, the, the,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the late grandmother came, and they were crying, you know,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: then they were telling my mother, um, um.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Uh, my grandmother went home.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Then like my mom asked why, why your man why
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: why you say that la. Then you know the offerings
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: outside the house it's all like, you know, got, uh
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: got it was like it has been eaten like that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Then they were all crying, you know, and stuff like that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: So that was the story my mom shared with me.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: So it's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Chinese, Chinese or Chinese.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my, my mom is Malayla, but you guys thought,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I thought it
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: it was a Chinese family, OK, OK,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: OK, I get it now, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: So do come back.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: So, so that's the story lah. But that was like
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I think the old Toa Payoh flats. I think it's
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: still there. I think the the HDB is still there,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: but I think now it has been, I think it's
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: a rental house now. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: So aswangs in general are said to have originated from
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the province of Capis. Uh, a possible reason for this
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: is that Capis has the highest concentration of occurrences of
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a rare genetic disease called X-linked dystonia Parkinsonism or XDP.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: The disease, according to an article we read, almost exclusively
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: affects Filipino men and causes patients to be struck with
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: uncontrollable muscle spasms, contortions, and tremors, which resemble aswangs during transformation.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Would this be a reasonable explanation or could it be
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: a coincidence? It could be both lah. It could be,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: it could be both. It could like, like you must
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: have that gene in order for you to become an
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: as one.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Right, makes sense. You know, like one of those movies, right,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: they say, oh, this person has this gene, so therefore
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they can be a vampire. So, so, so like the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: suitable jeans, like, for example, like, like, let me put
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: it like, like for example like, uh, if you want
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to be a tangy, like a medium, right, you must
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: have certain, uh, prerequisite like you, you must be born
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: in this state and this this time.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Something like that lah, but there is more spirituality is
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: more physical.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it depends on the genes, like any color
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: will do is it.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Sorry, sorry, sorry,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: sorry, as long as it didn't I think.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I, I agreed with you to a certain point and
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: then I had my own theory at another point, and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: then I went even further and made a terrible joke
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: in my head after that. So I agree with you.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I think it's, it could be a case of both,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: but my theory is that some of them are, yes,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the XDP.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Patients or they they they suffer from, from this disease,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: but just because it looks that way doesn't mean
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: It explains everything. I think it's almost like.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of or because of this, so it
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: must be this, but it doesn't necessarily mean that this
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: explains Aswang transformation. It could be that it just looks
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: that way, la, sheer coincidence. My thought was when you said,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: or maybe they possess certain gene, and then I thought
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: you're going to go into one.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: But then you went like, oh like Tys need to be,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: of course my brain. I just thought to myself, is
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: he going to make a joke about X-Men? He gonna
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: call the Aswan X-Men. So that's, that's where my brain went.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: So clearly between the two of us, one of us
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: is far more entrenched in this and the other one
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: is trying to find the line where he can make
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: jokes and not offend any supernatural creatures out there. Too late. OK,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: then what about turning into a dog?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Right, right, where you, you want to transform, you can
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: do the shake, yes, but then if you literally turn
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: into a dog, you grow out the hair,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: but, but you know, to a, to a certain extent,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: I believe in that, you know, but it's mostly black
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: magic la because I think in Indonesia, right, these, these people, they, they,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: they practice black magic. So what they will turn every night,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: they will turn into wild boar.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, they just went on, went on a rampage on
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: the villages, uh, sorry, I think it's Bay Mel or
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: something like that. You you can try Google, right, right, yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: they turn into wild. Yeah, they turn into wild boar,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: and I, I forget what is the purpose of them
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: being turning into a wild boar, but obviously to scare
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: off like the villages, this is back then so
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: it's like a
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: curse of some kind.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: It's not really a curse they
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: practice
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: that.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, they practice that, OK.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Because like there was even a legend, I mean the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: whole where this wear black so werewolf where whatever those
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: were tigers in Singapore at one point that was the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: that was the urban legend that was going around where
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: tigers where men especially white
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: white tiger,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: right? Yeah, I can't remember what the specific tiger, but yeah,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I mean if you talk about that, you know, there's
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: in Malaysia, I think in Pera there's this um.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Not really disease, but there's this thing called kambaula either
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: kambaula Kambabuye or or kumba harimao I think usually, right, they,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: the this I don't know whether it's a burn legend
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: or whether it's true la, but they say that when
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: you are born, you are, you actually have a twin
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: and your twin is either a boo, a crocodile, uh,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: a snake ula, or a harimawa, which is a tiger.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: This story is very short one. So basically when, when
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: this lady was born.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: They said that uh it's actually twins, but then she
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: was born alone, right? So one day when she was young,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: she was playing at the village and she was playing
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: at the village, and then suddenly there's this uh snake appear,
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: you know, but then the snake is is not there to, to,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: to eat her or anything, you know, the snake was
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: playing with her. So.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Uh, the husband, I mean, the father, right, the father,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: when he saw the snake, obviously, the snake is, is
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: with your daughter that you want to endanger your, your
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: daughter's life. What? Yeah, so they beat the snake, beat
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: the snake, then the snake run away. Then the next
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: day the same thing happened, you know, saw the snake
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: inside the house.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: And then the father obviously want to try to try
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: to kill the snake so beat to death. The snake
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: died already, then they threw the snake away in like
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: in a river or something, right? So obviously they cannot
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: find any, right. So long story short, after the father
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: threw away the snake in the river, um, after the
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: father killed like the snake and threw it in the river,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: her daughter got very, very sick, like super sick, you know.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: And then go to the go to the hospital, doctor
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: don't know what happened to her daughter, you know, do
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: blood tests or nothing. Then they went for they go
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: to like, you know, uh, alternative, uh, alternative medicine, la,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: which means like all the Islam practitioners, the boo, the
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: power or, and then a lot of them say, I'm sorry,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: I cannot do anything. And then the last one they
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: went to, they said, oh, your daughter by right has
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: a twin. The twin is actually a snake.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: So since then, the the the the person said go
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: and find the snake, then your daughter will be cured la.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: But then they told told the told the person like
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I killed, I killed the snake, you know, there's nothing
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I can do. I cannot retrieve back what the snake
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: died already and then throw in the river they cannot
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: find any.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: And if I'm not wrong, uh, after a while, then
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: the daughter died because of that.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: But it is it a case of like black magic
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: or it's just like a condition?
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: I have no idea. I think, OK, the thing about this, right,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: is usually like from their ancestors.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Practice with black magic or uh you know, meddle with
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: all these kind of things, then it's a chain reaction,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: you know, you like it or not, it's, it's your
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: ancestor did it right, so you, you can also basically,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: but, but going back to the, the, the, the.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: XDP, yeah,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: so
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: what, what do you think
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: is cannot be coincidence, right, like this thing originated from
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: the province of Capis and then like all this asw
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: also came from that region, is it right? So cannot
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: be a like, cannot be like a just a coincidence right.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: It might be because of this disease. I'm not sure.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: I think that that's my, that's my answer. This question
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: is for everyone.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: If you had to face down one Aswang, vampire, vicerasaka, Weredo, Gul,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: or
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: which,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: which one would you choose?
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: have no chance of defeating this thing. I, I'm not
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: fooling myself. I have no coordination. I cannot run and
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I've got no strength. So if I'm gonna die, I
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: want to see the one that I think looks the coolest, vampire.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: So I'll take on the mananaangal.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: And my last thoughts would be, oh no, I'm gonna die,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: but this looks so cool. That's my answer.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: When
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: we talk about vampire, is it like the ang vampire
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: or like the, the,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I think, OK, to, to we, we narrow it down
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: a little bit. So if if we're talking about as
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: one in particular, let's just say the Filipino idea of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a vampire. OK.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I was about to say if it's the
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: A vampire, then I would choose the vampire,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: which, which particular angor vampire would you choose? Was there
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a specific one you had in mind or just?
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: This one.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, the Dracula Dracula, quite, quite historical, but no, it's
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the Philippines one, yeah,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Philippines 10, this is hard, I think, I think then
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: then I choose like maybe a witch.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Why, why, why a witch
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: because at least the witch, right usually is in the
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: shape or or form of like a grandmother, right? So
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: at least like, OK la, it's like.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Have a human face to it, you know what I mean?
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I get what you mean. OK, which would have been
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: my last choice for the exact same reason.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Because it's for me, it's creepier if you, if you
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: look human.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, but like it's just this creepier
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: idea of what seems like maybe it's because like, oh you,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: anybody can be a witch if if you don't know
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: for sure, almost anybody can be a witch. So it's
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: that not knowing that this person is a witch and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: then suddenly they spring it on you and
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: surprise. But then if it's weird, I cannot run, bro.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I know I have no chance.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: so witch can fly just take
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: the broomer.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Is that what generation already I use vacuum cleaner, bro.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: That's why. And for all you know, maybe she got
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: a few, maybe you take one and she's like.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but honestly I think in Malay context
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: if a witch usually it relates to uh Nane Kabayan,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: I would rather see a Nanette Kabayan rather than like.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Like a headless
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: bodyless head for me, I think probably a go because
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I think goul are similar to zombies, right? Yeah, in
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: a sense there's a chance that the goo may be slow.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe the lake rotten off then slow, then I can walk,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: then I can live my dreams of a zombie apocalypse
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: like Resident Evil like that.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Silent Hill,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, then, uh, I can maybe,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: you know, I've always wanted to hit a zombie with the,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: you know, the shower and hit the head, yeah, I'm
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: quite sure, um, I, I don't know for sure, but
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: I'm quite sure in every season so far, Karl has
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: made at least one reference to Resident Evil, and zombie movies, yeah,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I love zombie movies.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, yeah, I go, you got slow, so I, I,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I stand a good chance, which because you don't know if,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about you you're saying that shaman or like,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: you know, um.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Like some, some evil medium, then at least human, then
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: you can negotiate how much you want, yeah, which, which
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: is definitely a supernatural entity, then uh I don't think
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I have a chance. So go, yeah, I just love
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: how both of you all right whole hope of survival,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: whereas I just give up. He just give up. I'm
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: gonna die. I'm gonna die in a cool way.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: I think in life, in life you must be confident.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: In life I'm confident with the undead and supernatural slightly
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: less so. OK, I've, I've already made so many jokes
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: there at this point in time I'm just like, you know,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to make things more inconvenient for you
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: as well. All right, Carl, let's end this episode as
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: always with our morbid fact of the day. So right,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the CIA actually used the legend of the Aswan, particularly
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: the vampire, to win a war.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: To weaken the moral support of a group of rebels
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: known as Hook Balaha, otherwise known as the Hags, the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: CIA would make it seem like they have been killed
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: by Awans. Apparently, hook fighters, dead bodies will be piled
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: up by the roadside in busier areas. Holes were punctured
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: on the bodies to resemble Aswang bites. This was to
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: convince people that even the creatures of myth were against
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: rebels.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: It's very smart of them honestly.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Like, like
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Definitely a CIA thing, la. The CIA will find a
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: way to use your folklore against your people. I honestly
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: have two minds about it. On the one hand I
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: was like, that's brilliant, and
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: people, people actually believed
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: it. I'm sure, I'm sure,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I'm sure that's smart of them.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah,
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: that, that's why they are CIAs.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: But also on the flip side of it, I was like,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: it's nothing secret really. I mean it's ghost ghost is
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: not secret. I mean, OK, la, you know what I mean, lah.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: This is the folklore of people. You come and just
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: anyhow use the folk law of people to mess with them.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you, your counterintelligence agency, you definitely will
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: use psychological warfare la la. That's why like I said
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: about 2 months. I mean, I read other, other, uh,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: like stories of them using, uh, folklores also. Come to
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: think of it, right, you put on your tinfoy head
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and you're like there is this secret department in the
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: CIA that actually compiles and like research all the folk
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: laws of the country that they might attack.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And then like, OK, this country got this ghost, this
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: country got this ghost. Where do we get the material
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: for this? And maybe in due time we attack them
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: and then we go and do the dead body like this,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: then they think that it's this ghost.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: There's some next level planning and there's some like really
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: screwed up.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you to all of you for tuning into Tales
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: from Incredible Tales. New episodes go online every week on
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Me Watch, Me Listen, YouTube, Spotify and Apple podcasts.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: My name is Wayne. My name is Kyle. My
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: name is, and we'll see you next time.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Tales from Incredible Tales was hosted by Far Anwar, Wayne Ray,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: and Kyle Ong, directed and produced by Kyle Ong, written
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: by Wayne Ray, Assistant director, Chin Chin Wei, director of photography,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Shervin Chua, Gaffer, Jonathan Chan, camera operators, Joey Chia, Melvin Long,
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: art director.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Jolene Lim, sound recordist Audrey Lee. Behind the scenes footage
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: shot by Brian Kole, hair and makeup by Binno Lim,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Pro production manager, Sherry Yap Ang Qi Rui, production assistants,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Jamie Teou, Teu Yi Xuan, post-production by Fudge, Motion graphics
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: by Jolene Lim. Camera support by.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Lighting support by Aperture and Amaron. Smoke support by PMI
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Gear and DC Pro Private Limited. Special thanks to Danny
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Cordi from Media Corp. Tales from Incredible Tales is a
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: production of Hantu and MediaCorp. Follow the podcast on Millison app, Spotify,
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  Speaker 2: Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, and YouTube. Thank you for listening.