When I was in my early 20s, I loved to take weekend day trips to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and hiked alone.

I was tomboyish and liked the rugged outdoors. I made these trips many times and enjoyed it until an unexplained incident happened during an afternoon.

I normally chose different hiking trails during each visit based on the colours recommended on the map board before I set off. That day, I chose the trail that had a lot of slopes. There I was happily minding my own business and hiking merrily away until I safely climbed down a series of steep slopes that eventually led me to the the abandoned man-made caves. That was the first time I visited the caves throughout my numerous visits to the nature park.

I did not linger around long. I just took a glimpse at the caves whose entrances had been sealed by metal grill gates and then walked off. I was approaching a very small stream with a small wooden makeshift bridge across it when I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. That stream was just located within several metres away from the caves. I was alone.

I lifted my head up and stared ahead as if in a daze but I was very conscious of what was happening around me. I knew that I was the only hiker in that area. Somehow, my instinct told me that someone was watching me from behind. It felt as if I could ‘see’ someone standing far behind me and ‘she’ was observing me.

The funny thing was I did not feel scared or threatened by this supernatural presence. Instead of leaving the area, I chose to turn my body around to the location where I sensed that ‘thing’ was standing. When I stood opposite that ‘thing’, I looked hard at the far-end corner of the first cave which was located next to the steep slope that I walked down earlier. I vaguely ‘saw’ an outline* of a woman with long hair in a long dress.

The apparition just stood still and I felt its eyes were staring hard at me. During these few seconds, time suddenly stood still. All I heard were the loud synchronous mating sounds of cicadas in the forest. I did not take my eyes off ‘her’ and wondered in my head what I should do next.

I decided that I should leave this area as quickly as possible. I did not know what this ‘thing’ might do to me and I did not wish to find out by lingering in that place. I was about to turn around to exit the area when I heard a noisy bunch of Caucasians coming through from opposite side of the small stream. They were walking in the opposite direction heading towards the steep slope.

At this point, the ‘thing’ suddenly disappeared. My instinct told me that the coast was clear. Without hesitating, I turned around and hiked my way of the forest quickly.

That was the last time I hiked at the nature park. One was enough.

*If you have watched the movie “Predator”, you will understand how I saw this ‘thing’ when the Predator is in its transparent mode.