I called it a phase but it lasted about 5 years. During these 5 years, I was in constant contact with the other world, the supernatural. I don`t know how or why I was given the ability but some people said that when a person is at his most unlucky period that he will have such ghostly encounters. That could be true, but anyway, it all started in 1981, the year I was drafted into the National Service.

My first encounter was in ITD Camp in Sembawang. There were many stories then circulating around the camp but the one that really frightened us was the incident that happened in the toilet cum shower used by the charlie company`s recruits.

We were told by previous NCO`s that a soldier broke down in the toilet. Apparently, this soldier woke up early and was the first to be in the toilet to brush his teeth. While he was doing that, he was looking down at his basin and I guess must have been pretty sleepy. Suddenly he felt like someone was watching him. That made him look up into the mirror. To his horror, he saw a figure waving so slowly and asking him to “come”.

He broke down that day and was admitted to a mental hospital. Thereafter, no one knows of his whereabouts or whether he recovered.

I did not experienced that, thank god, but there was this time when I had a frightening experience.

It was after some night training and everyone was rushing to take a shower, so not wanting to join in the hassle, I opted to wait till everyone was done.

By that time, it was already around 9pm, still quite early, so didn`t think much about all the freaky stories.

I remember choosing the shower cubicle that was 2nd from the end as the shower head was in better condition than the rest. There were no doors or curtains so we could see if someone walks by.

It wasnt long when something starts to happen. I was happily soaping myself and all that when suddenly the shower in the 3rd from last started to turn on. I thought it was my platoon mate. I called out “who`s that”. There was no answer. So I took the initiative to take a peep. The moment I did that, the shower stop and there was no one around. I felt a slight chill but brush it off, thinking that it could just be my mind playing tricks on me as I was quite tired.

Then it happened again. While I continued to soap, I was facing outof the cubicle as I didnt want anyone to surprise me. Suddenly, the shower in the last cubicle came on. This time I frozed. I knew no one walked past me and I was very sure that no one was in there when I first came in becaused I went to check all the shower heads. This time, I remembered the stories and without even rinsing off the soap, I gathered my stuff and headed for the exit.

Since then, I would never go to the toilet alone again.

For the five years, I have had so many encounters and they were not confined to Singapore. In fact many of them occurred in Vancouver, Canada (when I was staying in a haunted house) and I have seen apparitions twice in my life. Once in the old safti camp, at the wooden baracks and another time in Toldeo, Ohio State, in my apartment when I was doing my studies there. The things I encountered were unbelievable, but they happened overseas so not relevant here. Anyway if you guys are interested then let me know and I will tell you more…