Malaysia Urban Legends – Haunted Karak Highway
I know I’ve blogged about an incident about the infamous haunted Karak Highway but this one is a story that has been told to me over numerous times by different people of different background levels. Most of the time the stories about Karak Highway varies, afterall, its an urban legend! But this is one story that I find creepy but at the same time hard to believe. You be the judge.
It was late at night when a young couple and their baby was travelling in a car along the Karak Highway. They were trying to get home, like the rest of the other Malaysians because it was nearing festive season. And like the many other Malaysians, they choose to travel at night to avoid the traffic jam and also the heat of the sun when noon gets in the way.
As they were travelling along the lonely stretch of Karak Highway, suddenly, the car gave a sudden jerk and started making weird noises. The husband was fairly surprised because he remembered to check the car before travelling long distance to ensure the safety of his family. Soon, they had no choice but to stop by the roadside. The husband got out of the car to check the car engine while his wife and baby was waiting in the car. After a few minutes, he came back and reported that he could not see anything wrong and tried starting the car again. However, the car just would not budge. At loss, the husband made a difficult decision to either wait until another car comes along or walk to the nearest phone booth.
Not wanting to leave his family behind, they waited. After some 20 minutes or so, the highway remained quiet. The husband wondered why was there such calmity on the highway when festive celebrations are just around the corner. Perhaps it was due to the late night, he thought to himself. After what seemed like eternity, the husband decided to take the second option.
Advising his wife to lock the doors and take care, he left them behind with a heavy heart. His wife, on the other hand, watched her husband walk away with worries on her mind. She prayed hard that someone would eventually notice their stalled car and offer help. She was also worried that accidents might happen.
Hours passed by and soon she started getting even more worried. She was worried something might happen to her husband. Worried, she fought with herself over if she should just keep on waiting or leave the car behind and look for her husband. But where should she start looking? In the end, she decided to get out of the car to stretch her legs. As soon as she came out of the car, she realized that something was staring at her from behind. As she turned, she saw the bodiless head of her husband with his eyes and mouth wide open as if in shock staring back at her. Til this day, no one has found the remains of his body.
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March 6th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
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March 7th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
hmmmm the one i heard has a diff ending ….
as the women waited, for kinda long time edy, suddenly there was the red and blue light from a patrol car, then he saw this policemen walking to their car, and lay low while signalling her to open the car door, then asked to walk out and not look up, and remind her all the time not to look back or up the car … just walk …
as she reached the safety distance of the police car, she looked back and saw this thing on top of her car munching on her husband …
March 8th, 2007 at 12:45 am
I never heard about these urban legends in karak highway. But from both of the stories, really scary.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Scariest yet!
March 8th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Sounds like jack ripper movies. :p
March 8th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
earl-ku, yes! I’ve heard of this ending as well!!! That’s a pretty freaky one also.
jenny, well, we will never know if this is a true story or not
dd, this is just one of the endings.
moo_t, unfortunately, we will never know if its really jack that did this.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Karak Highway really got lots of ‘weird’ story. But this story quite different from what I heard.
March 12th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
kenny, care to share your version?
March 13th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
First off i love this site and its effort to compile people’s experiences with the paranormal, or the not easily explained happenings, great work!
Karak highway has its fair share of stories, two of those stories i know of happened to two close friends of mine, but that is for another time to share. (floating head anyone? yes both are regarding a floating head and totally different settings)
For those who are not to sure of this story, this one is a lovely variation of a common urban legend. (you got to love those urban legends) Its setting has been altered to fit a more local flavour but a few key concepts are still there, car stalling, lonely walk to get help, and gruesome ending on the roof of the car. I have heard both the US setting and a few local variations as you all have heard, with/without the police. I finally found the link for the story http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/boyfriend.asp
While its highly unlikely it happened, it still makes an excellent story to tell.=]
November 18th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
is it true?…..muhahahahhahaa…since i 8 years old my father use karak highway until now i’m already have 2 children and often used this highway to back our home town nothing freaky thing happen to us…muhahahahahhaha…maybe not karak highway kut,maybe north south highway..muhahahhaha…
December 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
yeah~~ earl-ku, i’ve readed that!! i have the book but too bad my uncle borrowed it and never return it~
December 14th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
well a good story then..but if i told you mine would it be ok?..it’s a real life experience from my dad hassan momong who is a GM (kesihatan dan paramedic) in yayasan sabah in kota kinabalu. well for sure i am not telling lies because this are the story that blurted out when he “accidentally”spoken about his eerie encounters when traveling ‘out station’ to visit the pedalaman people in sabah. ok to cut story short he was from an area called ’sungai-sungai in sabah’ wanted to go home to our house in menggatal.. so he has to pass through kudat telupid and ranau (district or kampungs.) lucky for kl highway user got sos telephone booth to call for help is a break down occurs..but at sabah theres no such things as sos phone booth..all you rely is your hp (if got signals) and the car (4×4) to be exact. ok he was going home traveling from telupid to ranau (along the way theres no habitual place or ppl living there due to dense jungle) gaung and mountainous area..quite straight road and a bit hilly road (near kaki gunung kinabalu) along the way when he was climbing the last hill that supposed to took hin arround 15min at speeds of 80-90kmj (tared road)using 4th or the 5th gear to reach the top(usual). mysteriously his 4×4 become so buredned or heavy like bearing heavy laden equiptment he is resulted to climb the not so steep hill at 10-20kmj using his 2nd and 1st gear all the way to the top(a km or so) he told me..in a jocking way he say to me his diesel is still half full so what the hell is he’s gona climb the hill using all 4 wheels that guzzels more than driving with normal transmission. ok funny thing is he’s driving alone and he think mybe his engine is playing on him so he tries again 1st gear then 2nd but when entering the 3rd gear it’s just going to stall.. the hill isn’t so steep like 10-20 degrees maybe.. so he turned to the radio staton with the ppl reading quran.. not much diffrence happened..now he says this not usual to him been traveling that same road for almost 15yrs evry time he’s out station.. when he reached the top of the hill and start descending down he taught he could picked up speed but same thing happened.. this “drag” continues untill he reach near pekan ranau wher habitual of human could be found then tis 4×4 could roll on normal speed again..he told his experience to his lower staff what happen the day after and cracked a joke that mybe all the “datuk’nenek,moyang,cucu etc of a jin” is hitch hiking his 4×4 all the way to ranau and got off near the pekan..although no sightings by him but the feeling of your suddenly being heavy forcing you to use 1st gear while decending a hill is not in the law of physic (yes he checked the brakes and hand brakes and no theres nothing wrong with the transmission of the 4×4 its a company car so all service is burdened by his company after all travelling 10-15km with 1st and 2nd gear would make you checked with the gear box being damaged isn’t? ) he’s still didnt talk much buut ghost sightings or spooky things to us he rather keep the secrets to himself though..
February 4th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
ooh i heard the same stiry too… the policeman came to bring out the lady..
May 14th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
yeah, i heard the same story as well but i heard it differently.
The woman was waiting in the car when she her some banging on the top of the car. as her husband told her to stay put, she remained in the car. then the police came. they told her to come out and to remain calm of wat she will see. what she saw was her husband’s head on the top of the car. apparently it was banged onto the roof a couple of times.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Obviously, some clever malaysian have change this story and make up an Karak Highway Joke.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
So yeah I was once on the Karak Highway too, and I saw a Ghost! What did it look like? I don’t know! I don’t care! It was a ghost!
The End
August 26th, 2008 at 10:39 am
The version i heard say the wife and police sees a pontianak eating the flesh of the husband at the end
October 18th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
man……… luckily, i’m staying in sabah…….. and i’ve never travelled from ranau or telupid or kudat in the middle of the night…….
January 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I heard this story before but its the version of the police man bringing the wife to the police car and ask her not to look back, but when she look back she saw a pontianak eating her husband’s head, while the body was found few meters away. And the version i heard happened on the way downhill from Genting Highlands.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I’ve heard the ending the same as earl-ku did (word for word) but the location I heard was not Karak but the stretch between Kuala Kangsar – Jelapang iirc. Urban legend maybe but honest to God nearly 6 years ago when I had to make the trip up north for a relative’s passing, it was a late night dash. Upon reaching that particular stretch, there was this “out of the ordinary” massive JPJ-PDRM joint ops going on (unusual because of the timimg it wasn’t festive like Raya or CNY and particularly annoying since it was like located just pass a flyover) that I had to go through. After the usual customary salutations right after I wound down my car window, the “pakcik polis” gave me a once over with his flashlight and proceeded (politely I might add) to request me to pull over.Since I was pretty sure that I kept to the speed limit and are relatively legit at all aspects I willingly complied coolly just to get that part over with.Turned out that my left headlight was slightly weaker than the other and he just wanted to make sure that everything else was in order. He let me off while suggesting that I SHOULD make efforts to have it looked at once I arrive to my destination. What puzzled me until today in relation to the topic is, this police officer also added:-
(in Malay, I’ll translate everything afters)
“Dik (short for -Adik- or younger brother in Malay since I’m younger than him).Pandu elok-elok, jaga sikit brek lepas tu jangan lupa tengok-tengokkan minyak tu.Beberapa kilometer lagi ni jauh jugaklah depan tu, jalan ni “keras” betul kau jangan main-main.Dah ada satu kes ngeri kat sini.Kalau apa-apa hal jadi kereta breakdown ke apa, KO JANGAN SESEKALI KELUAR DARI KERETA!Guna handphone call kitorang atau PLUS response team pastu duduk diam-diam.Ko jangan keluar sampai kitorang datang!”
Translation:- “Drive carefully,watch how you apply the brakes and keep that fuel gauge in check.It’s gonna be a good amount of kilometers more further off here and this stretch is “a dark one” don’t you f*** around.There’s already a previous horrifying case that has happened so if anything goes wrong, your car stalls down or whatever YOU DO NOT LEAVE OR GET OUT OF THE CAR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!Use your cellphone and call us or PLUS’ response team and then sit tight.DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR until we get to you!”
Moving on to conclusions, I made it in good time and thankfully nothing bad or out of the grid had happened to me but the officer’s stern cautions that fateful night did left me hanging more on curiosity rather than fear.Was the story really is a true event? Did it happened there? Because I honestly had dismissed this tale as an urban legend at 1st, prior to my related event above but now I’m not quite sure what to make even if it’s a snopes.com feature.Whatever is it that had happened there as the good police officer’s told me about that “case”,I don’t know but it may have been substantially serious.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hi everyone,
Suomynona’s tale looks true and scary. Were the policemen speaking of the truth? They seemed to be serious about this pontianak case.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I heard the same version like earl-Ku..but some other points added:
1) It was in early 70’s
2)the couple was an indian husband and wife
3) Happened somehere around Genting Sempah.
4) the police are from the GOF ( General Operation Force, a half military police for or what Malaysian called as Jungle Squad or PPH back then)
5)before the police came, there was a loud bang ,like something fall on the car roof but the lady was so afraid to go out and check it out.
6) there were some cars passing by..and the cars keep honking and flashing the beam whenever they passed her car.
7) the police arrived and shot something on the car roof. and then using loud speaker to ask the lady to come out and dont look back.As the lady safely reached the police jeep, she turned around and saw her dead body of her hubby (with head) with tormented sratch and most of his internal abdomen were scattered on car roof.
so..here’s some different version about the ending: The police said, they saw…
Version 1:
- A Banshee ( Pontianak) was eating her hubby on the car roof
Version2:
- A big hairy-furry humanoid creature, like a werewolf ,just with a pair of wing…was eating her hubby on the car roof.
i dunno which version is real but i did asked my uncle , who was a police recruit back then and he also heard about the story ,passed over by his instructor and seniors.He said, the most told is the banshee version.
And lastly, i remember ‘Mastika’ , (a Malay Magazine that resembled Readers Digest) did cover the story about this.They had interviews with some veteran policemen who actually were at the scene and involved in the investigation of the case..but not single one of them want to share and exposed the ending.It’s like a really big confidential case and no one in the police department dare to open their mouth.. X-file, perhaps?
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Urmm… i heard of this story before…. but my version is like KC’s… It’s in the genting tunnel… the very long one… & the car passed by quickly the wife got curious… & the polis came & told her to get out of the car & dun look back… she did & saw her huband get eaten by 3 things… one eting his head, one his body & one more… his legs or something….
August 27th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
emmmm… i’ve heard once that one car, i think back in early 90’s, got banged by something on the drive side door and something scratched the roof top with a claw, straight down the back on karak in early morning. i still can’t believe the story. but i believe it exist.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
i start shooting momok jangan panggil aku next year and the stretch that we are shooting is the karak highway this time the movie will be more scary than the first one
October 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
hi anand, appreciate if you could quote my website in your FB page. TQ!
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
its done ….. thanks for sharing this and more the part of the karak highway ghost stories that we are using is little boy that lost his mother and yellow volkeswagon
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 pm
since the fb page has non participants i wonder u guys whould help spread more urban legends from the karak highway
this is the link to my group page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167911561606
November 9th, 2009 at 3:25 am
i refuse to believe this but suomyna’s posts seems very convincing. maybe it was a true story but you know stories get told and passed on from mouth to mouth till finally the ending’s all fucked. but seriously suomyna,it was a really disturbing fact that the policemen gave you all that advice,if i were you i’d shit in my pants lol.
December 26th, 2009 at 12:30 am
truth is, that area is notorious with paranormal activities, even during its construction days. my father was the chief mechanic back then, and he reported that several ghost encounters as well as poltergeist activities occur almost everyday/nite. namely pontianak, dark-hairy-tall creature sightings, machineries and vehicles would suddenly stall/broke down, and eerie howling / screaming at wee hours.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
seriously dude… its very scary.. im in my ofice at 1.30pm… reading all the ghost stories ( saturday maaa.. no mood to do work.. haha) it gives me goosebump.
i’ve also know abt this karak higway story. i’ve heard 2 version one with the head on the car roof, the other is the bansee eating the husband.. but either one.. still creeps me out…
January 31st, 2010 at 9:49 pm
usually demons attack humans.. ghost don’t.. the attacker might be one asshole demon….
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:38 pm
so many diff versions..my fren told me almost the sme thing except for the husband came back to the car and advise his wife not to go out…he stayed with her in the car until the police arrived..they ask her to step out of the car…ONLY HER…she tot mybe her 1st then her husbnd..when she arrived at the jeep..she looked bck and saw her husband getting eaten on the car..who was in the car?? could be his spirit helping her or sumting…thats how i heard it…
February 24th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
haha.. i live near karak highway.. and sometimes.. i travel to genting by taxi or bus.. mostly taxi.. once an old taxi driver showed me the placed where this incident happen.. what really happened is his wife was so worried and started crying.. a loud bang on the roof.. mist was around everywhere.. few cars pass by were honking and flashing headlights.. lucky a police car came and officers got very shocked of what they saw on the roof.. she was crying and so afraid.. when she saw the police.. they told her to come out.. she was relived carried her baby and ran to the police.. she was crying and yelling complaining abt her husband.. they pulled her to the police car.. while the police man was pulling her to the police car door.. she looked behind at the roof.. a white thing with long hair.. muching the head.. and somehow she got insane after few years.. the baby was raised by her relatives..
February 24th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
then.. i have this story.. my frens brothers.. atually both of them are friends.. and one of them is my frens bro.. he was driving in a tunnel.. i dont really remember where.. it was 2008 when my fren told me.. they both was in the car.. the tunnel was empty.. at night.. 9 pm.. then the driver felt uneasy.. like smthings touching.. a chill.. he saw the front mirror.. a long hair looking down.. white thing.. holding the both front seats..
both of them saw it and hit the pedal.. they were elderly ppl.. n they are familiar with these things.. they was not afraid but furious.. hit the oil and speeded to the end.. it dissapeared when they were about to reach the exit.. and they headed to the temple.. to avoid being followed.. wash feet outside their home..
February 24th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
btw.. there another one.. how would you feel if u saw your fren sitting with her eyes wide open and licking her own head ?.. A LONG TONGUE !!!
February 27th, 2010 at 12:42 am
i heard d same story frm my mom…spooooooky…