Adrian Pang’s Ghostly Encounter While Making meWATCH’s History Mysteries: “My Reaction On Screen Is Legit”

When it comes to matters related to the supernatural, Adrian Pang adopts a “I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude.

The closest he had to a brush with the unearthly happened on-screen — on the Ghost Whisperer-y comedy Maggie & Me, co-starring Fiona Xie, and Kelvin Tong’s demon possession tale The Faith of Anna Waters .

That’s why the 55-year-old actor was so psyched about hosting meWATCH’s History Mysteries. “I thought it would pop my paranormal cherry,” the Code of Law actor tells 8 DAYS over the phone. And as it turned out, something strange did occur. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The 10-part half-hour docu-series offers a heady peek into local urban myths and mysteries and obscure facts about Singapore history. Like Bukit Timah’s abandoned railway tracks. Or the WWII bunkers in Tiong Bahru. Or the forgotten Thousand Buddhas Temple.

If you’re hearing some of these places for the first time, then welcome to the club. And once you’re done with the show, you’ll be tempted to explore these ulu spots on your own. Well, it's best you go in groups for some locations.

Occasionally, the fascinating series — and Adrian utters that F-word a lot on the show — will even dip into the paranormal, such as ghost stories, which are mostly recounted by witnesses. In one memorable episode (see below), Adrian himself has a ghostly encounter.

Adrian had just so much fun time making the series that he’s game for a second season. “Hell, yes, I think I will,” he says. “There’s a demand and appetite amongst the public for supernatural content. So if there is a follow-up to this, that supernatural angle will be pursued more."

In fact, he would rather do a supernatural show than another about food. “Enough! Enough already! I’m not a foodie!” he protests. “All those food shows [like Yummy King] I used to do was me acting like I was a foodie. But this one is much more real.”

Here, Adrian revisits some of the creepier episodes of History Mysteries and rates the hairy moments (if any) that happened during filming…

Episode 1: The Labrador Park Tunnel

ADRIAN: It’s pretty damn creepy at night at Labrador Park. But I had the good company of the crew obviously, so I wasn’t, by any means, pretending that I was all alone. They lit the surroundings to make it look aesthetically-pleasing on screen; without all that, it’s pretty pitch black. But you’d be surprised [to find [families cycling there at the oddest times of the night, and we also actually encountered two other paranormal investigative groups who were hoping to have their own experiences as well. There’s actually a structure, a building within the wooded area just at the bottom of the hill of Labrador Park, which I personally really wanted to explore. In fact, [producer] Lindsay [Jialin], at the end of the shoot, grabbed my hand and said, ‘Come, come, I show you the entrance to this scary building.’ I actually wanted to go in and take a look myself, but we were warned by common sense and security [laughs] that perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea.

Scare factor: 3/5 stars

Episode 3: The German Girl Shrine

ADRIAN: I wish we had stayed overnight. I really wanted to, and there was an initial idea that we would, but in the end it was decided that we were not going to, which is a bit of a shame. I think if we had a night shoot, that would have been pretty exciting because I’ve seen footage from Noel [Boyd], our resident paranormal investigator. Noel obviously had camped out there at night [before], and the footage that he caught was pretty thrilling. So I was hoping I’d be able to catch that myself.

To be honest, when we were shooting that episode, we were pissing our pants. By ‘pissing our pants’, I mean we were laughing our asses off because it was quite hard to get information out of the caretaker of the shrine — and I had to speak Chinese. So that’s scary (laughs). But we were shooting in the daytime, so it loses a little bit of the scare factor obviously.

Then again, Pulau Ubin itself is shrouded in such mystique, and it has that kind of a vibe anyway, so if you go in the right time at night, I’m sure the scare factor would be much escalated.

Scare factor: 3.5/5 stars

Episode 5: The Coney Island Villa

Just how much do you know about Haw Par Villa? Do you know that it was built by the Aw brothers, the makers behind the Chinese ointment brand Tiger Balm? Turns out the brothers had another villa — on Coney Island.

ADRIAN: Once again, we shot [the Coney Island part] in the daytime. And we were there just for a little while, and it’s quite a popular spot as well for trekkers. This villa is in there somewhere. We didn’t get to get up close to the villa, but it’s in there, and once again, I’m sure because of the nature of that area, if you go at the right time of night, I’m pretty sure you’ll see and hear stuff (laughs). But we didn’t. I didn’t, certainly. So, if you want to talk about scare factor, I think it’s a two.

[Over at Haw Par Villa,] there’s a slight fun, giggly factor about being with a bunch of blokes and Lindsay, bless her, was the only girl there. I think she was protecting us more than we were protecting her, to be honest (laughs). She’s a brave girl. Haw Par Villa itself, if you can recall, is in itself a messed up place, man. The installations they have there are surreal. More surreal than scary, I think. As a kid, yeah, [our parents would take] you there there and they would put the fear of the gods in you by saying, ‘If you lie, you’ll have your tongue cut off by this monster (laughs)’. But going there now, I find it more amusing than anything. But if you left me there at night on my own, I’m sure I will shit my pants.

Scare factor: 2/5 stars for Coney Island; 3/5 stars for Haw Par Villa

Episode 7: The Old Gates

ADRIAN: Oh man, that one, yeah. I was very skeptical that we would capture anything. As it happens, when we heard what we all heard several times, my reaction that was caught on screen is legit. It is absolutely authentic, and happening in real time. I could not believe what I heard repeatedly. And to compound that, our sound engineer guy said that he actually captured a few other things that we couldn’t hear with the naked ear. After we wrapped, a couple of our crew members also said, ‘Hey, you know, I didn’t want to say it at the time, but I felt something behind me while we were filming that scene.’ As I’m telling you this, the hairs on my arm are standing on end! It was real. That was real. That was quite a thrill, I’d say.

I wish there had been more encounters. But we were also told you really don’t want to mess with this shit because if you are too welcoming with the spirit world, they might think it’s an invitation for them to come into your world. They might follow you home and all that kind of stuff. And I have to admit, after all that stuff at Jalan Selimang, as I was driving away back home, there’s a long windy road with wooded areas on the left and right, and there were altars on the side of the road. I was told not to look up in the trees because I might see something I don’t want to see. I swear, I drove so fast away from that place and I very obediently did not look up in the trees because my heart was beating like anything. But yeah, that was a fun one.

[What's on the show] was just skimming the surface! If you go there, you genuinely get the creeps there. And there are all sorts of legends about the place, so never mind the gates and all that. If you go there, I would advise people to watch their steps.

Scare factor: “I’ll give it a generous seven!”

Episode 8: The Missing Shrines

ADRIAN: I would have loved to go on a ghost hunt with the paranormal investigators [at Bukit Batok], but we didn’t. So it’s just hearing stories from the. The Japanese Cemetery Park is gorgeous. It’s so well maintained. It’s not scary at all because it was just so beautiful. There’s a feeling of calm, peace and tranquility there. Once again, we were there in the daytime, so it was hardly anything to be spooked by. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — they have to up their game lah, the spirits (laughs).

Scare factor: 1/5 stars

History Mysteries is now streaming on meWATCH.

Photos: meWATCH screengrabs