Monday, October 19, 2015

Ghost Museum Penang @ Lebuh Melayu, George Town Penang

It's been a while since I last visited all these attractions in Penang though I've seen so many of them coming up so attractive and fun.

Penang Ghost Museum is one of the latest attractions in Penang featuring the horror and myth of all evils and ghosts especially legend stories in Malaysia.
For some gorehound(Someone who fancy gore stuff) like me, I'm definitely attracted to the theme of the museum seeing so many pictures on their Facebook page and also pictures uploaded by friends.

My friend Nick came from KL so I have finally got the excuse chance to visit the popular Penang Ghost Museum during August.
Penang Ghost Museum is located at one of the less busy street of George Town, which is known as Lebuh Melayu. This whole street has fully occupied with local shops or some abandoned houses so Penang Ghost Museum is rather stand out on this street.

Looking at the building itself we can see that the museum is not very big, and it is also part of the Unesco World Heritage Building.



Price per entry:
With MyKad 
Adult > RM18.00
Kids > RM8.00
Senior Citizen > RM8.00
Student > RM10.00

Without MyKad
Adult > RM36.00
Kids > RM16.00
Senior Citizen > RM16.00
Student > RM16.00

There are also some basic notice for you to take note, which are what those ghost house would usually state like not for the weakhearted, blah blah blah......

The first section starts with some traditional Malay ghost legends.
The first one would be Orang Minyak(click for info), where the legend says that they are usually naked and covered in Oil. Usually steals or rape people during the past. 

There are also descriptions of every ghost they have here at the museum, but all these info can be easily obtained from the internet or wikipedia though.

Pontianak(click for info) is word that used to describe ghost of women who died of childbirth. It is one of the common myth in Indonesia, where it is also known as matianak or kuntilanak. There are also several Indonesian movies and live shows that they film about this famous creature.



I believe many of you are familiar with Toyol(click for info). Toyol, or also known as Tuyul is very famous and common known as the baby ghost in Indonesia. It is also known as Kumantong in Thailand where it is very similar to Toyol. Legend says that Toyol is made by aborted child or infant that died of prematured, Black Magicians will then use them and process them into Toyol and sell them to people.
Toyol is commonly used to steal or to do mischief, usually money or jewellery. If you find your valuables, money or jewellery missing from your home. It could be there's a Toyol visited your home.

Another rather famous myth, the Pocong(click for info). Pocong is commonly known as Indonesian Mummy. Where the spirits are trapped in the dead bodies that wrapped shroud. There are numerous stories about Pocong of how people saw them and some accidentally captured their images. There are also movies that talk about legends of Pocong in Indonesia, some can be found online too.

Hantu Pisang is kinda common in Malaysia but not Indonesia. Legend says that you can easily find Hantu Pisang as long as you have a banana tree that has flower on it. Hantu Pisang are usually girls that will take away the souls from man. They will turn into beautiful girls to seduce men and then take away their souls. 

Headless Ghost is also very common in Malaysia. The myth says that it is a type of Black Magics that usually practice by women to maintain their beauty and youth. It is also a type of very dangerous black magic where it can kill the magicians herself if anything goes wrong. This type of magic were commonly spotted in Kelantan. People who practice this black magic will need to kill animals or human for blood, and when the magic is done, they need to consume human infant to maintain their youth and beauty.
In the past, people prevent this magic by planting plants with thorns around their houses or put up some thorny fences as those headless ghost will stuck around these thorns or fences together with their intestines and die there when the sun comes out.

I personally have not heard anything about this ghost who lives in the toilets, couldn't find much info about it either. But I'm sure it will scare the shit outta me if I were to go to the toilet and bang into it.

Apart from just visiting and gaining all the information about ghost, there are some props for visitors to take pictures too. Moving into the Chinese Ghost section, we have Jiang Shi(click for info), which is known as the Chinese Zombie. They do not walk but only jump, and they are all ancient ghost that died and buried with their clothes on.
There were numerous movies featuring JiangShi where most of them talked about how the monks or Taoist Priest will be there to destroy them. 


Hungry Ghost Month(click for info)is also one of the theme at Penang Ghost Museum. Hungry Ghost Month is one of the biggest celebration in Malaysia especially in Penang. It is said that the hell's door will be opened and all the souls and spirits will be free for the whole month. Chinese will usually pray around their houses or on the roads during this period where you can see burning of joss sticks and hell money all around Penang.
People will avoid going out late night during this period as well to avoid meeting the evil spirits and bad things may happen.

Ancient Egypt section features Mummy(click for info)and Anubis(click for info).
Instead of ghost or evil spirits, Anubis was known as god more than a ghost where he is in charge of watching over the death. Study says that priests will wear the mask of Anubis during the mummification process. I believe you don't need me to tell you what mummy are as they are already quite famous all around the world. But still I like the mystery of Ancient Egypt and all the myth that I can see online.

Just being funny for picture.
That's how you have fun.



Look at the door handle of the toilet! It is a hand!

The next we entered a dark room that more like a dining room.
Standing there were Dracula(click for info), or commonly known as Vampires(click for info) too. They are rather famous worldwide thanks to all the movies especially Twilight and Vampire Diaries. They were known as bloodsucker where they solely live on blood.
Myth says that they only active at night and they could also turn into bats to fly and look for human blood.


Can you see me in the pictures?
Sorry for being silly again.


And the next section was my personal favourite. The Japanese Ghosts!
To me, they are all rather cute instead of scary as they featured cute ghosts like Chōchin-obake(Lantern Ghost) and Kasa-obake(umbrella ghost). I don't know about them but only seen some of them when I read manga and stories books, they are more to myth than real ghosts where they were created by human stories.

Rokurokubi(click for info) is one of the horrors among the Japanese. Where the lady ghost can stretch her neck and attacks human then drink their blood. You can also watch some scene from Japanese movie through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXDOJ7z_vlg

Huh? Is there something behind me?

Kappa is commonly known as 河童. Story says that Kappa is commonly used as a topic to scares children who love to lurk outside. Myth says that Kappa kills children, but in the other hand, Kappa is also a creature that can help to heal wounds.

Omg! Whose hairy legs are these!
This the Bigfoot from Japan!

Penang Ghost Museum have specially made this Ju-On featuring the movie Ju On: The Grudge movie. The room is designed to be kinda horror and they have also prepared some props for photos too. 

Eh? Since when Ju On become a guy?



Lastly, they have their Halloween theme with the usual decorations like pumpkin evil face, witch and the evil trees.
Here marks the end of the tour of Penang Ghost Museum.

If you were to ask me whether is it worth to visit?
I would say yes, but for once only. I don't think I would pay for second visit just to learn most of the stuff that I have already know or I will be able to search online.
Secondly, the props and costumes that they used in the museum are badly done I can say. At least they should put more efforts in doing it. 
Lastly, I was told that there will be tour guide that guiding visitors along the tour, but unfortunately me and my friend were touring on our own and nobody gives a damn about us along the tour.
Overall, it still serves as a great place for family outing as you can spend time with your friends or family having fun with some interactive stuff and photos taking.

Ghost Museum Penang @ Lebuh Melayu, George Town Penang
Address: 57, Lebuh Melayu, 10300 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Contact no: 04-261 2352
Business hours: 10:00am - 7:00pm (Monday to Friday), 10:00am - 9:00pm (Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays) 
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ghostmuseumpenang57
GPS: 5.413875,100.3360003
Map

Google Street View

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