OK, it ain’t Halloween no longer here in Phnom Penh, but here’s my GlobalPost piece on creepy world legends. Mostly happy to be able to share Slender Man with the world.
The Malaysian breast ghost and other scary global tales
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Halloween may be a largely American holiday, but remarkably creepy ghost stories are by no means restricted to the United States. Here are some weird and scary international ghost legends and stories to keep you up well past your post-Halloween party bedtime. Sweet (or at least surreal) dreams.
1. Ap/Krasue- Cambodia/Thailand
A beautiful young Cambodian woman walks outside her house at night. There’s a mysterious red glow in the air, and she walks toward it—to be confronted with a floating female head, with ghastly entrails hanging down from its neck. She screams. But it’s already too late.
That’s the Ap (Arp) or the Krasue (Thai), a Southeast Asian ghost, represented by the head of a good-looking young woman, that floats in the air, entrails, spine, and other assorted bloody organs dangling from its neck. It sounds remarkably bizarre, but it’s a persistent legend in this region—and various myths exist about how the Ap got to be, well, an Ap.