So you’ve spent your Halloween in Singapore. Perhaps, you’ve visited the Universal Studios for the Halloween Horror Nights 6….. and that’s about it. While the Gobeyond team is still suffering from post-Halloween syndrome, we have brought you interesting stories about how emerging markets around the world celebrate halloween!
1. DUBAI: Spooktacular Haunted Hotel
Occupants of the Spooktacular Haunted Hotel. Photo: IMG World of Adventure
You didn’t expect the middle east to have a place for horror lovers, did you? Think again. In Dubai, there’s a place specially for thrill seekers at one of the tourist hotspots at the IMG World of Adventure.
In the heart of IMG World of Adventure lies a Spooktacular Haunted Hotel that opens all year round for tourists. Not for the faint-hearted, this hotel strives to provide an awfully scary experience for its guests – with creepy sound effects and a sickly stench that’ll linger around you during your stay. Truly a living nightmare you’ll never forget.
How to get here: Dubai, within the City of Arabia, on the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road
Official website: http://www.imgworlds.com/en/newspress/spooktacular-haunted-hotel-is-revealed-at-img-worlds-of-adventure/
2. Mexico: Day Of The Dead Tour
People parading with skeletons during the day of the dead. Photo: Wikipedia Commons
One of the scariest festivals in the world, Mexico’s day of the dead, otherwise known as El Día de los Muertos, is a day dedicated to honour the dead. Death is often a taboo topic and is commonly associated with grievances. This might lead you to have the perception that El Día de los Muertos would be a solemn festival. Well…not really. This event is celebrated all over Mexico, where people dressed as skeletons and parade on the streets, while family members of the deceased visit graveyards to pass offerings and decorate graves. Rumour has it that it’s best if you aren’t going alone, so visitors can experience El Dia de los Muertos in a tour!
Address: MOC Adventures | Mexico Avenida Juárez 909, Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico
Official website: http://www.mocadventures.com/muertos.php
3. Mexico: Guanajuato Museum of Mummies
Mummies of Guanajuato on display. Photo: Sedimentality
Following the day of the dead in Mexico, there’s another place in Mexico that will send you shivers. The Guanajuato museum of mummies in Mexico boasts more than 100 mummified bodies that will definitely leave you feeling chilly all over. Apart from the chills, learn a thing or two about the history of mummies and also, how bodies are mummified! P/S: Don’t scream for mummy while you’re in here.
Address: Municipal Pantheon Esplanade, Downtown, C.P. 36000, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Official website: http://www.momiasdeguanajuato.gob.mx/english/historia.html
4. Madagascar: The Reburial
Similar to Mexico’s Day of the dead,, Famadihana is a ceremony observed by the Malagasy people in Madagascar. Apart from visiting graves to pass offerings, Famadihana requires one to flip or turn over the bones of the dead for reburial. Depending on your relationship with the dead, you’re allowed to dance around the coffin, accompanied by traditional accordion music.
Address: Central Highlands, Madagascar
5. South Africa: Cape Town Horrorfest
Photo: Cape Town Magazine
Halloween for…. all?!
An annual horrorfest in Cape Town, South Africa is an event you might not want to miss next time during Halloween as this event caters to everyone – the movie marathoners, the makeup enthusiasts, as well as the shopaholics!
At the horrorfest, movie marathoners can enjoy horror movie screenings to bring on the chills and leave your eyes glued to the screens of the Orange Theatre. For the ladies, flaunt your best creepy looks at the Halloween dress up night! Do a makeover, don your costume and strut your way to the Horror Fest. Last but not least, for the shopaholics, a bazaar (marketplace) will be there so maybe get a memento or two and make this horrorfest a night you won’t forget.
Address:
Labia on Orange Theatre, 68 Orange Street, Cape Town
Official website: http://www.capetownmagazine.com/sa-horrorfest
6. India: Kuldhara Ghost Town
The ghost town, Kuldhara. Photo: Happy Trips
Are there really any occupants in Kuldhara? Where did everybody go?
There are many versions as to why the villagers left, but legend has it that it was all because of the then-powerful Prime Minister Salim Singh, who threatened to make the villagers suffer if he could not marry the daughter of the village head.
Watch what used to be a home for the villagers of Kuldhara more than 200 years ago transform into an abandoned ghost town.
Address: Kuldhara | On the road to Sam Sand Dunes and the Thar Desert, Jaisalmer 345001, India
Official website: http://www.rajasthandirect.com/kuldhara-an-abandoned-haunted-village
