Ride-hailing service driver unfazed by ghostly incident

SOMETIMES, ride-hailing service users wait so long for a response they wonder if their requests have been rerouted through The Twilight Zone. In this case, highlighted by China Press, the request seems to have originated from the Zone.

The daily reported the eerie tale of an Uber driver who suspects that he picked up a ghost recently.

The man accepted a pick-up request coming from Mount Erskine – which has a large cemetery – in George Town, Penang, at about 12.30am on Sunday.

“As I followed the map to the pick-up point, I found myself near the Chinese cemetery,” he said.

He said it was pitch dark there and he could not see anyone.

The driver decided to wait, thinking the passenger was probably on the way.

“After about five minutes, there was a sweet scent in my car,” he said.

“Since I was already there, I wanted to get the fare. So I tapped ‘Start Trip’ on the app and began driving.” The app showed that the drop-off point was nearby, less than 100m away.

Feeling increasingly uneasy he drove in a hurry and stopped at a petrol kiosk several kilometres away to wash his face.

“When I got back into the car, the sweet scent was still there. I said some prayers, and loudly announced I was going home. So please leave my car,” he said.

The scent was gone after about five minutes. The driver said he would continue in this line of work because “ghosts were once human too and there is nothing to be afraid of”.

> The daily also reported that the authorities at the Taipei First Girls High School were mulling legal action over a promotional video featuring a Japanese adult-movie actress wearing its uniform.

The video, which featured Aimi Yoshikawa wearing the uniform in several compromising poses and seemingly in a Taiwanese school classroom, was filmed for the coming Taiwan Adult Expo.

The expo organiser posted the promotional video on its Facebook page on Tuesday and sparked an active discussion among netizens.

> Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.