Trip - Istana Woodneuk Abandoned House

Hi Blog,

Today I don't care rain or shine, I wanted to explore one place which is my list and credit to one of my IG followers, urbex_horse, who guided me the route. I got to know Istana Woodneuk from these following sites: wikipedia, stateofbuildings and smartlocal. (I will encourage you guys to check them out and see how much changes it got since then.)

Mr Sun and Miss Sky seemed to know that I am going to somewhere... and they showed their worries.

Warning: That place is still forbidden to enter because of it is not a safe place for visiting. I hope my visit will discourage you to. And hope readers can keep this harmless personal blog low profile. I don't want troubles.

I will dress up first since there is some traveling required.

Living in Singapore as long as I am still breathing, this was my first step foot here.

Thanks Miss Sky for not starting to rain. Just gloomy.

oooo! It seemed like I am near the area.

Can imagine the days when this place was not abandoned, this way must be the entrance.

Peeping in, it was consumed by grasses.

I shall continue down as...

there is an entrance where used to be cordoned and now hmm 🤔

Oooo So excited... What is waiting ahead of me?

It seemed like the ground was moist due to yesterday rain - Thanks goodness it was not heavy

Hmmm... It seemed like there are two paths - Left and Right.

My usual choice - I will pick the Left side of the path first.

Honestly, I don't know the path but at least, the clear path showed me the way.

A steep slope here

There were thick tracks of ants, so need to be watchful of where you stepped on.

Oh NO! There was a gorilla hiding in the wood!

Really in the WOOD.

The wood got thicker... Can't really figure out the trek so I returned to the Right side of path.

Alright, back to right path. Ah I see! The tape is the hint.

Thanks to the one who placed it there.

Thank you to whoever did this :)

The tape leads the way.

It seemed like there are a lot of trees collapsed along the trek. I can imagine how dangerous it can be, as time goes by.

Check out the beautiful wild growing plants here.

Thinking through where and how this place was setup and abandoned. Long story short (read more in wikipedia) - It was built in the mid 1800, this place was built for Sultan Abu Bakar's 3rd wife who was overseeing the design and planning but she did not live to see the completion of the building. After that, it was handed over to his 4th wife after Sultan Abu Bakar passed on...

But shortly, his 4th wife also passed away... then Abu Bakar's son took over.

oooo! FOUND IT! Let's end the history sharing - During WWII, the whole estate was used to provide support for the Indian Army as a military camp and also served as a headquarter for a battalion.

Oooo, this one looked different from what I had seen online... Have I come to the wrong place?

Hmmm... should be correct.. and the grass was long if I wanted to start from the front

So lets go in together, shall we?

Oooo, the first impression when I stepped in - Graffiti gathering hub. (you may check out my top 8 of woodneuk graffiti post)

It seemed like the roof was not stable and rather rundown.

Oooo! The first room I checked, abandoned air con units?! Either they left it there after it was abandoned or this air con units were deployed in the past? Can't be... Even if there was air con usage in the past... But definitely not that "new".

Standing in the present, feeling its past consumed by time slowly.

I peeped into one of the rooms - Most people will start to have imagination... Like haunted feeling

Or cumming feeling?! LOL!

I can imagine that I was captured by "hantu" here, like no escape feeding the mosquitoes here.

Observing the rooms, this areas might be rooms for their servants or guards in the past. This one looked like a kitchen. I just peeped from outside and don't step in further.

Beside the kitchen, there are a small store and toilet.

I feel like I can do something here, hmm... never mind, snap and continue.

Hmmm... It seemed like I only cleared a few rooms and there are some more over this wall. At least, I felt a sense of "openness" and "comfort" to tour around "their house". :) Thank you to the unseen for welcoming.

Another quarter or wing, I don't know.

Hmmm... Another rooms but another wing. More graffiti... I guess some graffiti actually emitted a sense of "negative energy" to the area. You know like Water Crystal Experiments by Masaru Emoto. Graffiti, they come in forms of irregularity and chaos; especially those which just wanted to vandalise the place, will tend to appear "messy" mentally.

A lot of dxxk graffiti, I must say...

Imagined rooms without graffiti... Just empty room, it will remove the element of disturbance.

After visiting those smaller rooms, there is this long passage which seems like leading to the main hall. Oooooo, Creepy vibe here!

The image which you see, may seem bright but it was enhanced because it was dark.

Just check this out. Unedited and long dark passage... I wondered when or how I had the gut to walk through this.

I heard some sounds... It seemed like I was not alone, there was a group of visitors exploring this house too. Will they got scared seeing a reddish figure with an untoned body, then run away from getting eye sore curse? Oh well, I will just tried to avoid them.

A few slightly better rooms than the previous ones.

Looked like these rooms were used for recreation.

Dark place lilted by the light outside...

But we can lilt up ourselves from inside - from within.

Finally came to a brighter area

Trying to look cool by posing at the staircase.

There are a lot of debits from the corridor and one thing which caught my attention; the material which made the stair handle... it is smooth like jade. I believe when you used the stair and touched the handle, you will feel the coolness.

Hmmm... I can't continue to get to the 2nd floor because blocked by bigger debits.

Near the staircase, a lot of debits from the top. Something had happened here in the past.

Hope the people here were safe.

Give another five more years or less, this place will completely face off and unrecognizable.

Honestly, I was glad this area had fallen if not, it might become a problem to any visitor...

The room under the staircase seemed like a storeroom and I could see the group of visitors just observed the building from outside.

Oooo... Another passage to get to another wing - Right Wing.

Looking back at Left Wing from another wing.

A spooky staircase and it seemed like this place was burned by fire, Check out the ceiling.

oooo! From the 2nd floor of the Right wing, I can see the Left wing room which blocked by the debits previously.

Oooo! I can walk across there to another wing from this opening space.

I guessed I will walk across later.

This place was built with strong concrete that fire can only leave a black mark and look at the tiles too - Good material used!

There are many rooms up here, let's explore them one by one.

Looked like an open root top area next to the staircase.

Nature is taking over this area sooner and I can't stay too long here, I will also be consumed by it too.

oooo, we came to top of the main hall. The wooden stairway started to break down unlike those found on Google. Oh man, I wanted to take a few pictures at the iconic stairway but now it was gone and too dangerous to step on it.

Oh well... At least, 2nd floor has a lot of beautiful rooms but the roof collapsed... Did you noticed the roof tiles are blue? Because Istana Woodneuk's rooftop was blue in colour and they become debits.

Checked out this classic wrought iron railing and absolutely beautiful! OH! I learned one new word today - Wrought. It seemed like an useful word. :D

Will this wrought Jeff match with this classic elegant railing? LOL! That Railing is laughing at me!

Oooo Is this toilet? or... Washing bay? I can't tell what is this room for.

More "porch" area to explore

Nice opening - if it was in the past and neatly maintenance, this place will be IG-worthy.

I will imagine the scene

I came to the main open-roof hall.

Here got a few colourful and neat graffiti

For me, I just love how Nature hugs the concrete.

I also like an open space scene.

Hmmm... I don't know what is this area for... Blue tiles on the ground meaning this area might be roofed before.

For me, I thought it can become a indoor garden. LOL!

This area seemed like a cafe area - like for the rich to dine here.

The tiles here are different from the rest of the whole house.

I wondered how did they manage to spray on the ceiling.

Another opening area

oooo! Wah! Amazing to see an Alocasia plant growing here and what makes interesting, is there are holes on its leaves... Looked like Monstera.

This place seemed danger potential

My imagination started to go wild...

Anyway, don't let my imagination carried me too far. I found this graffiti of Kraken or Cthulhu, are you the one which gives me a lot of wild imagination? 😂

Anyway, back to the 2nd main hall stairway, just to show you the fire damage here.

Now I had arrived at the 2nd Left Wing looking back at Right Wing.

Suddenly my camera snapped on its own... 🤔 Are you trying to tell me something? Sorry I am not that smart...

Now we had a closer look at the amount of debits blocking the staircase at the Left Wing just now.

I returned back to the first floor Right Wing to explore the main hall and walking through which seemed like a kitchen corner.

There were a lot of empty bottles and I wanted to bring one back because I need one of this... Nope. So sorry... It doesn't belong to me and no one to ask.

OOOO! What a grand place for bathing. :3

The water has become mosquitoes' party house... RUN!

Ah! Here is the view of the entrance so I was at the right place after all, it was because I came from the side.

Look! How tall this building is, relatively to this shorty.

Actually this place is still in good condition, for the rich, this place can restore in no time...

If they gave this place to me and also I am wealthy, I will make restore this place and run a simple vegetarian cafe.

EVen if they just gave me now... with my limited wealth, I can only afford people to clean up this place then abandon this house again. LOL

Let's focus on the iconic feature of this abandoned house - Stairway

Scary breakdown stair... Really... it was not like that a few years ago....

oooo! Interesting place to display your favourite vase or antique if your house has no children.

The graffiti seemed to express there is a guy trapped inside here.

And I was trapped.

Yes, that is a perfect place for a cross.

From the middle of the hall, there is another mini store.

Beside the main hall, another smaller hall.

It seemed like I had visited every corner in this house.

Hmmm I wondered what had happened outside the house

Did I spot something else here...

Oh! A metal bridge!

But there is no drain or pond underneath it.

Oooo! I spotted another metal bridge nearby too, can you spot it?

Lastly, I wanted to see the overall view of the house.

In front of the house, it was heavily consumed by Nature.

Like this a a distance.

Taken in 2007 by Daniel Cheong - What a beautiful shot of the building. Now looked at how much Nature had taken over. You can click on his flickr page to see the condition,

After my second visit, I tried to draw the layout of the house, may not be accurate (off scale) as there are some places I missed out. Just take it as a point of reference if it helps.

Thank you "hantu" for bringing me around peacefully. Good bye then.

What a rewarding and refreshing trip - I was so thankful for today visit.

Time to go back home and rest

Overall visit - It was a different experience and revisit is a nope for me, and I hope no one will get hurt if they decide to visit there. Please take note that it is an out of bound area to protect us from potential injuries. Also! Try to keep our volume low and don't speak louder - especially making fun and laugh out loud. They won't like it.

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Updated! I made a post about Graffiti, you can check it out here.

Jeff