Seeing the Unseen, Hearing the Unheard

I had lunch today with a fellow Bicolano who's father was my Mom's seatmate in school. It was our first meeting and what was notable about it was we got so comfortable our conversation turned to ghost stories. For some strange reason our IT talk on CDO turned to ghost stories.

We both agreed that the hotels there have ghosts like the one I stayed in last year for a roadshow. Upon entering the room I already felt a presence. Since I was so tired I just shrugged it off and ignored it, went out to have lunch with Jonas. Upon returning to my room I took a nap and got up to take a shower. There was someone in the shower. As I was taking a shower I could feel eyes boring through my back and it was awfully cold despite the warm water. I didn't feel though that it meant any harm. It just probably wanted to scare me off. So I managed to ignore it.

Good thing I was out the rest of the day for a speaking engagement and meet-ups. Ended up having dinner with Jonas at Limketkai and managed to go back to the hotel before midnight. I was too tired to mind the little child running around in my room. I couldn't see him, but I certainly felt him. I thought he just wanted some attention. What caught my attention was the noise from the disco across the street. It was so annoying that I just left the TV on mute. Of course, I had all the lights turned on as well.

I managed to get in a few hours of sleep, but the noise from across the street was still ringing on my ears when I woke up. Upon meeting my roadshow mates at the lobby I ranted to Jonas that it was so noisy outside my window. We were on the same floor and faced the same object of annoyance. He told me, "What noise?" I described to him the disco sounds that wrecked my slept. "There wasn't any," he said and said that the bar in front of the hotel was closed. "Looks like it burned down or something."

Oh my gawd.

Hotel Ghosts

I've been travelling a lot for work in the past few years. I think I spent 45 days of 2006 in different hotel rooms. It's a good thing that I'm not scared of ghosts anymore coz there's always one in every hotel I check into.

Singapore - I must admit I'm not good at scouting good hotels. Anyway, I ended up in a hotel somewhere near Little India (hint hint) and I didn't sleep a wink the two nights I was there. I usually leave the light in the bathroom on whenever I'm alone in a hotel room. The place just felt so heavy and I saw this thing in human form (with matching turban!) standing in front of the bathroom. I hid under the covers, but that didn't help any since the presence was really overwhelming. I ended up leaving for the airport a good 4 hours before my flight just to escape the thingy in my room.

Davao - I had the privilege of staying at this really prestigious, expensive hotel in Davao when I was still in the yellow pages. I was watching TV one evening and had the lights on because I was also doing some reading, when suddenly this shadow in the form of a dragon walked across the wall behind the TV. Shocked I turned the lights on and off, but it was still there. I tried so hard to dismiss it as a small lizard playing tricks on me, but the goosebumps it gave me really freaked me out and as usual, I just hid under the covers and prayed.

Cebu - I just came from Cebu yesterday and this thing I just dismissed it as faulty wiring. I felt that leaving the bathroom light and keeping the door open was kinda freaky so I decided to leave the bedside lamp on. Just one lamp so it wouldn't be too bright. Much to my chagrin I woke up the next morning and all the room lights were turned on! Next time I'll make sure my best friend stays with me!