Uncle Fong shared two frightening experiences he had while staying at old hotels. In the first, he heard dripping from the bathroom tap repeatedly despite turning it off. He then felt a heavy body lying on him and was paralyzed with fear. In the second, his roommate saw two disembodied legs walking up the bathroom wall, with blood dripping from the boots. They discovered the hotel was formerly a torture house used by the Japanese during occupation.

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Many of us have at one time or other heard of terrifying
happenings at old hotels and lodging houses built before or
during the colonial times. When I was a small boy I used to
listen attentively to tales of horror told vividly by my
grandmothers, my elderly relatives and also the neighbors in
their sixties and seventies. This over the years created
conditioned fears in my mind especially during my
schooldays. Hauntings at old hotels? I have stayed at such
hotels and lodging hotels but honestly I have never seen a
ghost or any sight of the supernatural kind. However there
was one experience which was rather frightful to me.
Sometime in the late 1970s I was directed to conduct an in-
service course for teachers on a new Chemistry curriculum.
The week-long course was held in Melaka and my
accommodation was at a rather old hotel, probably built
before or during the colonial era. It was a big bungalow-like
wooden building with a compound of its own. I chose such a
hotel because the rates were low. The bathroom was located
outside the room just a short distance away. All meals had to
be taken outside on my own as there weren’t any cafes or
restaurants.
The nights I spent in the very spacious room were not
peaceful. Now and then I felt some uneasy coldness running
through me. Going to the bathroom was an ordeal for me
because the uneasy feelings became more intense. During my
stay at his hotel, I would always do my bathing, washing and
brushing my teeth by the early part of the night well before 10
pm.

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There was fear in my mind and I was trying to avoid having
to visit the bathroom-cum-toilet near and after midnight. The
passage to the bathroom was dimly lit and rather eerie.
Sometimes in the middle of the night I would hear sounds
coming from the bathroom as if there was someone there. I
was too scared to investigate. Despite the uneasy feelings and
fear in me during my stay at the hotel, I did not change hotel.
Well, I did not see any ghost but I could not explain the
frightful feelings that arose in me at the hotel room. Fear
from imagination and conditioned thinking? I don’t know.
I have a very good friend whom I shall refer to as Uncle
Fong (not his actual name). He is in his seventies and I have
known him for more than twenty years already. He has gone
through lots of life experiences especially during his working
days. Recently, Uncle Fong shared with me his experiences
of encounters of the supernatural kind. He told me about
some of the haunted houses and hotels he had stayed in. I
reproduce here his narrative accounts of 2 hotel happenings
that really terrified him:
‘I once worked in an oil company and I was based in Kuala
Lumpur. I was 29 then. The boss used to ask me to drive from
Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Lipis to handle certain matters
pertaining to my work. I used to reach Kuala Lipis just past
midnight and would check in at a simple old hotel. With just a
small bag, I usually took a small inexpensive room. There
was this hotel that gave me a terrifying experience. I checked
into the room after midnight and had my shower. I then
proceeded to lie on the bed.

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After a short while I heard the sound of dripping water
coming from the tap in the toilet. I went to the toilet to switch
off the tap. It was not long when the dripping started again
and once again I had to go to switch off the tap. I was getting
exasperated having to repeatedly do this 3 or 4 times. I
cursed and swore. Then as I lay on my bed again, I felt my
whole body turn cold; I was sweating all over. Then I had
this sensation of a ‘heavy body’ lying on me. I said my
prayers in my heart. I could not speak or yell out much as I
tried. I felt terrified. After a while when I could move my
body, I left to go outside the hotel. For the rest of the night I
slept in my car. The next morning I checked out of the hotel
never ever coming back again to this old hotel.’
“There was another occasion when terror gripped my
roommate and me at an old hotel in Mersing, Johore. We
arrived at the hotel between 6pm and 7 pm. It had been a
weary day having traveled hundreds of miles. After resting in
the double room and chatting for a while, my roommate
decided to have his bath in the attached bathroom while I
waited for my turn in the hall. Hardly 5 minutes had passed
when my roommate rushed out naked from the bathroom. His
face was pale and he was truly terrified.
“There’s…there’s …something horrifying in the bathroom,”
he managed to voice out. I accompanied him to go back to
the bathroom.
When I reached the bathroom door and looked in, I had the
shock of my life at what I saw.

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Above the bath tap, I saw two legs in boots walking up the
wall. There was no other part of the body…just two legs in
boots and blood was dripping from the boots as the legs
made their way up the wall. We went back to the room and
both of us decided to leave the hotel. We were just too afraid
to stay for the night at a hotel like this.
We found another hotel to pass the night. Later on our
investigation and asking around revealed an interesting
story. It appeared that the old hotel was once a house where
the Japanese used to torture and kill the prisoners. Some
years later when I went back to have a look at the old hotel, I
found that the hotel was already sealed.”
Reflections
* Are there ghosts and ‘disembodied spirits’ that linger
around certain places where murders, homicides, suicides,
tortures, and other violent acts of killing had taken place?
Well, I don’t really know. I have no direct experience of such
entities. Interestingly, most religions do have accounts of
hell, ghosts and spirits… (In the Buddhist scriptures, there is
reference to beings in hell, ‘hungry’ ghosts and spirits.)
* If there are such unfortunate beings who had died in
traumatic ways, it is good to have prayers, transfer merits for
them and to radiate thoughts of love and compassion to them.
* Fears arise in the conditioned mind. Through acts of
charity, morality, understanding and wisdom we can
gradually dispel the fears. The mind will then be more calm
and peaceful. To my mind, people’s experiences of ‘ghosts
and spirits’ are usually mind-made.

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In Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
Hamlet once said to Horatio, “There
are more things on heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
philosophy.”
“When the mind is strong, clear, pure and
well-cultivated through the ardent practice of
the Noble 8-Fold Way,
you will not be disturbed or harmed by any
‘demons, ghosts or evil spirits.’ You will not fall
victims to any ‘spirit possession’, ‘charms’ or
other suffering ‘supernatural happenings’. ”
With Metta,
Bro. Oh Teik Bin