Which brings me to the topic of haunted buildings that I have encountered during my travels over the decades!!
The first one that rates a mention is a Government rest house in Tuaran, Sabah.More than a decade ago, I was studying for my Diploma in Management and exams were very close when I was assigned to install an instrument in the Agriculture Research Center (ARC) in Tuaran. Tuaran is located about 40km from Kota Kinabalu and the options to get to the site was Customer's transport (a 4 wheel drive which provides a simulation of a roller coaster without the sudden drops), Taxi (costs an arm and a leg because the driver will claim that he has to come back empty) or a public bus (which drops one off more than 1000m from the site). The customer offered the 4 wheel drive - which would take 1 hour commute each way. So as not to waste time in commute and afford myself more time to study and prepare for my upcoming exams, I asked the customer if they had a hotel in Tuaran itself.
Wonders of wonders - there was a Government rest house located just 100m from the ARC labs!! Another pleasant surprise - it only cost RM10 per night ( I was telling some people it was RM5, but checking on some records that I had kept on this visit - it was RM10). Dinner was a private arrangement between the landlady and myself - for RM5 per meal. Hey, I am not complaining. And I am sure my manager wasn't complaining either. So after work at the lab, I showed up at the rest house, got myself a spacious room, washed up and had dinner. After that, it was my books.
The room had only a small incandescent bulb (about 100 watts) hanging from the middle of the room. Due to the ever present squadrons of mosquitoes, the windows has a mosquito netting strapped over it. My bed was against the window and since the light bulb was in the middle of the room, I lying on the bed with my feet towards the window and the head towards the center of the room so that i can read my books in proper lighting.
Midway through my studies, I heard a series of very loud and deep breathing behind me - emanating from outside the window. I turned around, squinted my eyes and could not see anything. Of course not - how can one see anything past the mosquito netting!! So I switched off the light, pressed my nose against the mosquito net and looked real hard. Nope - nothing out there that I could make out in the darkness. I switched on the lights again. By this time, the deep breathing had stopped. But not for long. In a short while as I continued with my studies, it started up again. In desperation, i groaned " go away and leave me alone. I have no time for these" Whatever that was, it sure understood English. It stopped and I had a peaceful night.
Next morning, I asked the landlady if ...err.... she had heard of or experienced any "funny" things in the rest house. Darn it!! Shouldn't have asked her. " Oh yes, happens all the time. Sometimes, the lights will go on and off for no apparent reasons. On some mornings, she could hear the furniture being moved around - but nothing had physically moved!!" I scouted around and lo and behold - outside of my room was a small lane, beyond which was a hedge. And across that laid a CEMETERY!!. I must have attracted an inquisitive spirit during the night!! I have no issues with that. I stayed 2 more nights to complete my job before heading home.
Hotels are the next favourite haunts (pun intended) of such spirits. I have been sort of lucky in that most of the "haunting" did not happen to me directly. But my colleagues swear they have had real and frightening experiences in the following hotels
Four Wings Hotel, Bangkok. This hotel is located in one of the Soi (smaller roads) between Sukhumvit and Rama IV. The HP office (we were HP at that time) was located on Rama IV. So it only made sense to use this hotel as it was within walking distance of the hotel. A couple of my colleagues had stayed on the 7th floor and had related strange happenings in their rooms. They became so disturbed that they immediately requested for a change of rooms. Thereafter, none of our visitors to Bangkok were assigned rooms on the 7th floor!! One colleague reported hearing the mirror/glass break in the bathroom. He rushed in only to see that there was nothing happening. Another swears that he saw a figure of a woman sitting at the foot of his bed when he woke up. He blinked and the "figure" was gone.
Dai Ichi, Kichijoji. In the days when Agilent actually operated the LSCA business via Yokogawa, the sales office was headquarters in Mitaka. For convenience, we stayed at the Dai Ichi hotel in Kichijoji, one stop down from Mitaka on the Chuo line. Across the front of the hotel was a mortuary. I personally don't have issues with that, but I know of a few colleagues who felt so uncomfortable about this that they asked for a new room facing anywhere else but the morgue.
Equatorial Hotel, Penang. This particular hotel seems to have developed into an urban legend. So far, I have heard from various sources that the "haunting" always happened to a friend of a friend. Anyone knows any specifics?
Sheraton Langkawi. The Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand team decided to have a country meeting in Langkawi and chose the Sheraton Langkawi. This remains the only site that I am aware of where over a period of a few days, multiple rooms and people experienced happenings that can only be attributed to the spiritual encounters. One senior engineer related how he went to the bathroom and had dropped his room card on the floor. Since that part of the washroom was dry, he thought he would pick it up after finishing up what he intended to do when he went to the bathroom. After his bath, he was surprised that his room card was placed on the dressing table. He is sure no one came into the room when he was bathing.
Another saw a pack of playing cards fly across his face - but there was no cards on the floor after that!! One of the managers laughed off the tales and regretted it pretty quickly - that night, his heavy wooden bed shaked and rattled. Next morning try as they might, it was difficult to make the bed shake. One of the team members claimed to have the gift of the third eye. When he went to this room, he claims that there was a spirit sitting on the edge of the bed. And so, for the duration of their stay, everybody relocated their rooms and buddied up, i.e. shared rooms. When they asked the receptionist to changed the rooms and told her why - her immediate response was " strange!! normally those are NOT the rooms affected""
You go figure!
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