Thai ghost stories

[Brink15]

I've always been facinated by ghost stories. I've never seen a ghost and don't really believe in them, but stories about hauntings have always held an interest.

 

 

 

I was searching through the posts for that story by Red Man on the Grace Hotel and that got me thinking. I wonder what other ghost stories about hauntings in Thailand I can find.

 

 

 

I know there have been posts on Mae Nak, the Grace, and I think something on BG ghosts. Anyone know of any other stories?

 

 

 

I found this one on an urban legends site. Not really a ghost story, but interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I was originally born in Thailand but moved to Australia to live permanently. In Thailand, there's so many tales about spirits...here's how it goes.

 

 

 

People believe that the dead can come back because most of them are unaware of their death so their corpse are left at the temple for 3, 7, or 100 days. After the cremation process, the ashes are then put into a small container (usually silver, pointy lid) and the dead's family members must bring part of the ashes home while lighting up the Asian Incense so that the spirit can follow you home, and if affordable, pour the rest of the ashes into the middle of the sea so the spirit can rest in peace.

 

 

 

Others believe that there's many holy spirits of Gods and homeless ghosts. Alongside the roads where accidents occur (mostly in the country side) are believed that ghosts will stay there so usually the country-siders build miniature houses along the road, invite the ghost to stay (one per house) and bring incenses and food and alcohol to sacrifice to the ghost. Sometimes at night accidents can occur if you cannot see those houses and forget to beep the car horn at them to say hello.

 

 

 

Many others who do not believe in cremation or cannot afford the process leave the corpse in the cemetary at the backyard of the temples (I'd say 98% of all temples have the cemetary there). The scariest ghosts who are buried there are usually the pregnant ones that died with the unborn baby. People with 'Black Magic' are believed to go to the cemetary at night and burn the corpse's skin to produce some sort of oil. The oil is then used as a medium for a man or a lady to flick onto or touch another opposite sex for those people to fall in love with them...it's kind of similar to a spell. Black Magicians still remains till today...some real and some fake ones. They deal with ghosts such as a bull's spirit, a premature baby's corpse, pregnant ghosts, metal nails, inpenetrable tattoos and all.

 

 

 

As for the above mentioned I have never experienced it myself but never wish to anyways. It is believed not to dare them or else something bad can happen. It will be very interesting if you can do some research on spirits of Thailand and publish them on your sites. Trust me that ghost stories are mostly believed by thai people nation-wide!!!"

 

 

[Brink15]

Here's another one I found at Buddhabeach.com:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Ghost Road

 

Once upon a time there was a fairly popular bar set on Big Buddha Beach called the Beach Pub. Now this bar was run by Sem and Tuk and was located where the Secret Garden bar is today. One night Sem had to go to Chaweng to do something for his sister, and having stayed there until 3 in the morning , started the short trip back by motorbike to Big Buddha beach from Anchor House Chaweng. There was not much traffic in those days so the ride was normally uneventful and straightforward. Or so he thought, as just as he got to the wide open section where you can see the airport, sem saw a figure in the road ahead of him, walking in the same direction towards the Temple at Bangrak. Now in those days the road was sandy and one had to be careful of losing your motorbike tyres in the deep sand which prevailed at certain points on the road, so Sem had to slow right down and come up behind the lady, and wait for her to move aside and let him pass. As Sem grew closer he saw that she was an old lady and had a "Khacheu" on her head with food and offerings to take to the Monks at the temple. Now a "Khacheu" was a round tray which one placed on one's head, but had not been used for many years by the local people , and it was the first time Sem had seen one. Now when Sem was behind her he was already wondering why this old lady was going to the Temple at such an early hour (5 o'clock would have been more like it) and why she had this thing on her head that hadn't been seen for 50 years or more, when she suddenly turned and stood aside to let him pass.........Now what Sem saw was a massive grim smile with red betel nut juice all over her teeth, and big black rings around her eyes and a face covered in powder. This apparition, as Sem is sure it was, gave our poor lad one hell of a scare, and you could hear him screaming a mile away over the roar of his motorbike engine as he fled the scene. He tore back to his room at the Beach Pub and told Dah his wife what had happened, and they huddled together in their room with the door firmly locked until the following morning. The next day at the bar the story was recounted several times, as indeed it was for several years afterwards, and people would often ask Sem to recount the story again...."Hey Sem !, Tell us the story of the Ghost Road"...... And that, my friends, is how the Ghost Road got its name, which is still with us today. By the way if you should like to ask Sem about this story, you can find him at the Panya Restaurant at Choengmon beach, where he still lives with Dah, and his lovely children, Bus and Bol. Tuk is still at the Beach Pub at Secret Garden"

 

 

[Brink15]

Another I found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Monk's Ghost On The Temple Tile

 

 

 

The Siegers, a German couple, were on holiday in Thailand in 1985. They toured the capital Bangkok, and one of the stock places to visit of course, is the famous Emerald Buddha in one of the golden temples that grace the ancient city, especially along the mystical Chao Praya river.

 

When strolling through the temple compound, Mr. Sieger spotted a a glazed green tile lying around in one of the temple flower beds, which had been part of the temple but had fallen off. He could not withstand the temptation to take a souvenir home to Germany with him from Thailand, and so picked up the object and slid the thing in his pocket. Soon after they left the country and returned home to Germany, where they put the tile on display in their livingroom.

 

It wasn't much later when Herr Sieger began to have very lucid dreams at night, in which a saffron robed Thai Buddhist monk lectured him on his crime and warned him to return the tile to the temple no matter what. The recurring dream didn't go away, and Mr. and Mrs. Sieger started to get quite worried when little things in the household started to go wrong for unexplained reasons.

 

Finally they made the decision that the tile had to be returned, before the ghost of the Monk was going to get serious about his threats. He called the Thai Embassy confessing his mistake and explained how the dreams made him quite concerned. The Thais listened politely to his story and offered to receive the tile in order to return it and inquired from which temple it was taken. The tile was taken to the embassy and put on a Thai International flight back to the City of Angels, where it was collected by the Chief "Phra" (abt) of the temple in question, in which it was restored to its rightful place.

 

No doubt the ghost of the monk who travelled on the piece of pottery with the Siegers to Germany was happy to be home as well, back among his fellow departed monks, as he must have been awfully lonely In the German town without anyone to talk to that would understand him. He is probably a famous ghost now in the Thai capital, as he got to go on a trip half way around the world.

 

This true story was published with Thai pride in their cultural heritage in the Thai newspaper "the Nation" in the year 1985. I know! As I lived in Thailand for 14 years and was there at the time following the story several days in the local English newspaper."

 

 

[Brink15]

Here is a long, but interesting one from the Nation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Dealing with the dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published on Sep 2, 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It happened on a dark and creepy night 17 years ago in an old, dank, hotel room in the northeastern province of Udon Thani, recalls Dr Thephanom Muangman, who once served as an advisor to a number of ministers.

 

 

 

Thephanom, then a student at the National Defence College, was on his way to Nong Khai together with a group of army generals, checked into the hotel that once accommodated American soldiers during the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Many hotels from that era are still there. He was given a room on the fifth floor. After dinner and a chat with the generals in the hotel lobby, Thephanom felt tired and went up to his room sometime past midnight.

 

 

 

There was a table with a mirror and a chair next to the end of his single bed. The doctor took a quick shower, got into bed and switched off the light. He quickly fell into a deep slumber.

 

 

 

But he was not alone. A scratching noise at the end of his bed woke him up. He opened his eyes. But it was too dark so he switched on the light. In a half stupor, he saw nothing wrong, went back to sleep, forgetting to turn the light off.

 

 

 

Silence. Minutes later, he woke up as if shaken only to find something, or somebody, in his room sitting on the chair at the end of his bed. In horror, Thephanom stared in disbelief, but didn't utter a word. He was looking at a woman with blond hair sporting a yellow top and miniskirt sitting on the chair combing her hair gently, ignoring him.

 

 

 

He uttered to himself: Who is it? Is it human or non-human? How did she get in my room?

 

 

 

Then, the blond woman turned around, got up from the chair and started moving towards him. In a cold sweat, and palpitating heart, he instinctively touched the Buddha image that hung around his neck with his right hand, and suddenly the woman disappeared into thin air, leaving Thephanom staring at the space where she had just been.

 

 

 

"I have no idea what she was, who she might be and why she wanted to see me. But I wasn't afraid of ghosts. Ghosts couldn't scare me,'' recalls Thephanom. Maybe not, but he kept the light on anyway.

 

 

 

He went back to sleep. But an hour later, he heard a scream from the room next door in which a fellow doctor was staying, who ran out of his room and shouted: "Ghost! Ghost!"

 

 

 

Everyone on the fifth floor came out to see what all the fuss was about. The petrified doctor gabbled that he'd just seen a ghost in his room. Thephanom asked him what it looked like.

 

 

 

"A woman in a yellow top and miniskirt with blond hair. She was dragging me until I fell off my bed. It was scary!''

 

 

 

His doctor friend was too, er, spooked to stay in his room and asked a general in the adjacent room if he could stay with him. The general said, 'No way,' reasonably assuming that the 'ghost woman' might be intent on following the doctor.

 

 

 

Unaware that Thephanom had seen the same ghost, the doctor decided to stay with Thephanom who kept his own encounter a secret until the morning.

 

 

 

Both slept well. With the light on.

 

 

 

In the morning, Thephanom reported the incident to the hotel manager. The manager cheerily admitted that many guests had seen the same ghost - a farang woman with blond hair, and always dressed into yellow. He said the woman stayed at the hotel whenever she came to visit her husband who was in the US army based in Udorn Thani. On discovering her husband had a Thai mistress, she was so distraught she committed suicide in the room Thaphanon was staying in on the fifth floor.

 

 

 

While Thephanom was shocked and fascinated to hear the story, he wondered why the hotel manager hadn't done anything to exorcise her spirit from the hotel.

 

 

 

"When I returned to Bangkok, I made merit by offering alms to a monk, which included a hamburger, a can of Coke and a pie. When the monk queried my choice of food, I explained the incident with the farang ghost. Then the monk said it was ok, but hinted that the ghost might be in need of some help,'' recalled Thephanom.

 

 

 

As the president of the Psychical Research Association of Thailand, Dr Thephanom is convinced that ghosts exist all around us as a form of energy after they leave the human body. Mass can turn into energy, he says alluring to Einstein's famous equation: E = MC sq.

 

 

 

"These spirits wander around after leaving the body. Only those who have the same frequency wave as the ghost would see them,'' he says.

 

 

 

The doctor admits that he's had a number of close encounters with spirits on various occasions. While in a hotel room in Indonesia for a conference, the door of his hotel room swung open three times and he heard footsteps. The door was locked and there was no breeze. After the event, he realised that the door had swung open just after his best friend, a doctor at Mahidol University, had died of malaria in Thailand.

 

 

 

"Perhaps my friend was just kidding me!'' joked Thephanom.

 

 

 

A similar event happened while he was staying in a palace in Vietnam, while he was accompanying a minister to strengthen ties between the two countries.

 

 

 

"I saw shadowy figures scurrying along the floor. And someone was pulling my legs while I was asleep," recalls the doctor.

 

 

 

Thephanom says old hotel rooms, the backseats of cars, toilets, or deserted houses are perfect settings for the paranormal. But he never runs away, as he feels they might be asking for our help.

 

 

 

In fact, hotel rooms score the highest mark for the paranormal as most ghost conscious travellers are unaware if the room has any history of guests dying - or being killed.

 

 

 

Some sensitive souls never check into a room with an odd number, as some of the cheaper Thai hotels prefer to use even numbers, reserving the odd numbers for rooms in which something unspeakable has occurred. So, if a guest dies in Room 8, the number of that room will be changed to say Room 3, so as not to scare people off.

 

 

 

However, other hotel owners believe odd numbers help keep ghosts away on the assumption that ghosts only like cruising around in room they died in and that still retains the original number.

 

 

 

While many see ghosts in visible form, Dr Sabha Limpanichkarn, a lecturer in Visual Technology for Medical Purposes at Siriraj Hospital and who also runs a 'five-baht clinic', says he often encounters spirits.

 

 

 

Dr Sabha was always the first person to arrive at the Gross (Anatomy) Building as he was conducting anatomical research using dead bodies, about 30 in all, in a room on the second floor. Arriving one day at 6am, he opened the heavy, two-inch thick door and entered the room. Suddenly, the heavy door slammed behind him the doctor felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up.

 

 

 

At the end of that day, he packed up some human bone samples in a cardboard box and took them home to study as he often did, and then shoved the box under his bed. As a friend of his father was visiting, he gave up his room for the guest and went and slept downstairs.

 

 

 

During the night he heard "clanking " sounds coming from his own bedroom. Soon after, the visitor raced downstairs shouted that a ghost was trying to drag him off the bed, and then ran out the door looking for a hotel.

 

 

 

Sabha was more intrigued than afraid and the next night as he was lying in his own bed again, he noticed that the mattress sagged as if an invisible presence was lying next to him.

 

 

 

"When I sat up, the mattress also sagged beside me in the same way. At that time I had an important exam coming up and before I slept, I would always tap the pillow to remind myself to wake up early. So I fell asleep, but was later woken up by something, or someone hitting my pillow as though trying to wake me up," recalls Sabha, adding: "I assumed it was the owner of the bones who wanted to help me pass."

 

 

 

Although Sabha has encountered the paranormal on a few occasions his family's house in Bang Khunnon, he said he wasn't afraid of ghosts. He was heard someone scurrying along the soi in front of his house late at night, but when he checked there was no one there. He went back to his room and heard it again.

 

 

 

"People don't like coming to my house during the night," said Sabha, grinning. "One visitor swore he saw an old lady standing at the front gate of my house telling a passer-by 'Welcome, this way! Please.' But I had no idea who she was. It wasn't even an old house."

 

 

 

Sabha feels that people who have seen a ghost will probably see another. "Thanwadee", the pen name of a well-known TV soap opera scriptwriter and novelist, has frequently encountered the paranormal since her childhood. When she was eight, she can still recall smelling incense or cigars of her dead grandfather.

 

 

 

Recently she smelled incense in her study while writing a script based on the Ayutthaya era. Whenever she mentioned the real names from history in the script, she would smell incense burning.

 

 

 

Thanawadee sees ghosts once every two or three years on average, she says. Among the scariest experience was riding in a tuk-tuk on her way home from work along Ratchadamnoen Avenue, where pro-democracy protesters were gunned down by the military in May 1992.

 

 

 

"When the tuk-tuk passed a hotel, I saw a man lying face down on the pavement like a drunkard. But when I looked back, he wasn't there. Minutes later, I looked in the rear-view mirror of the tuk-tuk and saw a man in a T-shirt sitting next to me in the mirror holding my bag. As I turned towards him he wasn't there. But when I looked back at the mirror, he was still there," recalls Thanwadee. "I wasn't afraid."

 

 

 

In fact, most of the ghosts she has seen have been on the street, leading her to believe that they came to untimely deaths in road accidents, which also explains why the spirits were always seen at the same spots.

 

 

 

"I was driving over Rama VII Bridge after leaving my office. As the car reached the other side I saw something like a plume of fog or smoke right ahead. It was strange, and as I drove through the fog I suddenly saw a woman in her 40s walking in the fog with her eyes distended from their sockets and blood all over her face. I thought there must have been an accident and was about to stop my car to help her. But after I drove past, and looked at the rear view mirror, she had gone, together with the fog."

 

 

 

She also spotted a woman standing on the roadside at the same spot at 2 am on two separate nights: "She wore a white shirt and glanced downwards both times I saw her. It looked like she was about to cross the street, but she didn't."

 

 

 

Thephanom, Sabha, and Thanwadee all make a point of offering alms to monks after encountering ghosts, believing that the merit they earn will protect them from seeing the same ghosts again.

 

 

 

So the next time you check in to an old hotel on Friday the 13th and get Room 13 and you hear scratching sounds or notice the locked door opening in the dead of night, there's a pretty good chance it won't be room service.

 

 

 

Manote Tripathi

 

 

 

THE NATION"

 

 

[spudsmck]

I like to joke around alot. If you ever want to freak a TG out, tell her a ghost story and that the hotel room is haunted.

 

 

 

I actually had one girl almost leave; and for the rest of the night she wouldn't even let me go to the bathroom alone because she was so freaked out. She was on me like white on rice the whole night.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Did you guys catch the article yesterday in the Bkk Post about a group of schoolgirls having hysterics during a visit to a dinosaur fossil park for a field trip? Apparently they were overcome and had breathing difficluties. After being taken to a doctor the group were taken to a local exorcist who put the episode down to the influence of pissed-off local phii. Wierd huh?

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Jaga

[SiLeakHunt]

The ghost of Kipster 100.

 

 

 

Kipster 100 has been a good friend of mine for some years now. We knew each other in the UK before co ordinating a trip to LOS so we could have a laugh together. Kipster was to arrive a week prior to me so we arranged a venue.

 

He told me the name of his hotel in Bangkok. I went to reception, they gave me his room number so I used the reception phone.

 

Instead of the usual chirpy "hiya man how you doin'?"

 

There was a goulish moan, "Oooooaaooh"

 

In fear I felt he had been possesed by spirits and it was only five o'clock. I panicked and ran. I sought solice in a nearby bar named after a precious metal.

 

I sat at the railing and waited to see if the spectre of Kipster would reappear and yes, after two hours I was rewarded.

 

I saw an outline of a man no less ugly in gait or feature than Kipster appear from the Hotel named after a famous American Soap Opera. Although the spirits had possesed him he had not yet learned all their goulish tricks. He was unable to walk through solid objects and bounced back as he attempted to transmute through the glass door.

 

He walked down the street. He was obviously battling with the phantom within. Kipster wanted to go one way but the spook dragged him in other directions.

 

I shouted to see if the Kipster I knew was still there,

 

"Kip you nobhead."

 

Kipster tried to look, but the spook guided him on.

 

Kipster looked again and seemed to recognise me but the spectral force that had overcome him kncoked him to the floor and forced a repellant green ectoplasm from his mouth.

 

Again I ran into eerie alleyways lest I too become a victim of Kipsters evil bedevilled controller.

 

On my return to the fair isle of England I contacted Kipsters relatives. No news could be told. Again, again, again and again I contacted my lost friends parents until 8 months down the line to my joy he'd returned.

 

I called his family, "Hows Kip?"

 

"He has become devoid of all currency and reason."

 

"How do you mean?"

 

"We can get no earthly sense from him," was the reply, "All he says is Singha, Mekong, Tilac, Nok."

 

 

 

May this be a warning to wretched souls wandering to Siam in the depths of British winter. You may not return alive !!

[Brink15]

What is that, something from Splooge by Dickens?

 

 

 

The ghost of punters yet to cum?

[think_too_mut]

>I like to joke around alot. If you ever want to freak a TG out, tell her a ghost story...

 

 

 

Oh, no! Only if you are not going to see her again...not a ghost story is needed, even some innocent thing may give you a living hell...

 

 

 

Did that...and still regret

 

 

 

We were alone in the room (1am) and the conversation was about something she had to do but was not feeling capable of. It happened something like this:

 

.....

 

Who is going to help me?

 

Your boyfriend.

 

Who is my boyfriend?

 

He is in this room and is looking at you....

 

 

 

She frowned, started to criss-cross with her eyes...Missed the point.

 

Jumped up, shouted in Thai "who is there?" , "Who is looking at me"?

 

 

 

That was in January. Just yesterday, almost 6 months later, she had a bad night sleep and said "you remember how you scared me... it is coming back again...every few days...I sit here alone with lights and TV on..."

 

 

 

S***, I thought it was an interesting answer I gave to her...

 

 

[spirit_of_town_hall]

I was in a hotel room with a lady, Flipper Lodge to be precise, we had both had a heavy night and were dozing in the morning.

 

 

 

There was a tap taping at the window, after a while we both noticed it, she asked me what it was, for a joke I told her that a guy had hanged himself from the upstairs balcony and had been there a while. (It was funny if you had of been there honest..)

 

 

 

 

 

Well she totally freaked out started screaming and shouting then crying, as luck would have it she had discovered the body of a good friend hanged a few years ago, just near her mums village house in Southern Thailand.

 

 

 

STH