GHOST MONTH: HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL : GHOST STORIES

Every seventh month in the Lunar calendar is known as the Ghost Month, with the 14th right up to the 17th in certain places would hold the HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL. We're in the Ghost Month now (22nd August - 19th September) most of the big "celebrations" will occur somewhere during the full moon (5th September), lots of incense, joss sticks, and joss paper burning, papier-mache form of material items will be burnt too, lots of food offering. If you want to know more about the celebration, I'd suggest you travel to any Asian cities where there are Chinese residents there... not too sure about the Chinatown in USA, Canada and Europe though, a lot of restrictions with the local authorities. Yea and I'm not so sure with China too, considering the previous Communism ideology... but if you want the real deal, you can find them in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. ...

Lots of offering and burning... CREDIT

But that's not what I want to talk about. This is the month if you noticed, lots of horror, ghost movies would be released in the Asian region. There are plenty of superstitions with the Chinese on what not to do and what to avoid during this month, one of them would be TELLING GHOST STORIES.

Some of the taboos of the Hungry Ghost Festival can be found in this Credit

It is said that 'ghosts' are released from Hell during this month and they would be allowed to visit their families, get their revenge yada yada yada... and the 'wandering ghosts' that are in the earthly realm (not their time to be called for judgement)would also profit from the offerings that the living give during this month. The spirits from the underworld are said to like 'entertainment' too, especially movies and radio broadcasting, or even a group of youth gathering to tell ghost stories, these 'ghosts' would gather around to listen and watch too.

I supposed these 'ghosts' wouldn't know if I'm writing about it hahaha~ Anyways​, I'm amongst the gweilos​ (literally translated as ghosts too, meaning foreigners, what the Southern Chinese used to refer to the Westerners).

CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH GHOSTS

Now, these stories that I'm about to share with you happened in an area in Damansara, a township in Kuala Lumpur. I used to stay there between 2008 - 2012, in 2 different condominiums, within the same condo complex.
Background of the place: The township was a relatively new one, established in 2001, after deforesting the hillside whichwas​e homes to the indigenous tribe, the Temuan.
When I was staying there, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with a few illegal immigrants from Indonesia who worked as household cleaners. They stayed with their husbands in a squatter settlement up on one of the hill slopes of an ongoing construction site. According to them, their huts were built along the slopes, mostly were beside old Muslim graveyards (presumably from the indigenous people). Not one graveyard, many. On Tuesday and Thursday nights, they would hear the voice of a woman crying. Some of their men got pissed off with the crying they shouted at it and shone torch lights but could find nothing. I asked them if they were afraid, they said they did nothing to these 'spirits', they weren't afraid. However, they were afraid of the black ghosts (Malaysian policemen in uniform).

One of them, Ida, used to come to our condo to clean, sometimes she was alone in the house while we are out at work. Yeah, we trusted her but there was always someone home by the time she's done so we could pay her and get the keys from her. One day I couldn't find her at home and called her. Turned out, she was at the swimming pool, pale. She said she was washing in the kitchen and heard someone talking in my friend's room. She thought she was home so she finished washing and went to my friend's room. She said standing in the room was an apparition of a woman in white, long hair covering the face, looking at her. She quickly grabbed her bags and keys and left. She wouldn't return alone after that. Nobody knew who that lady was, my friend continued living in that room undisturbed.

Apparition like this maybe... You can read more stories from the credit of this picture.Credit

In another occasion, another friend was watching DVD in the master bedroom, her poodle, Sasa was with her. Sasa was always playful and my friend was paying attention to the movie she was watching. Then Sasa turned towards the closed bedroom door and growled and barked. My friend thought one of us was home, Sasa continued to bark, my friend asked her to shut up. Then she noticed Sasa growled and backed away from the bedroom door, retreating until the edge of the window and whined behind the curtains. My friend later confronted us but none of us was at home when that happened. So who was Sasa growling at?

One time I thought I saw a black shadow passed the kitchen towards the bedrooms it was dusk, I didn't have lights on, so I dismissed the thought. Turned out it was around the time Ida saw the lady apparition. All these happened around the ghost month and nobody was disturbed (except for Sasa). Nothing else happened after that month, so we came to a conclusion that it was a passer-by, you know, from the other side.

After that for some reasons, I moved out from the place. Later one, about a year or so later, the friend (not the one in the master bedroom) moved to another unit and stayed with 3 other new roomies. I visited quite often and always crashed at their place, sleeping on the couch in the living room. It was a nice adventure. (Side track) I was in between jobs (no full-time​ job); so I had 3 or 4 odd jobs here and there to survive. My work time was flexible and I had a lot of free time in between. 2 of the roomies were working in the film industry, doing film editing and most of the time work at night. Another one was working in pubs, also working at night. My friend had her own business, also flexible timing.
So what happened was, I visited the production house these two roomies worked quite often, most of the time to download ghost stories podcasts. Then I'd go back to the condo around 2 or 3 in the morning. One evening, I remembered coming home around midnight, the two film editors were at work. My friend was in Singapore, the other roomie was probably partying. I was in the living room playing with my phone. It was about 4 in the morning when I decided to turn in. I remembered turning off the light, lying on the couch, taking off my glasses and turned towards the wall (back outside).
Then I heard the front door open, I looked up, from the lights in the corridor, I could make out from the silhouette​ it was one of the editors. I know my eyesight wasn't so perfect, but I was certain it was Sandra. I didn't make a sound, I was tired and didn't want to make small talks. Then I heard the door close and then the bedroom door closed​. I fell asleep after that.

The next morning, well, a couple of hours later, at 7 in the morning, the other editor called me and asked for my help to get her external hard drive that she left in her room. I asked her why don't you ask Sandra (they shared a room)? She said, Sandra went home to her mom's the day before. I sat up, wide awake. Who did I saw? I went to the room, there was no one there, I grabbed the HDD and went out to the lobby to pass it to her.

Later I confronted EVERYONE in the house, nobody was at home at 4am... so who did I saw? I clearly remembered it was the silhouette​ of Sandra, but Sandra said she wasn't there. Hmm hmm... I wasn't dreaming either, that I am sure.

Few days after that, Sandra was in her room, working on her laptop. My friend was still in Singapore so I slept in her room. Suddenly Sandra came to my room and asked if she could sleep with me, I groggily agreed. I was not usually so tired, but I remembered I could hardly open my eyes that night. I remembered she was grabbing my shirt from behind me and I told her to sleep. The next day Sandra told me she was working on her laptop and she felt someone looking over her shoulder and she had goosebumps. She then said out loud, "Alright, you can have the laptop." Then she came to me and asked if she could sleep with me. It didn't stop there. Then she heard the light switch​ being flipped. Once, then another time, then it was flip-flip-flip-flip-flip... that was when she grabbed my shirt... When I told her to sleep, the flipping sound stopped. Then she felt someone grabbed her ankle... no kidding, I didn't know how she managed to fell asleep after that, but when she told me the story, her ankle looked bruised.

Maybe someone wants to give her a massage hahahaha... More stories in the credit

So yeah​, that was the closest encounter to ghosts as far as I'm concerned. Have you​ ever had any encounter with the other side?