In September 2005, I was studying at Derby University for a BA Degree in Tourism, as part of my dissertation I was looking into the effects of the tsunami and the socio-economic impact on the area of Krabi in Thailand (a popular tourist destination.)
I had a close relationship with a Thai family, who previously lived in the UK, and it was arranged for me to go and stay with them. Jon the father of the family was English, and Dum was the mother of the family; she was Thai. They had two children; a girl (lets call her Cassie, for the sake of this account) and a boy called Freddie (just for this account.) Cassie would have been around 5 at the time and Freddie was about two and a half.
On arrival to Thailand I was greeted at the air port by the whole family, and Cassie presented me with a small garland of flowers, which I thought was really sweet. I was absolutely exhausted from traveling and do not remember the journey to their home very well. I remember it was about 4pm in the afternoon when I arrived at their bungalow and I had to excuse myself to go to bed.
During the night I woke up (I do not know what time this was, but I was feeling very uneasy, almost like I was being watched.) The net curtains in the room were swaying frantically, and I remember a real feeling of sadness, usually this would stop me from sleeping, but I was so sleepy I just drifted back to sleep.
The next morning I woke up feeling much better after some rest and was able to get a proper catch up with my friends, who I had not seen for almost three years. Dum asked me how I had slept and I announced I had slept really well (not wanting to let her know how uneasy the feeling was in the room.) I thought nothing of this and got showered and ready to spend the day with Dum, whilst Jon stayed home and looked after the children.
In my room I had lots of sweets and presents for the children which were on my bed, I was planning to give them to them later in the day.
Around 3:30pm I arrived back at the bungalow with Dum, and Jon was sitting outside on the porch, he had a very worried expression on his face and asked to speak with myself and Dum alone.
He said that he had caught the children messing around in my room, (trying to eat the sweets etc) so he had locked the door, only later he noticed they were still hovering around the door trying to unlock it and talking to something in the room. Cassie informed him that someone was in there and she needed to go and check and see if they were ok. (Jon thinking this was just a ploy to get at the sweets told them to go and play somewhere else and behave).
About an hour before we came home he said he was sitting on the porch when he heard in a low voice say "Cassie come here," this came from the room where I was staying. Cassie had come outside and asked her dad who had called her, which had alarmed Jon as he had also heard it.
Jon was not the kind of man to be shaken up by things like this, however there was no way anyone could have been behind the bungalow at the time or gotten into the room without Jon seeing, as the passage way behind is blocked up and the room was locked.
The other strange thing about it was that the voice was speaking in English and the bungalow where they were renting was in a residential area predominantly Thai.
He said the voice he had heard radiated through the house, the children thought it came from my bedroom, but when we went in and spoke, even loudly noting could be heard from the front porch.
Dum being a Buddhist and also a believer in ghosts called to arrange for local monks to come and bless the house, believing that something was very wrong indeed. We all packed our bags and went to stay in a near by hotel for the night. Jon and Dum contacted the people who they were renting the bungalow off that evening to relay events only to find out that it had previously been owned by and English family with two daughters, one of which had passed away in the Tsunami and the parents had returned to England without managing to find the body.
Dum and Jon also admitted to me that both Cassie and Freddie would not settle in that room, which is why they were sleeping in the small room together instead of separate rooms.
The next day the monks came to bless the house, and left a string of orange rope around for protection and also brought a 'Spirit house' which is what many Buddhists have in their homes to look after the spirits.
I did not actually stay in the bungalow again after that night, as I felt very uneasy; I chose to stay in hotels as they were very reasonably priced. Dum and Jon have since moved back to the UK and the children are much older. We never spoke about what happened again.
Loading comments....
