Stayed at a Thai hotel and was roughly shaken awake by someone shaking my shoulders as I was about to fall asleep.

▲Illustration. Not the actual hotel mentioned in the article. (Image / provided photo)

By Catty

As someone who loves traveling, I never really paid much attention to accommodation taboos — until my trip along Thailand’s Kwai River...

The first day’s itinerary was to experience rafting on the Kwai River and stay in a unique floating riverside bungalow. I remember it was a blazing summer day when I put on my life jacket and jumped into the cool waters of the Kwai River with everyone else. In that moment, it felt like someone had grabbed my feet, pulling me down deeper and deeper… no way—I was wearing a life jacket, so I should’ve been floating. Just as I thought that, I immediately surfaced. Without overthinking it, I happily splashed around and played in the waters of the Kwai River with my friends, quickly forgetting the incident.

At night, lying in bed and feeling the gentle swaying typical of floating bungalows, just as I was about to drift off to sleep, I was suddenly jolted by an intense shaking. And I’m not exaggerating—it was more violent than the 921 earthquake. My first reaction was that it was an earthquake, so I immediately opened my eyes and woke up fully. But the shaking stopped instantly, and the quiet night returned as if nothing had happened. “Whatever, if it were a serious earthquake, people would be screaming. I’ll just go back to sleep,” I thought, lying back down and closing my eyes again. About five minutes later, it happened again—and this time I could clearly feel as if someone was grabbing my shoulders and roughly shaking me side to side. There were no screams from my friends, and this time I knew something was wrong. I didn’t dare open my eyes. Aside from being scared, I found myself shouting inwardly, “Enough already—I’m so tired today, and I have to get up early tomorrow. Can whatever it is just wait till morning?” Strangely enough, the shaking stopped, and I gradually fell back asleep. The next day, I asked every friend if they’d felt any earthquake, and everyone said no. So what was that shaking I experienced last night...?

The next day, I stayed at a new hotel in downtown Bangkok. As soon as I entered the room, I felt there was something odd about it, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Before long, there was a knock-knock-knock at the door. “Who is it?” I called out twice but got no response. My instinct told me not to look through the peephole. When I opened the door, sure enough, the hallway was empty. Grumbling in frustration, I closed the door. Soon after, there was another knock. That’s when I thought—could what I’d thought the previous night, “let’s deal with it tomorrow,” actually be spilling into today? The thought gave me the creeps, so I immediately turned around and rummaged through my luggage for the amulet my mom had packed for me. The knocking stopped, and I held onto that amulet tightly all night, not daring to let go.

Blog: Catty Shares a Beautiful Life
http://smallcatty35.pixnet.net/blog