Villa door opens in the middle of the night — A spine-chilling real experience in Phuket

▲ The South Asian tsunami claimed 200,000 lives, and many eerie tales have emerged from seaside resorts in Southeast Asia. (Photo is illustrative / not the actual person involved in the story)

By Xiao Shi

When it comes to the existence of brothers from another world, most people who genuinely believe have usually had some firsthand experience. After the catastrophic South Asian tsunami, Southeast Asia has naturally seen no shortage of ghost stories. Perhaps the most famous is the Marvel version of the floating corpse incident in the Phuket ghost pool. Even someone as daring as me has always been skeptical. But during a work trip to Phuket, I personally experienced something that gave me the creeps.

Travel journalists often stay alone in different hotels. Whether you believe or not, for peace of mind, it's common practice to knock before entering a room and flush the toilet upon arrival—small precautions I always follow. That night in Phuket, I stayed at a resort with a whole stretch of beach. It was already evening when I arrived, and the porter was in a particular hurry. Upon reaching the room, he immediately pushed open the villa door, which meant I missed the chance to knock.

Usually, staying in a private villa feels great. Though the room was beautiful, I immediately sensed a rather eerie atmosphere. The room number was also quite far from the rest of my group. The courtyard weeds were overgrown, and I even kicked an old abandoned piece of wood lying across the entrance. The room was spacious, especially the bathroom, which had an outdoor shower and an indoor bathtub, separated from the main room by two large, heavy wooden sliding doors. Scenes from ghost stories or horror movies often seem to take place on dark, windy nights—and that night, it was indeed pouring rain with strong winds. The rain pattered against the high, pointed ceiling, and the windows creaked ominously.

The water flow from the indoor bathtub was very weak. After struggling through a makeshift shower, I was blow-drying my hair when the bathtub suddenly made a loud gushing noise. Although startled, I thought at the time that I must have forgotten to turn off the water properly. Around three in the morning, I was finally ready to sleep. As I was about to close the two heavy doors after using the toilet, I noticed they felt unusually heavy. Right after closing them and climbing into bed, within seconds, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye—the doors were wide open, with no sound of them being opened. There also seemed to be a shadow near the bathroom window. My skin broke out in goosebumps all over, but I was so tired that I just climbed down, closed the doors again, and whispered to myself, “Really tired, please don’t mess with me,” before eventually falling asleep.

Though some might say it could’ve been the wind or an accidental slip, everyone else in my group who had stayed at the same hotel found the story absolutely chilling. Those thick sliding doors were genuinely heavy and required both hands to open or close. To make matters worse, after returning to Taiwan, I mysteriously fell ill for three days.

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