Looking For A New Apartment (买楼快择)

Buying your first apartment might be the single most important investment choice that you have to make these days because once committed, you could be financially tied for another 10 or 20 years.

Most people like me can only be contented with getting an apartment in a metropolitan city. So, I would just share my own way of avoiding 'problematic' unit. By 'problematic' I mean 'haunted'.

It is best that you can bring a compass to visit the premise of your choice but this is not always possible not to mention that such a method is clumsy.

Once I audited two adjacent apartment units in a row. The first one showed that the house was facing south. When I audited the second unit, the compass needle took an about turn and showed the direction as north. So, the second unit is definitely problematic.

So said, to many others; bringing out a compass maybe embarrassing. The next tell tale sign is to look along the common corridor. If most of the apartment units has some kind of earth god or heaven god templates or the like, then it is likely that some spirits maybe present.

Then you should pay much attention to the ventilation in the corridor and later inside the apartment. If you notice some musty scent, that means the air is not circulating enough. As per rule of thumb, still air accumulates spirits. 

It is best to avoid such an apartment unless you want to invest in a new ventilation system.

Other than that, if you are accompanied by an real estate agent, then see if he/she is doing anything funny. For example: knocking on the door and pressing the door bell. If your agent did any sort of actions as described, then be wary of the unit please.

Before you enter the room, first please just step just one foot in and one foot outside the brim of the main door. Then close your eyes and notice any emotions you might have: happy, sad or just neutral.

After that, please pull a chair and sit in the middle of the living room and notice your feeling. Since we spent much of our time sitting in chairs, it is worthwhile just to invest a few minutes to sit down and that will make you feel the environment much clearer.

Avoid an apartment that is too near a big tree. If the view of tree top can be seen from the apartment or if huge tree roots have extended towards the front door, then the unit is likely to be haunted. Not to mention that fallen tree branches can be a safety hazard during rainy days.

Many parents like to bring their babies when choosing a new apartment. My advice is that we must avoid using our babies as guinea pigs. While it is true that babies are very sensitive to the presence of spirits, they are easily scared. When those babies really see ghost, they will feel frighten and cry out loud.

Since babies have weaker souls, they are easy prays to those earth bound spirits in the apartment or its surrounding. If babies suffered spiritual attack and the parents are not aware, the baby may be possessed by spirits that might deter the babies' mental development.

The best time to visit an apartment is early in the morning and in the evening. These are the best timing to give you an idea on what you are investing.

Gamblers & Cup Spirit (赌徒与碟仙)

I don't gamble but most of my friends are gamblers. The point is that if you don't gamble, you will not be able to understand those odd behaviors of gamblers do to get themselves 'lucky'.

A couple of weeks ago, I was drinking a mug of chilled beer in a bar when a few 4D fans barged in and gathered around me. So we drank together and after a while, I was being dragged half forced and half intimidated by those buggers to a graveyard.

Apparently my pals wanted to ask for lucky numbers from the spirits but afraid of possible consequences. Hence I was somehow 'invited' to provide some 'protection' to them from those evil spirits...

There were a total 4 of us. The target grave was the grave of a pregnant lady who passed away for less than 49 days.

When everything was set, I just sat beside the grave stone and Ah Boy laid out a piece of paper inscribed with alphabets, numbers, 'yes', 'no' and a 'home' positions. The players were Ah Boy, Kow and Jack. The three of them put their middle fingers onto a small plate inscribed with a arrow head to indicate the choice of letter or number the spirit has chosen.

The trio started to chant: "Spirit of plate, spirit of plate where are you?"

After a while, the plate started to move among the characters.

Ah Boy asked: "What are the sure numbers for this 4D lucky draw?"

The spirit answered: "Don't know."

Ah Boy was agitated and start scolding 4 letter words: "Fxxk! How can you don't know!? You dare to call yourself spirit!?"

Ah Boy went on cursing and swearing non-stop for many rounds meanwhile the small plate just sat still on the paper motionless.

Seeing that Ah Boy could not get any answers from the spirit, I made a hand gesture and chanted an exorcism mantra and then removed the plate.

The trio decided to call it a night and I too was happy to leave the company.

A week later, Kow came to my house to tell me that the three of them suffered from pneumonia one day after returning from the grave. During that period, all three dreamed of a pregnant lady pointed her finger at them while scolding dirty words.

Kow wanted to know if the spirit of the lady had left he and his pals alone.

After sending off my guardian spirits to investigate, the respond I got was: "No ghosts want any business with the gamblers!"

So I rest my case.

The Cursed Swingset (不祥的秋千)

Children's playground fitted with seesaw, merry-go-round, swingset, slide. chin-up bars and etc. is normally a fun place for small children to play but it can be dangerous too if those facilities are not being maintained properly.

There was an inauspicious swingset with another kind of 'danger' at the place I stayed when I was in Kuala Kangsar. The said swingset was once located at a playground behind my house. It was said to be inauspicious because two kids who had played on the swingset were rammed over by cars in separate incidents, and a pregnant lady suffered miscarriage.

I once sat on the swingset and it seemed to be able to swing automatically and at first I felt fun. But the swingset continued to swing violently and it couldn't stop. I was very scared then until I cried out loud. Luckily my dad was beside the swingset and he managed to stop it with the help of people around. Since then I dare not approach the swingset.

Today, the inauspicious swingset together with the small playground were demolished and a public hall was built instead.

The problem with the swingset might originated on the piece of land itself. It was rumoured that many folks were killed and tortured by the Imperial Army during the WWII period there.

A local resident, Chen said that one night after having supper with his friends in a restaurant outside of the housing estate. He saw an old lady carrying a very big bag walking by the playground. Chen wanted to help but no matter how fast he chased after the old lady, he couldn't get near her...

A lady teacher said: "I  returned from night class one day and saw a couple squatting by that swingset. The lady kept holding the man's head as if trying to put it in place. Due to curiosity, I approached the couple to see if I could be of any help... then I saw the man's head was severed and blood oozed from the cut. I yelled out from the bottom of my lungs and fainted. When I woke up, the couple was gone."

A couple moved into a house opposite the playground. The husband worked in a construction site and the wife was pregnant and stayed in the house. Everyday, the lady would sit on the swingset waiting for her husband to return.

One evening, the lady sat on the swingsat as usual and the swing started to swing violently. She panicked and yelled for help. Sadly, before help arrived; the lady was thrown off the swingset and knocked unconscious.

She was sent to the district hospital but suffered first from miscarriage and then died of excessive lost of blood.  Sadly too that her husband was killed in the construction site by a fallen brick.

A few days later, many residents saw the couple at the swingset. The lady sat on the swingset and the husband pushed the swing. 

Two kids came to the playground to play and both of them were rammed over by a drunk driver while on their way back after sat on the swing. The mishap occurred on the road beside the playground.

Since then no locals would get near the swingset after dark.

Killer Underground Car Park (地下停车场)

Lands in metropolitan cities are expensive so in order to achieve the maximum cost over performance ratio, developers would resort to build multi-story buildings so as to achieve maximum profits. So it is not uncommon to find sky scrapers with multi-story underground car parks in major cities of the world.

With all four sides tightly sealed by concrete walls, basements are normally used as storage area or car parks. Since basements are much lower than the outside ground level, water proofing and discharging facilities must be able to handle a sudden inflow of water or big problems will occur.

Of course, any engineering design will have a capacity limit to how much water a pump can discharge. When there is a sudden inrush of water due to excessive heavy rain fall or in the event that the pump failed to operate; then we can imagine what would happen to those folks trapped inside their vehicles in an underground car park.

Talking about underground car park reminds me of an incident occurred some time ago in a private condominium in West Point, Hong Kong. In that mishap, a couple was found drowned in their luxury car which parked in the condo underground car park.

It was when a 30km/h typhoon besieging Hong Kong and heavy rain started to pour, a couple parked their car in the said underground car park and had some intimate act inside the vehicle. To them, this maybe the best time to get intimate as the car park was almost empty hence no one would disturb them.

The love indulged couple was certainly oblivious about the weather condition outside as the meteorological department has put up Hurricane Signal No. 10.

Typhoon Aere was gathering momentum besieging North Point bringing a large quantity of rain water. Strong wind caused the sea water to back flow onto the shore and flooding any low land area along its passage, including the car park where the couple was in.

Aere left Hong Kong with severe damages after besieging there for 10 hours or so.

It was only after a few days that workers managed to restart the flood pump to clear the water in the car park and the corpse of the couple was later found inside their ill fated car.

One month later, a doctor who happened to stay in that condominium found there was a pool of mud water coupled with the foul smell of rotten flesh accumulated in his car. This is not the first time such mysterious liquid is found present.

Feeling upset, the doctor went to the management to complain but he was told that he was not the sole victim of that strange liquid. There were others too complaint of the presence of those smelly liquid in their vehicles.

Strangely speaking, all CCTV recording did not show who was the culprit until one day...

Wong went to the basement car park to get his car, just as when he approached his car; he saw the shadow of a couple looked like having intimate act.

Angered by what he saw, Wong immediately rushed towards his car, opened the door and shouted: "Don't fxxk in my... "

Before Wong could finish the word 'car', he felt a chill breeze rushed through him and he gave a shiver and swallowed the word.

When Wong took a second look, there was no sign of the couple but a pool of smelly mud water!

Later Wong combined with other tenants held a deliverance ritual for the restless couple and strangely too, after the ritual, though the ghostly shadow of a couple continued to be seen in the car park; they did not enter any cars.

Of course, personally I would shy away from parking in basement car park when the weather is not good. Believe it or not, that is up to you...

Restless Social Escort (不休的应招女)

There are many tactics that foreign social escorts employ to avoid being nabbed by the authorities. For example they would marry to a local, or these escorts would stay in an isolated area such as oil palm plantation. Another place would be renting units in flats in metropolitan cities and disguise as housewives.

Jane was a freelance Chinese social escort operated in KL downtown areas. She rented a small unit in the metropolitan city and paid someone to 'marry' her. 

All went well for a few years and Jane accumulated some handsome saving thanks to those generous and lustful customers. Since Jane already had a family back in home in mainland China, she sent all her earnings back.

A month before Jane decided to call it a day in KL, she suddenly received a message from her husband that he wanted to divorce her as this husband of her has found his new love. Perhaps Jane was not heart broken due to the divorce but all her 'hard earned' money, she chose to end her life by putting on red cloth and jumping off the balcony of her unit.

No one knows why Jane worn red before committing suicide. Maybe she wanted to transform into vengeful ghosts to seek revenge?

A few weeks later, a few taxi drivers gathered at the ground floor of the flat to drink and chat after work. One of the drivers, Beng was quite drunk and he decided to call it a day. So he bade his companions good night and staggered towards the flat lift.

When the lift door opened, Beng saw a very pretty woman in red inside the lift compartment. Perhaps Beng was attracted to her beauty, his eyes were transfixed on her. The woman also looked at Beng and Beng somehow became enchanted and followed the woman to her unit.

Beng spent a night at the woman's place but when he awoke in the morning, Beng found himself being locked inside out in an empty unit...

Since then, some taxi drivers continued to be enticed by the red cloth woman to have intimate act whether in a bush or in an empty unit in that flat. Since the taxi drivers didn't suffer any loses, people just treat the strange encounters just erotic dreams.

May be it is the working of restless Jane meant to seek revenge at her husband since he too was a taxi driver? Perhaps too that Jane still is not remorced even after she is dead?

The Pet Of Mountain God (山神的宠物)

Basically speaking, everything ranging from stones to flora and fauna in the mountain can be considered as mountain god's pets including those mountain hikers lost forever in the mountain. The mysterious leklai is just one of those pets of mountain god in Indochina just to name one example.

People believe that whatever is taken from the mountain, the mountain will also take something from the person and this is a fair deal. Give and take is just part and parcel of the law of nature of our daily life.

So said, there are people who earn a living by hunting and harvesting jungle products and they do not believe in those superstitious matters.

Ben was a born hunter once lived in Tapah and he used to enter the jungle to hunt for wild boars. When old local folks saw Ben carrying his hunting rifle, they would say: "Oh Ben, have mercy! Your gun can kill animals but not the mountain god!"

But Ben was not superstitious, he normally shook his head and marched on without bothering those cynical remarks.

Ben liked to enter the forest at dusk to hunt for fruit bats as this is the time when those big bats came out to feed. I have tasted some of those juicy bat meat and could still remember them until today. Jogging my memory, roasted bat meat are best to be consumed with black beer.

When local economy started to boom in the 90's, exotic food became in demand and Ben turned himself into a professional hunter and spent most of his time in the jungle. 

A restaurant owner even claimed that Ben was not human as once Ben has entered the mountain, he would become an animal hence under the coverage of jungle foliage; Ben could hunt more preys than any ordinary human being.

One evening, Ben saw a wild boar consuming some oil palm seeds and without any hesitation, he fire a shot at the boar. The wild boar fell onto the ground but managed to raise up and escaped into a bush while snorting in pain.

Ben was in hot pursue and followed the wild boar into its nest and found that he has injured a sow. There were a few small small boar feeding on the sow's milk. The dying sow looked at Ben as if begging for his mercy. This is the moment Ben hated most as it is a taboo for hunters to kill any animals with puppies. 

Just as when Ben was in a state of hesitation, the sow died. Since the small piglets could not survive anyway; Ben decided to kill them all...

Now that Ben has broken hunter's three taboos: don't kill puppies and milking mother animal, and don't extinct the animal source. He returned to his house with a heavy heart.

That night, Ben told his wife about his experience earlier and added that he probably could not live long. 

A few days later, Ben was found dead during his sleep...

A few months later, rumors of Ben has transformed into a giant wild boar and returned to rule the jungle he used to hunt when he was alive. Some hunters even claimed to have seen this 150kg wild boar ran across their path.

People believed that Ben has become one of mountain god's pet. 

Maybe it is true that whatever taken from the mountain will return to the mountain...

A Siamese Betta Khata (斗鱼口咒)

The Thai calls a betta fish as 'pla-kad' not 'pla-kid' which is something else.

If you practice Thai magic, then you should also keep some betta fish as not only they are beautiful to be looked at, they too can boost your courage and protect your house from black magic.

Old Thais would empower their betta fish with a special mantra so as to make their betta more fiercer so as to ward off evil spirits and victorious in any betta competitions. As far as I am aware, the origin of this mantra is so old that it is untraceable however.

The translation of such khata is as follows:

"Oh! You are a real fighter, the best fighter!

You are super fierceful hero, the hero of all fishes in the rivers!

Your crystall shinning scales are as if diamond made armors!

Your four fangs are as sharp as spears!

Oh! You are an outstanding and invulnerable fish, nothing can defeat you!"

Practitioners believe that by reciting the above mantra, the betta fish and its owner can unite in spirit and communicate with each other.

I used to recite this mantra when feeding and training my betta fish some dog gone years ago. My betta fish did show some kind of aggression after hearing the mantra so I believe that it did awakened the power of those betta fish.

One small black betta bit my finger when I chanted the mantra and poked at it. Though I was not hurt in any way, the bite gave me a sensation of electric shock.

This mantra was written on a slip of yellowish paper many years ago and I almost completely forgotten about it until I pulled out my old manuscript. 

If you keep betta fish too, then perhaps this mantra is useful.

Catfish Tales 4: The Taboo (泥鳅的故事4)

Fishermen spent most of their lives on sea and they very much depended on the weather to earn a living. With the only stepping ground is the deck, between the sky and the sea; naturally that they will have many taboos.

A more commonly know taboo is about consuming fish. A fish is normally cleared of internal contents except the gall bladder. Then the fish is cut open and it is put on a plate with both sides facing upwards as if a butterfly spreading its wings.

The way of consuming the fish is from outside in. It is forbidden to flip over the fish as flipping a fish is somehow synonym to the capsizing of a boat. So it is a big no-no.

There is another taboo that when a catfish is caught near a river mouth, the catfish must be smashed violently onto the ground a few times so that it wriggles. This is to exorcise water ghost that might have possessing the catfish and hence preventing the person from bringing the spirit back into his house. Maybe such a belief is founded because catfish is scavenger and they would eat just about anything including the corpse of a drowned person.

Jacky told me his own experience...

Once Jacky was fishing in Muda River mouth and caught a very big catfish. When he reached home, Jacky's 3 year old daughter rushed out to greet him. But when the little girl saw her daddy, she suddenly took a step back and fall buttock down; and then started to cry frantically.

Jacky thought that his daughter might be afraid of the big catfish. So, he asked his wife to console their daughter and kept the catfish inside the fridge until a suitable time for consumption.

One week later, Jacky thought about the catfish and decided to cook it. He fetched the half frozen catfish and dip it into water to defrost. Surprisingly speaking, the catfish started to awake and swim inside the bucket!

Jacky's mother saw the scene, she begged Jacky not to eat the catfish but to release it back to its habitat. Jacky is a modern scientific thinking person and he does not believe in supernatural stuffs. So, despite his old mum's advice, he decided to go on with his plan of cooking a pot of curry catfish.

The night after Jack cooked the catfish, his wife suddenly awoke in the middle of the night to see the silhouette of a person stood by their bed. Feeling strange, the lady switched on the light and the figure was gone as soon as the light is on.

The strangest thing is that though the figure had gone, there was a pool of water at the location where Jacky's wife saw it. Same sightings occurred for a consecutive few nights at the same hours. Then one night, Jacky was experiencing hag ride of another kind.

That night, Jacky went to bed as usual. In the middle of the night, he saw a figure soaking wet rode on his chest and he couldn't move or speak. The ordeal ended when the alarm clock rang at 5am.

On awakening, Jacky found he was wet throughout but his wife who slept beside him remained fairly dry though.

However rational Jacky might want to be, he decided to follow his mother's advice to consult a medium nearby. 

According to the medium, it was the drowned ghost that possessed the catfish that had troubled Jacky. The spirit was released as soon as its host was killed and it has nowhere to go but to follow Jacky.

Believe it or not, after some deliverance ceremonies; the strange wet figure was seen no more. Since then, Jacky would feel reluctant to bring back catfish caught near a river mouth...

Catfish Tales 3: The Haunting (泥鳅的故事3)

People who have been to Alor Setar would notice that some of the houses are built in the middle of rice fields. This is the story of an infamous haunted house somewhere in the outskirt of Alor Setar.

Previous tenants had claimed that that is an inauspicious house and that it must be haunted. No one could stay in the said house for a very long time. Narrations from those who had stayed in the house are almost the same:

Strange crying noise could be heard echoing throughout the house during midnight. Panic stricken tenants would be awakened in their slumbers with goose bumps developed all over their bodies.

Those timid ones would cover their heads with thick blankets and chanted mantras in the hope that the gods would come to lend a hand. The brave ones would switched on the lights holding machetes in their hands and searched throughout the house in the hope to snatch the culprit. As soon as the tenants started to make commotions, those strange noise would halt almost immediately only to continue when the lights or the sounds of chanting are out.

Whatever the timid and the brave ones did could do any good as the strange haunting continues. The news of the house to be haunted started to spread within the village area and naturally standard stories of evil spirits and vampires started to spread like wild fire.

The combined effects of mysterious noises coupled with those spooky rumors naturally pushed those already panic stricken tenants towards the edge of becoming insane. At this point, it would only seem wise for any tenants just to abandon house and move away from this evil realm to safety for good...

After the haunted house vacated for a fairly long time, two brave strangers bought the house with a fairly low price and moved in the house. As strangers, they were not aware of the rumors spread in the area.

Of course, the strangers were not immune towards the strange noise at midnight. They too was awakened by those high pitched squeaking noise at night and had to stay awake until day breaks. 

Finally one of them decided to trace and track the source of the strange noise and found it to have come from the toilet.

So, the next day, a plumber was called to perform a checking on the sewage system. After some digging, the plumber caught two pretty big catfish in the sewage piping. The investigation also shown that a section of the sewage pipe had a hole and those catfish might have entered the sewage system through the hole.

Naturally, with the capturing of the catfish; the strange noice was not heard anymore. With that, the rumours of ghosts and goblins were also gone with the wind in time.

Catfish Tales 2: The Curse (泥鳅的故事2)

Many years ago, a catfish breeder, Chong from Johor wanted to have his ancestor's grave exhumed and to be relocated. A Taoist was engaged to perform the ground breaking ceremony.

On the selected date, Chong and the Taoist with some grave diggers went to his ancestor's grave to perform the task. 

After rounds of blessing rituals, the Taoist instructed the grave diggers to start digging Chong's ancestral grave. And to everyone's surprise, once the grave diggers had dug 6 feet under the ground and reached the top of the coffin cover, a series of crying sounds came from the coffin...

The sound sounds like 'chic... chic... chic...' sort of high pitch baby crying.

Upon opening of the coffin cover, those who present got a second round shock...

The coffin was filled with yellowish mud water and there were a total of 12 catfish wriggling inside the coffin mud water. Chong's ancestor's remains could not be found however.

Chong believed that his ancestor has somehow transformed into 12 super sized giant catfish and he asked the Taoist to perform the deliverance ritual for those thought to be ancestor before releasing the catfish into a river nearby.

According to Jacky that all of the 12 catfish swam a few circles in the river and then resurfaced to take some fresh air as if bidding farewell to the crowd; and then swam away for good.

Believers said that it was a retribution to Chong as a catfish breeder whom has killed many catfish that his ancestor has transformed into bid catfish that would someday be eaten by other gluttons.

I have many doubts that Jacky couldn't answer. Perhaps Chong's ancestor's grave was situated near swamp area and those cat fish just somehow dug a hole into the grave and fed on those 'yummy' corpse until the size they were seen.

Of course, in Feng Shui perspective, when a grave is submerged in water; the descendant would not have a prosper and healthy life. As expected, Chong suffered from serious rheumatic pains ever since his ancestor was laid to rest.

While I cannot be sure if Chong's ancestor has turned into 12 catfish due to cause-effect theory, what I am sure is that it was a Feng Shui problem.

Catfish Tales 1 (泥鳅的故事1)

I have to some extent explored stories from Malaysian mountain ranges. Talking about mountain made me recall of the aquatic world too.

Since young, I have affinity with fishes. I did manage to keep some tropical fishes a long while ago but none lived too long. Now I have restarted my childhood passion because some of my plants like to be near water.

Of course, my fish tales are not as bizarre as my other ghost stories but I found them a nice switch between the mundane world and the spiritual however. I hope you will like them...

The piece of vacated land in front of my old Taiping house was cleared for construction project. For some reasons that after a long while no further developments were seen there. Instead after some rounds of heavy rainfalls, the place was developed into a small pond. And, weeds started to grow naturally. Naturally, nothing would catch my attention on that pond too so said.

Then after one heavy down pour, I saw some anglers started to gather by the pond to fish. At first, I couldn't believe that fishes could live in such a small man made pond. But my curiosity made me to approach one of the anglers to investigate. To my great surprised, there in the basket of that angler; I saw a dozen of big and small catfish wriggling. 

After some logic reasoning, I couldn't understand from where the catfish came from. So I dragged Jacky to the pond one day and asked him to explain my doubt.

My friend, Jacky is a fishing fan, he told me that catfish is known as the 'ghost of aquatic' and its cryptic behavior is very hard to be understood. Catfish can craw on land as if a lizard and it too can produce spine chilling ghostly cry at night. So, the catfish in that particular pond might be the immigrants from other water sources said Jacky.

Feeling disbelieved, I surveyed around and the nearest water source was another small lake about 50m away. There is no logical way that those cat fish could crawl over a tarred road and grass land into the pond in front of us.

Perhaps those catfish were released by some good heart Buddhists in the name of 'animal liberation'? Or some construction workers decided to keep some catfish there so that they can fish at a later date?

Looking at me showing some sign of disbelief, Jack gave me an evil grin. This is the usual sign that Jack wanted to start telling his ghost story. So, I pulled him to a nearest coffee shop so that I could record them down for you... Interested? Stay tuned please!

Modern Mountain Ghost (新潮山鬼)

Mountain ghost is a term originated from a classic Chinese work describing the romance of a beautiful lady mountain spirit with her lovers.There are a handful of information concerning the mountain ghost in the intranet.

I am not about to reiterate the story of mountain ghost from old Chinese literature but to tell you my very strange encounter near the peak of a mountain in Banjaran Bintang fairly recently.

It was early in the morning, around 8am that I started to hike up the mountain. About two hours later, when I was approaching the level of around 1000m, the sky suddenly turned gloomy and the scene in front of me suddenly covered by a blanket of dense fog.

Since the visibility is less than 10m, I decided just to stay put at where I was while waiting for the fog to clear away.

A few minutes later, I heard sounds of footsteps descending from uphill direction. At first, I saw the silhouette of a figure walking towards me. Then, a lady appeared before me.

Of course you may argue that she was probably another mountain hiker. I cannot argue with you but this lady really doesn't look like any ordinary mountain hiking lady for she was wearing a tight one-piece short black dress. And this modern looking lady had short curly black hair and a pair of fair long legs.

When the lady approached me, she suddenly stopped in front of me and started to talk.

Lady: "What are you doing here?"

Me: "Looking for herbs."

Lady: "Maybe I can help. What type of plant are you looking for?"

I looked at the lady and after some hesitation, I said: "Snake head flower."

"I can show you one with a condition." The lady smiled and answered.

Me: "I have no money but if I can help, then I will."

Lady: "You will find a big plant just at the edge of the ravine. You must use your bare hands to pull it out or it will not survive. When you have gotten this plant, leave at once without looking back. Do not return to this place within 3 months' period."

"What do you want in exchange?" I asked puzzled.

"I will tell you later..." The lady smiled and gave a strange look.

After our brief conversation, the lady continued to descend the slope. Strange as it was, the fog also dispersed as soon as the lady has vanished from my sight.

I decided to follow her instruction and true enough, I found the plant I want and brought it back.

On the night, the lady came before me in my dream. She said: "I am the daughter of mountain god and I couldn't to go to the outside world as I am forbidden to cross the state boundary unless a human brought me out."

I asked: "Where are you now?"

"In that plant you brought back..." she answered.

I woke up and I found myself having a wet dream.

A few days after I brought down the plant, heavy rain started to pour affecting many places in the country. A fellow mountain hiker told me that landslide occurred at that particular mountain and the route is now closed for public.

Perhaps spirit world can get as modern as our human world too? Unfortunately I have no answer for you now, I will tell you more when the mountain lady came to me again...

Possessed In Tropical mountain (山林鬼上身)

There are two places that you don't want to get yourself possessed. The first is by the waters, and the next is in a mountain. The former would expose the possessed to the risk of drowning and the later may cause serious injuries or even missing forever.

My friend, James had this experience of being possessed in the hike of Bukit Hijau in Kedah some years ago. Bukit Hijau is different from Gunung Hijau but with many spooks as well. 

At that time James was working in a MNC company in the Hi-Tech Park. He is one of those modern folks that would not believe in supernatural stuffs. Since James is a nature lover, he naturally like to go into nature such as hike up hills.

Before James resigned, he thought of hiking up the Bukit Hijau with a few close friends and I was just tag along to make up the numbers. Not that I am close to James; I had my own agenda which is to look at the rare plants over there.

To ease our group travel, we decided to hire a licensed guide to take the lead.

We assembled at the foot of Bukit Hijau around 8am and after making sure that everything was in order, the guide asked us to start hiking.

The weather was fine and clear although it rained the night before. The guide, Mr. Hassan is an experience one and before the hike, he cautioned us on the do's and don'ts in the hill area.

Everyone nodded and Hassan walked first followed by James with me at the back.

As we walked in a file, I heard James's voice came from the front: "Hey, Hassan! I heard the area near the waterfall is quite haunted..."

"There were a few casualties but we should not talk something like that at this juncture. We shall take a break at the waterfall area." Hassan replied without turning his head and without slowing down his pace.

After about an hour of hiking, we came to the waterfall. It was time to take a break. Hassan pointed his finger towards a corner of the waterfall and cautioned everyone that a few people was found drowned there and that it is better off to stay away for good.

Just as when Hassan finished his words, loudmouth James then asked: "Do you think there are water ghost around here?"

Good manner Hassan shrugged and smiled without answering James's question.

The group was allowed to take a 30 minutes break and we all dispersed to do our own business. As I was searching around for orchid plants to photograph, suddenly I heard a commotion came from the waterfall.

"James, what are you doing in the river?" The frantic voice of Jess was heard.

That has certainly attracted the attention of others including Hassan. As everyone turned his/her attention towards where Jess's voice came from, I saw James was walking into the river towards the waterfall with his head dropped.

Hassan was very quick to react. He immediately rushed to James and put his arms around Jame's chest in an attempt to drag James back to shore. All group members came to aid but James were very powerful and everyone who tried to secure James were flung away.

Luckily just before James made another attempt to go into the water, Hassan took out a handful of coarse salt and threw at James. 

As soon as the salt grains stroke James, he immediately fell onto the ground.

Someone sprinkled some cold water onto Jame's face and some smeared oilment on his temples in an attempt to revive him.

A few minutes later, James was himself again. While staring at the crowd, James asked: "What are you guys doing surrounding me?"

"You were possessed and nearly drown your self!" Hassan said calmly.

Perhaps James has read our minds from our inquisitive stares, he said: "While I was washing my hands at the shore, I saw a lady waved at me in the whirlpool by the waterfall. When I was about to help the lady in distress, heavy rain started to pour and the lady was gone. The next thing I knew was seeing you guys surrounding me..."

After James's inexplicable experience, we decided to call off the expedition. Perhaps James was really enchanted by previous drowned ghosts because of his loudmouth? Only God knows!

Advice For A Desperado (对失望者的劝告)

A Desperado sent me a message indicating that he has lost his way in life and that he has no direction to go in his 50s. Initially Desperado wanted to make cakes to sell in the market after receiving some advice from a fortune teller near where he stays.

But the second time Desperado visited the said fortune teller, the Desperado was told by the fortune teller that he is not good in marketing and that the Desperado would lead a very lonely old age.

At the end, Desperado came to me for advice.

After studying the astrology chart of this Desperado, my advice to him are:

1. Since his chart shows that this Desperado is quite proud of himself and that he could hardly work in a group; then the best option for him is to start his own business in a small way first. Making cakes to sell in a local market is a good start.

2. This Desperado is also quite talented and he has good public relation skills but he would not lower himself in doing marketing. So, instead of asking others to sell for him; he can actually start selling his cakes in the Facebook, Blogs or intranets. Of course, everything takes time and this Desperado really needs to sink in to his business with perseverance.

3. His reading shows that since he has wasted some 20 years of his life non-productive between 34-53, and now in the mid 50's and without too much help from his siblings and family; this Desperado can only do his business in the scale that he could manage.

4. Presently in the mid 50's, Desperado must really take care of his health rather than doing business alone.

In short, my advice to Desperado would just be do whatever he likes most in the scale he can manage and watch over his health. I like to be optimistic, but really, in mid 50's; a person should strive to maintain his financial status rather than attacking all out. 

Also, while doing his cake selling business, Desperado should try to open up himself and help others. It is only when he makes more friends that he would not feel so lonely and worry who will accompany him when he is old. 

Well, this world is not made of one person alone. That is for sure. 

So, good luck to Desperado. I hope he can see light in his near future.

Return My Child To Me (还我儿来)

Not all traditional herbalists understands magic. There are many amateur herbalists who like to plough the jungle for herbs.  Not many people know that collection of flora and fauna in jungle is prohibited by law, random picking of plants or stones may bring a person into troubles too...

A fellow herbalist of mine, Mr. Woo is a seasoned self-made herbalist who liked to go everywhere to collect rare herbs.  Normally Woo will go in a group of people into jungle for a day or two for herbs collection and most of the time nothing supernatural happened. Except once.

During a herb hunting trip to Fraser Hill a few years ago, Woo collected many rare herbs until he has lost count of how many herbs he has really collected.

At midnight, someone banged Woo's front door frantically. Woo went to answer the door and as soon as Woo opened the door, he saw a lady in green looked pretty stressed.

The lady looked anxiously at Woo and said: "Please return my child to me or he will die soon!"

The still sleepy Woo could not make any sense of the lady's words and he just replied: "Wrong number, lady!" And then, Woo slammed shut the front door; and went to sleep.

Then the next night exactly at the same hour, the knocking started on Woo's front door again. Woo opened the door and there it stood the same lady in green staring at him. Only that this time, the lady showed slight anger and uttered: "If you don't return my child, you will be sorry!"

Again, Woo dismissed the lady as a lunatic and slammed the door.

The next morning, Woo thought of the strange knocking at night and he has no clue that he has by any chance 'abducted' someone's child. Since Woo was not superstitious, he again dismissed the incident. There was no more knocking on the following nights.

Two weeks later, Woo again joined another group to hunt herbs in the jungle. Just half way the jeep Woo was in went up the hill, a lady suddenly run in front of the jeep and in order to avoid ramping into the lady; the driver applied on the emergency brake.

Unfortunately, Woo who was sitting at the back of the jeep was caught by surprised and as he didn't take a good grasp of the jeep railing; he was flung out from his seat into a deep ravine by the road.

Woo's companion quickly informed the authority and a search and rescue team was dispatched. Woo was eventually found a few hours later with a broken leg and unconscious.

I heard of Woo's mishap and went to visit him in the hospital. Woo was able to relate to me that before he passed away, he saw the same lady in green appeared before him and she said: "You took my child, I take your leg. You shall not hike anymore!"

True enough, with a metal support implanted inside Woo's right leg; hill hiking is not an advisable things to do.

Magician's Guide To Mountain Hiking

To me, it would be beneficial for a magician of any school to do mountain hiking alone or in a group. This is the only time that this magician can appreciate what he/she learnt is of any relevance to his/her life or otherwise.

There are those so-called 'couch magician' who only likes to talk and collect magic rituals but hate to get his/her hands dirty. This type of folks will never appreciate and apply the power of magic to help him/her in solving his/her problems.

To Thai magic practitioner, going out to nature is a must and not an option. I have tried it, and return to tell you my side of the story; so should you.

There is nothing special about what a magician should do to go up a mountain or hill in that matter. There are physical and spiritual considerations:

The physical considerations for a magician and others are the same but varies according to person to person. Things to consider:

• Own physical ability and stamina. This will determine how long a person can walk up and down a hill/mountain. The most difficult part is not to go up but to come down from the hill as this is the time when your knees suffer the most impact. Also, once a person is tired, his/her mind doesn't work well and the ability to judge would fall. So, please stop and return when you feel tired and cold.
• The best thing is to hire a guide but a magician might not want to consider this option as he/she normally works alone. So, a magician must watch his/her ration on what should be brought up the hill: basic food, beverages, clothing, torchlight, knife etc. sufficient for the trip. Also, please remember that a kilo of weight added means a kilo of burden on your back.
• Understand the weather pattern and the geography of the hill/mountain. For example, the Northeastern monsoon would bring a large quantity of water to Peninsular towards the end and beginning of the year. So, this is not an ideal time to hike. Naturally, wetness brings out the leeches and the rest of poisonous creatures too.
• A novice hiker should just stick to the original path: the way up is also the way down. I can almost guarantee that mountainous regions are just like mazes. Every trip up and down is not the same; that I can promise you. Once I missed a very interesting plant but when I returned, I could never find it again. 
• If you are alone, never try to return to get what you have lost in the mountainous area. If you do, you may get lost and it is not worth the risk.

So much for the physical considerations. Now let's look at the spiritual sides:

• Perform smoke offering a day before your hiking trip will save you a lot of troubles later. I have found out that this Tibetan ritual received well by mountain gods in general. But once I have performed the smoke offering or fire ritual, I wouldn't be able to find what I want because the power of the offering has caused the spirits to stay away from the practitioners.
• A more mild approach is to make offerings of tobacco, pop rice, betel nuts and leaves when you have reached the destination. I can assure you that you will find many pleasant surprises along your trip.
• Communicate with your guardian spirits as this is the time to rely on them and to test their ability to assist you alone in the jungle.
• Please don't pluck any flowers or plants, or bring back any items from the jungle unless you have something to exchange; or with the permission of the local spirits. Many things can happen if you have taken what is no permissible. On the other hand, if the spirits give you the permission; then everything should be smooth.

Finally, please use your own judgement and don't rely too much on the spirits because spirits too, are evil and they will take back what is given to you. So, after you have gotten what you want; leave the place ASAP and never look back.

Of course, other gurus may have other advice to their students. The question is: is your guru up to the job to advise you?

The Mountain Spirit & Me (我与山神)

You might wonder where I went to for a couple of weeks? Well, I went up the Banjaran Bintang and I will tell you my story...

Due to my interests in getting rare herbs and to enhance my Thai magic, I frequent myself to hike up the Banjaran Bintang mountain ranges in the Northern Peninsula to look for those plants normally grown high above the mountain.

To local folks, a mountain range is a mysterious and dangerous place to be at for those decent folks. Set aside the steep landscape to overcome, the weather in the mountain can change very fast too: a clear scene ahead can turn into foggy over half an hour or so.

The tropical rain forest too is infested with many poisonous animals, insects and leeches too just to name a few. Unlike the common lowland species, mountain leeches are normally large and green in color; and they could 'jump' onto an unwary traveler at close range.

So a season mountain hiker would prepare some salt or tobacco water to be smeared on his body to ward off those blood suckers. Of course, modern insect repellents work too. The bottom line is that one must wear long stocking, long pants and long sleeve shirt.

Ideally too and in most instances, mountainous jungles in Malaysia is a forbidden place for ordinary folks. Anyone who wishes to enter a jungle must first hire a guide and inform the local forestry department. This precautionary act is to ensure that in case of emergency, help can be dispatch quickly to save lives.

No one practically enters a mountainous jungle now a days alone. So said, I am a lone ranger and it is not quite possible to gather a group of people to look for herbs. Hence, other than crossing my fingers for luck, I relied very much on my practice of Thai magic and Tibetan ritual frankly speaking.

My area of concentration is mainly the Banjaran Bintang ranges as I could catch the weather pattern over there and hence avoiding many problems. For example, the best time to go up the mountain would be early in the morning and descend before 2~3pm to avoid rain fall. However, if it rains in the morning; then it is best to call off the hiking plan as nothing would go smooth for the whole day.

After a few trips to and fro from Banjaran Bintang, a creature came to me in the form of a snake head with wide opening bloody mouth. It identified itself as the mountain god of Banjaran bintang.

At first, I dismissed the creature as just a dream. Then strange thing started to happen...
During one of my herbs hunting trip on Banjaran Bintang, I was hiking up a section of the mountain range searching frantically looking for arisaema species. Nothing was found after walking for an hour or more, I knew that my time was running out. So, I said to my self: "Give me one plant and I shall return, just one plant..."

I continued to walk while repeating my words and after a few minutes, an arisaema plant came before me and I happily plucked it and just as I have turned my back, I saw that the whole place was filled with arisaema!

Naturally I dared not collect anymore and hurried home. Strange enough, just as when I reached the foot of the mountain; heavy rain started to pour. I thought had I delayed for a few minutes longer, I would be trapped inside the mountain..

A few weeks later, I ventured for another trip to hike up the Bintang mountain range. This time I brought some food offerings for the mountain god. As before, I walked and walked but saw nothing interesting. So I decided to return home. Very strangely too, as soon as I have thrown away all of the food offerings; many strange and rare plants came into my view.

After getting a handful of herbs, I returned home only to find some of my stuffs went missing. My guru said that the mountain god wanted me to give it something in exchange.

I thought it was my carelessness naturally.

Then I ventured on a third trip to hunt for another herb that I always wanted. As usual I brought some offerings and as before, nothing was found on the mountain. So I prayed to the mountain god: "Give me the plant I want and I will continue to do Thai magic."

Strangely too, after murmuring a few words; the path before me suddenly widened and I walked forward. There, just a few feet in front of me was the plant I wanted for so long. It was a huge plant and I only had a small bag... Somehow I managed to bring it down miraculously.

Again, some of my hand tools went missing... perhaps the mountain god wanted something in exchange. I didn't return to look for the missing stuff and again, it started to rain just as I have descended down from the mountain!

That night, I went to a supermarket to buy some item. As I stood on an elevator, a gigantic lady weighing more than 150kg just a few flight in front of me suddenly fell backwards and took somersault; and she laid face down almost making me a pancake!

Miraculously too, the lady was okay as she could still raise her head and smiled at me...

I visited my master the next day, and he said that it was a warning from the mountain god that I must keep my promise to continue with my Thai magic... So, maybe I am stuck with Thai magic after all! Believe it or not?