Chart Of A Nun (尼姑的八字)

Can you tell if a person can be a nun or a monk from his/her birth date? If so, if the person is a rich and influential one, or simply rich; or a poor nun/monk? 

你可以从生日看得出某人可否成为尼姑或和尚？她或她是个有权有势，有钱有势，有钱没势力，没钱没权还是有权没钱呢？

Toad And Peppercorns (蟾蜍与胡椒)

What is a toad going to do with peppercorns? Though toad is one of those ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine, I am certainly not suggesting anyone to cook a toad with peppercorns!

Eric is a retired tour guide who used led tour groups from Malaysia to China in early 70's. During that time, visiting China was only allowed under the reason of visiting family members and those who want to proceed to China must be over 30 years of age.

For that particular visit, Eric went alone to visit his uncle resided in Fujian, China. Because his uncle's house were crowded, Eric decided to put up in a small hotel in town. The hotel is still within walking distance from his uncle's place.

During that period, online booking was non-existence so Eric just walked in and told the receptionist that he wanted a room. So the receptionist asked: "Standard or deluxe?"

"What is the prices like?" Eric asked.

"Standard RMB50, delux RMB200. But I would suggest you take the deluxe one as standard room may not be suitable to you." Answered the receptionist. 

Thinking of saving some money, Eric demanded to have the standard room as he would spend most of his time with his uncle and relatives; and he only need a place to sleep at night.

So, Eric checked into a standard room and after he threw his luggage inside the room he went about with his relatives. Eric only returned to his room nearing 12 midnight. After a hot shower, he sat by his bed to go over the next day's itinerary.

Suddenly Eric heard the sound as if someone was sighing: "Hai.. hai... hai..."

Even though Eric is not superstitious, he started to think of ghosts as his uncle warned him the hotel he stayed in was haunted. And another series of sighing sound made Eric developed goosebumps all over.

Without thinking twice, Eric immediately rushed to the hotel receptionist and told her that he wanted to switch to deluxe room. And the receptionist was happy to comply. So Eric topped up the RMB150 bill difference and a porter was summoned to help Eric to move his items to his new deluxe room.

Before the porter left, Eric gave him some tips. Due to curiosity, Eric asked the porter if his previous room was haunted. The porter shook his head and replied: "No. This is the trick the hotel management used to coax foreigners to choose a more expensive option... I was told to put a toad with peppercorns in its mouth under your bed. The toad will produce sound as if people sighing in pain..."

Eric almost fainted after knowing the fact. Of course, we don't see this tricks nowadays being used anymore. It is interesting to share however.. Please don't torture a toad in such a way though.

The Divorce Room (离婚房)

Alice told me this said to be a true spooky story happened to a newlywed couple in Bali.

Wong and Grace had just married and the couple planned for a tour in beautiful Bali a week after their wedding. They enrolled with Alice's company and she happened to be assigned to be their tour guide. There were other members joining the Bali trip of course.

Alice's group departed from Penang and a few hours later they found themselves checked into a classical Balinese hotel facing sea. It was approaching evening and after dinner, the group members were allowed to have their free time to roam about the hotel and the town. The official tour itinerary only starts next morning when a local tour guide would take over.

Wong wasn't feeling well so he retired early in the room while Grace felt that the night was still young; she went out with other group members to enjoy Balinese night life. Alice too retired into her room as she has been to Bali for many times. Besides there were some paper works she must finish before the next morning.

Following was narrated by Wong:

"Not too long after Grace left, I went to bed and just as I started to doze off, I heard someone opened the room door. I thought it must be Grace. So I remained to have my eyes shut and I heard the sound of TV being switched on; and then the sound of water flowing in bathtub. 

I guessed Grace wanted to have a bath so I continued to sleep. Half an hour later, someone went into the bed and slept beside me. Again, I thought that must be Grace but I couldn't see her as she was lying in my back..."

That was what Wong could remember before he dozed off until he was violently awakened by the shaking of Grace somewhere after midnight.

Grace was furious and she rose her voice at Wong: "Who is the girl I saw came out from the room just now? Can't I leave you for a few hours?"

In a state of half awakened, Wong replied: "Wasn't that you dear sleeping with me tonight?"

*SLAPPED!!*

Grace became more furious as she thought Wong was making fun of her; and she gave a big slap onto Wong's face. After the big slap, Grace searched frantically in the room for traces left over by the lady she saw but she found nothing.

Grace's high pitched voice caused Alice and hotel attendants rushed to the couple's room to investigate.

Since Grace was still in a stage of anger, Wong thought he had better to rest in an arm chair by the receptionist counter until he could put one plus one together in the morning... So Grace was left alone in the room to calm down.

Just as everyone thought everything was over, an hour later the frightful scream of Grace came out from the room. Now Wong being only about 10 feet away rushed to the room and he bumped into Grace head on who was just exiting the room. The couple fell onto the floor and shouted in pain.

With frightful voice Grace pointed her trembling finger at the room and said: "There is something in the room... I saw the silhouette of a man and I thought it was you came into the room to reconcile. But when I called out your name, the figure didn't respond so I switched on the light... And I saw the figure of a stranger without legs!"

Alice was there and she ventured into the couple's room but she slipped after stepping into a pool of water... Or should I say urine. Apparently Grace was so frightened until she urinated on the floor...Since Alice had a direct impact on her buttock, she couldn't walk and had to be escorted to the hospital.

A new tour guide was immediately sent to replace Alice the next day. Wong and Grace was given a replacement room and according to room attendants, they were not surprised of the couple's ghostly encounter because a married man and a lady had committed suicide in that particular room. Their restless spirits are known to roam the place and play tricks on unwary folks especially newlyweds. Some couple were even divorced after staying in that room.

That was the most interesting hotel haunting I have heard and poor Alice still couldn't walk properly after the big impact...

The Yemen Tea: Khat (巧茶)

Paul did tell me about 'khat' or the Yemeni tea leaves that saved him and his filming crew from the grasp of local militants. Seems that when local folks see khat, they became much friendly and being invited to chew khat together fosters some kind of comradeship. So during Paul's stay in Yamen for his work, he purchased a big bag of khat and distributed them wherever he went. According to Paul, khat really made miracles in making contact with Yemenis.

But there is a catch as 'khat' though is legalized in Yamen and a few Arabian countries, it is illegal in Europe and USA. Even planting of khat may be prosecuted in the State as I was told. Paul didn't realize khat is illegal until he was about to check in his flight to US. So as to avoid legal prosecutions back home, he and his team had to throw away all his khat before departure.

Intranet sources cited khat was originated from Ethiopia and it is used to combat hunger and fatigue as early as 13th century. The chewing of khat gradually spread to Arabian Peninsula and continent Africa. According to modern medicine, chewing khat in long term can cause vascular disease and anorexia.

In Yamen, khat is treated as socializing drug and it is consumed by students and drivers for refreshing purposes while laborers used khat to reduce fatigue. It is said that the effect of khat is equivalent to 5 milligrams of amphetamine. Until today, Yemenis still reserve their best room for khat chewing and socializing. I was told that the best khat variety was that of the 5 leaflets.

I personally treat khat chewing equivalent to betel chewing in Asia or the ketum leaves in Southeast Asia but  other than from what Paul told me and from intranet sources, I have no real personal experience as yet. 

My purpose of posting this information is in case you are travelling to Arabian or African countries and intent to bring khat back to your home countries; please check your customs regulations concerning import of drugs. In some places, you maybe slap with a fine; while death penalty maybe awaiting you in some countries. So travelers beware!
  

The Yemeni Ordeal (也门的考验)

Being the host of a travel program might be what you and me are looking for... Not only this host can enjoy delicacies of the world, he/she can travel 'free' and stayed in luxury 5 star hotels? Perhaps I can spare a column and let Paul relate his own Yemeni experience to you...

As we all know that Yemen today is not safe to general tourists ever since the start of the civil war in 2015. Before the war, Yemen was said to have been controlled by different warlords in various regions. So if one must travel across Yemen then, this person must first obtain permissions from various parties. That is to say that a permission in one region is a no go in the next. This is very different in region like EU where once you enter an EU country, you already obtained a almost free-to-all pass. 

Paul used to be a TV travel program host who was sent across the world to film travel programs and his programs were sold to TV stations across the globe. When I chat with him one day, I asked him to relate to me his most frightful experience when shooting his travel programs.

According to Paul, he got an assignment to produce a travel program to introduce tourists spots in Yemen many years back. So after his team done doing homework and aware of the chaotic situations in Yemen, off they flew to Yemen.

The first few days of shooting were relatively calm as they have gotten permissions of local militia. Though being warned by local Yemeni guide that Paul and his gang should not move outside of the town, the crew thought it will do no harm just to move a little distance away from Sana'a. Well, what could go wrong with only a few hundreds of meters away out?

So, in order to have a more dramatic shot, the filming crew decided to use a quite decently looking building as background for Paul to conclude his introduction of Sana'a...

When the camera started to roll and Paul started to speak, a group of militants rushed out from the building with AK-47 machine guns. They shouted at the filming crew and Paul in Arabic language that none of the folks understood. Unfortunately, the team's local guide wasn't around then.

The militants swiftly approached the filming crews and pointed their AK-47 at them. Poor Paul and his crew were scared to death. Not only none of them understood what had happened and none of them expected to be held at gun points after obtaining permissions.

As recalled by Paul later after taking a sip of cappuccino, he said that what he could remember then was the sensation of the scent of gunpowder and the muzzle of AK-47 by his temple.  

The entire filming crew was dragged into the building behind them and that building transpired to be the commanding post of the militias. Perhaps Paul and his gang had chosen a wrong location for shooting. Luckily they were not shut at literary speaking.

Since Paul and the militants couldn't communicate, and since Paul is a white man; the militants have some scruples and after some shouting; they called in an interpreter. 

Lucky for Paul, the interpreter was his local guide. After some local to local talks and a big bag of khat (a type of drug); Paul and his crews were released with a warning and their records were erased.

After returning to their hotel, Paul asked his guide on the reason of the commotion. His guide said: "Paul and his friends were taking photos of sensitive military locations. Further, the camera looks just like a bazooka from a far. So the militants thought they were under sieged at that time. Further being white, they thought Paul was some CIA agents..."

I cheered to Paul's story and emptied my cappuccino and asked him if he would return to Yemen again to complete his shooting. Paul cheered to me in return and replied: "Only when I have gotten used to being pointed with AK-47!"

The Doll (玩偶)

I was in Villach about a decade ago and stayed in a small hotel in the middle of a cornfield. There was a small shrine outside of the hotel I resided in the remembrance of the deceased son of the hotel owner.

A friend of mine, Sam told me that he has some kind of mysterious experience while staying in a hotel in Fellach. He has kept this secret to himself as Sam cannot confirm if what he encountered can be considered as 'spiritual'. Since I am writing blog, Sam was kind enough for me to post his story. So you be the judge if what Sam saw is spiritual or his own imagination.

Sam worked as a freelance tour guide specializing in leading small group of 3 to 4 people to explore places of interests where no ordinary tourists would go. A few years ago, Sam received an order to lead a newlywed couple to have a personal tour in Austria. This particular couple was interested in places around Fellach and there was where the trio stayed put for one week.

Sam booked a small hotel facing a beautiful lake. He took one room while the couple took another. According to Sam, he has no complaint about the place and his trip as the couple was quite independent and they preferred to go about their own business leaving Sam with a lot of free time.

Fellach is a beautiful place with natural beauty to the newlywed, but Sam was paid to do a job so he cannot enjoy as his customers did. Besides he has been to the place a few times and a pay check was much more anticipated. So said, while the couple was out enjoying the natural beauty and fresh air; Sam just stayed in his room to watch TV program.

There was just thing about his room... There was a baby stroller sitting beside the TV. There was a baby doll inside the stroller with both of its legs raised. The doll looked quite innocent on the first look and Sam didn't have a second thought about it at first.

On the second evening while Sam was lying in his bed watching local TV programs, his room door suddenly swung opened as if someone has pushed it with great force. A few minutes later the door shut with a slam as if someone returned.

At first Sam couldn't be bothered of the opening and shutting of the door as he thought it might just be the wind. However after the same incident repeated for 3 or 4 times within an hour or so, Sam became agitated and he pulled his luggage and pushed it against the room door. And, to his relief, the door did not open after that.

In the middle of the night, Sam heard someone knocked on his door. He thought the couple was looking for him. So he quickly opened the door but there was no one there. Feeling helpless, Sam returned to bed. A few moments later, the knocking sound repeated. He again rushed to open the door and there was no one there again. Feeling a little annoyed as he thought someone must have been playing tricks on him. Sam again shut the door and returned to his bed.

Since Sam was disturbed twice at night, he couldn't fall into sleep easily. So he twisted and turned in the bed and suddenly his hand grabbed something cold and he immediately jumped out from his bed, and switched on the light...

To his horror, Sam found himself was not alone in the bed... there was the doll that was supposed in the stroller. Shocked but Sam was quick to reason that this must be the prank of a little girl he saw playing outside of his room earlier in the morning.

Sam calmly put the door into the stroller and nothing special happened until the morning Sam and the couple checked out of the hotel. After breakfast in the morning, Sam returned to his room to pack.

Just as Sam busily packing his personal belongings into his luggage, his eyes suddenly caught an object in his bed... That was the doll again staring at Sam! The right hand of the doll somehow raised as if waving to Sam to say 'goodbye'.

Though shock, Sam continued his packing and when he passed the hotel owner the key at the receptionist, Sam asked the caretaker: "Whose's doll was that in my room?"

"Oh, the room you stayed in was formerly the room of the owner's child who died a few years ago. The doll was her beloved toy... I hoped you were not disturbed! That room was not meant to be rented out but as you can see now is the peak holiday season. It was our mistake to overbook. So we had to let you stay in the room as we knew you came from far away..." The caretaker smiled.

I think Sam did have some very strange encounter but I will let you be the judge!

The Psychic Tour Group (灵异旅行团)

May was a tour guide mainly leading groups from Taiwan to European countries. She visited me once for casting astrological charts. After her chart analysis, I asked of her profession and she said she led tour groups. After that she told me a bizarre story and that experience made her change her profession.

That was perhaps May's last tour group from a community college students. That group was comprised of about 12 members and they were a little weird as all of them were into occult matters. And, all of the youngsters claimed they can 'see things'...

May's group was chartered for a Western Europe tour and Germany being the main focus. After stopping over a few tourist spots in Berlin, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg was the next stop. The infamous camp was about 35km north of Berlin.

As the tourist bust was traveling from Berlin towards Sachenhausen, May started her routine speech to introduce her group members concerning some historical backgrounds of this Saxon's House; some members started to feel headache and some were trembling with fear and complaint of something disturbing them. The students asked if they can skip visiting the concentration camp but May insisted that the itinerary cannot be changed due to company policy. So, like it or not, the plan must strictly be adhered to. May suggested to her group members that they can stay in the bus if they don't feel comfortable.

Now the bus was about 20 km away from Sachsenhausen camp, some members started to hiccup and vomit furiously until at one point the driver decided to stop by roadside to let those people empty their stomach contents so that the bus would not be dirtied.

After a round of vomit discharge, May urged her members to embark into the bus to continue the rest of the journey as they were getting late. Just as May thought all were under control, then about 10 km away from their destination; some members started to fell into trance, their eyes rolled up and they started to vomit white foams from their mouth. A few people even started to speak Hebrew...

Viewing on the deteriorating physical and mental conditions of her team members, under the advice of her bus driver; May decided to called up her company and a decision was made to cancel the visit to the concentration camp.

When a decision is made to take an about turn, as the tour bus drove away from Sachenhausen; all of the team members had miraculously recovered. 

May approached one of the students who spoke Hebrew a few minutes ago but the person cannot remember what had happened to her. She even asked May if she has missed her visit to the concentration camp. Apparently, this lady has no recall of what happened to her judging from her reactions.

After telling her story, May asked me if I believed that her group members were possessed by ghosts of the concentration camp. My take was that though I cannot deny ghosts exist, the students were perhaps put themselves in a state of collective hypnosis since they were all into spiritual practices. It is very easy to fall into collective hypnosis if everyone in a group has the same believe. Unfortunately or fortunately that May wasn't into spiritual stuff or else she too will be influenced by those odd behaviors of her tour members.

The AUD1000 Ice Cream (一千澳币的雪糕)

Do you believe that one can consume ice cream worth of AUD1000 over one week in winter? Well, literally speaking of course it is possible as I have come across in the news that the most expensive ice cream in the world cost about USD25k per serving!  To the rich and famous of course but this story is not about Australian ice cream...

Backpacker Kenny told me a funny story about he and his friend Roger some years ago when we met in a budget hotel in Sydney, Australia. According to Kenny, prostitution is legal in New South Wales and even prostitutes accept credit cards as payments.

Kenny's friend Roger from Taiwan came to Sydney during his company trip and he visited Kenny. After visiting to a few places of interests in town, Roger told Kenny that he wanted to try some Aussie ladies and Kenny understood what Roger meant. So he brought Roger to the famous Sydney red light area for Roger to 'release himself'.

As I was told, Roger spent about AUD250 for his first visit. Since Roger didn't have enough cash, he asked if the prostitute would take a card. The prostitute said no problem and brought Roger to an ice cream shop downstairs and borrowed the shop's card reader. So both parties were happy.

Roger was satisfied and two days later he wanted to try another prostitute. Again, Roger asked Kenny to bring him to the red light area to satisfy his urge and Kenny obliged. Again, Roger spent AUD250 and he wanted to pay for the service with credit card. So the lady brought Roger to the same ice cream shop to swipe his card.

All in all, before Roger returned to Taiwan, he visited the red light area for 4 times and he was very satisfied with the services of the ladies. 

One month later, Roger called up Kenny during one evening. Just as when Kenny thought Roger wanted to have more fun in Sydney; a sorrowful voice came from the other end...

"I am not allowed to visit Sydney anymore alone..." Roger said sadly.

Kenny was surprised and he asked: "What is the problem? You looked so happy before returning to Taiwan?"

"It's my wife... She inspected my credit card bill and found out I spent AUD1000 on ice cream! She said things in Sydney are too expensive as ice cream in Taiwan costs AUD10 at most... Luckily the bill didn't print the word: prostitution or you would have hear my obituary by now... "

Lucky for Roger as his wife wasn't too inquisitive... Ha! Ha! Ha!

The Attraction Of Ziplining (高空溜索的焦点)

I traveled a lot in search for magic rituals and there are many other professionals who travel much frequent than me and tour guide is just one of those many professionals whom I met quite frequently in airports around the world. Tour guides do have their own interesting stories to tell provided you have a way to strike a conversation with them. 

I am not a talkative type but I did manage to strike some conversations with tour guides while waiting for my transportation. Of course, tour guides have some forms of ghost stories to tell but if you do strike conversations with them, you can expect some interesting real personal experiences and hints of taboos of certain countries.

Due to the fact that I am a Chinese, the stories I collected are mostly from tour guides from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Singapore. Once I waiting for departure in Singapore Changi Airport. My flight to Penang was delayed due to bad weather.

Having nothing better to do, I sat in one on those chairs facing the departure hall. While playing with my smartphone, another gentleman who sat beside me asked if I have an universal charger as his phone was low in power. 

Without hesitation, I pulled out my power bank and handled it over to the man. While charging his handy, the gentleman introduced himself as Chong from Taiwan and we started to talk. Chong was a talkative man and he told me many personal stories during his travels.

Once Chong was leading a tour group to Panajachel, Guatemala and the group was a young and adventures one. When they stopped at Atitlan Nature Reserve, all of group members were thrilled to try the ziplining.

So Chong let all of his group members ziplined one after another and Chong was the last one to try. According to Chong the ziplining trip took about 2 hours and as he glided along Chong suddenly heard sound of his pants tearing and he felt a sudden of cold breeze blowing at his private part.

Chong could felt something was wrong but he couldn't react or do anything while ziplining. Then more embarrassing moment occurred when Chong was approaching the landing zone...

There were many tourists taking photo shots at the landing zone, and Chong found out that at first those tourists were snapping away with their sophisticated cameras randomly. As he approached the landing zone, almost all of those tourists concentrated their snaps at Chong or more precisely, at between Chong's legs...

Once landed, a foreigner approached Chong and pad his shoulder, and said: "Bravo!". the tourist then gave Chong a thumb up gesture while smiled cunningly.

Chong immediately rushed to the washroom and found that not only his jeans has torn apart, even his underpants were blown aside exposing his penis and scrotum...

So, if you find the photo of a man with broken pants and exposed private part, then that might be Chong... of course, you might just see Chong's private place covered with a strawberry sticker due to prohibitions in social medias.

The Skull 7: Socializing (骷髅7：妖精打架)

Believe it or not? When you have a little too many human skeletons around, they will start to socialize around...

In the early 80's and probably up till very recently until eBay started to ban the selling of 'human parts', human skull can fetch up to USD1,000 and a set of complete human skeleton can go up to USD2,500 and more.

So while others are afraid of those spooky human remains, there are people who actually collect them either for black magic purposes or to resale them as precious commodity. Nowadays of course such trade is overtaken by smart phones and some other electronic gadgets.

I have told you the story of 5-ghosts created havoc in my Kelantan friend's shop which burnt down half of his shop. Now another friend of mine who also stayed in Kelantan near Malaysian - Thai border collected human remains for trade and this person was Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam initially worked as a grave digger but when he learnt of the value of human skeletons, he started to dig up bones from those abandoned graves around his area. Gradually he employed other village folks to do the job or buy from others instead.

Needless to say, Uncle Sam has many human skeletons stacked in his house waiting to be sold. He has no problem to stay with these valuable commodity as most of these human remains would change hands fairly quickly too and the profit margin was extremely high too.

I visited Uncle Sam on one occasion on the request of a friend who wanted to purchase human skulls for his 5-ghosts practice. We arrived at Uncle Sam's place in a sunny March morning. Though outside was hot, it was relatively chilly inside Uncle Sam's house. There was a mist like aura filled the entire house, I didn't like it but had to go in with my pal anyway.

Uncle Sam greeted us and he immediately brought us to his human skeleton stock. There were around 15 to 20 skeletons laid quietly on the floor. While my pal squatted down to inspect the human remains, Uncle Sam and I started to chat.

"I can see that you must be pretty lonely with these bones Uncle Sam!" I jokingly said.

Uncle Sam: "Oh, just to earn a living... But you are wrong my friend! Those skeletons will come to life at night to socialize, fight and even making love if you believe me? In fact, I don't stay here. I will leave once you guys left."

I was curious and hinted Uncle Sam to continue. Perhaps that has triggered his long hidden urge to tell stories, Uncle Sam said: 

"Young man (then, not now), I have eaten more salt than you ate rice... Human souls will remain in their bones long after they have passed away, that's the reason why you sorcerers are so fond of using real human bones...

All of these bones you see in front of you must be fumigated with benzoin smoke everyday as their food or else they will make noise. Once my nephew passed through this house at night when I went away for a few days, he heard sounds of bones cracking as if many pieces of bones were hitting each other.

Fearing that bugler had broken in, he peeped through the seems of the window to investigate. Instead to his shock, he saw though it was quite dim in the house, the whiteness of the bone was quite outstanding in the dark.

There were many human skeletons walking about the house, some were swinging about while others were hugging. Those cracking sounds were produced from those human skeletons when they 'hugged' each other...

My nephew was so scared that he quickly ran home and he fell sick the very next day. I learnt about the story from my brother when I returned from outstation..."

I became speechless for a moment then I blurred out: "Why don't you get rid of them as they cannot be kept in the house?"

"Are you kidding son!? They worth a lot of money to me!" Uncle Sam exclaimed.

I immediately shrugged and shut up when it comes to money matters. We left Uncle Sam's place after my pal has made his purchased.

A few years later, I returned to Uncle Sam's place but the caretaker became another person. According to the new landlord, he was Uncle Sam's nephew who just taken over his uncle's old house. Uncle Sam has passed away one year back, unfortunately his remains were dug out by some `tomb raiders' and his grave was empty when he visited his uncle's grave.

Perhaps Uncle Sam's skeleton has fallen into some magician's hands or perhaps it is still dancing somewhere with its newfound skeleton girlfriend? Only God knows...

The Skull 6: Bitch (骷髅6：母狗)

He met his soul mate at night never thought she could be ...

This is perhaps the modern version of '聊斋' or classical Chinese strange stories. This case happened to to my brother in Maoshan Taoism. Let's call him Eric for his privacy and my personal safety...

Eric was my senior in Maoshan school who has engaged in Maoshan magic much longer than me except that he only specialized in Maoshan while I learnt almost all schools of magic that I could put my hands on. So, Eric used to be very proud of his Maoshan magic and he vowed to spend remainder of his life in Maoshan in China though I doubted he meant what he said very much.

Anyway, Eric was already at his 40's and I was in 20's then. I liked to visit Eric's place because he has kept many curios such as antique furniture, porcelain plates etc. The one fascinated me most were actually his Maoshan magical items. He had many human skulls too for his 5-ghost rituals; and many spares to be sold to other sorcerers.

So said, Eric was still single and strangely speaking, the quite well to do Eric has no luck in his love life. He had a 3 year old bitch to keep him company. The bitch was very protective of its master too. It would bark furiously at strangers and I was quite scared of this bitch but as I got more acquainted to the bitch, it started to show lesser hostility.

One day Eric told me that he started to date a fair lady by the name Rose and they could only meet at night after Rose had finished her work. Eric's love affairs went on for 6 months or so and I kept instigating Eric to introduce his newfound girlfriend to me and the rest of the Maoshan brothers but Eric kept giving excuses that Rose was busy with her work.

A few weeks later, Eric had to travel to China to make some business dealings. So he entrusted me to temporarily take care of his home and his beloved bitch. I was happy to obliged as I could look see at his curios.

One evening, I was at Eric's place again and heavy rain started to fall. So I thought I would just spend a night at his house. No harm done I thought and perhaps Eric don't mind either. He had an antique opium bed made of rosewood that I like to lie on. 

The rain halted around midnight. Since it was around 15th day of Lunar Month, the moon was extremely big and round in the sky. As I laid in the bed I stared at Eric's bonsai plants in his garden through a glass sliding door while trying to sleep. Unintentionally, I saw Eric's bitch was pushing a human skull with its nose and after a while, it started to wear the skull on its head and after that the bitch stood with its hind legs while it held together its hind legs as if in prayer's position. Looked like the bitch was performing some kind of moon worship.

This is not a surprised to all Taoists as it is known that some animals of intelligence such as foxes, dogs and even snakes can do such a thing if a human skull is available. I was quite surprised to see Eric's bitch could done such a thing... perhaps it has mimic what Eric has done as one of the Maoshan rituals to absorb moon energy.

I watched attentively at the bitch until it finally lowered its fore legs and pushed the skull away. I kept what I saw to myself and pretended nothing had happened.

Eric returned about a week later and he was happy as his business dealings were also went very smoothly. As a sign of gratitude, he invited me to his house again to have a simple dinner while introducing Rose to me.

I agreed but while Eric was tending to his bitch, I quietly went to the place the bitch hid the human skull. I retrieved the skull and put it inside of a wooden cabinet outside of Eric's house.

Two days later, a few of Maoshan brothers and I went to Eric's house according to invitation. Everything was set and dishes were served on time. Everything was ready but Eric's newfound girlfriend Rose was no where to be found still.

Eric was anxious and his bitch was restless in the compound as if searching for something...

Needless to say the dinner had to start without Rose. Everyone hesitantly finished the dishes and made excuses to leave in view of apparent bad mood. Of course, I had no courage to tell Eric what I suspected of his bitch.

I visited Eric again during Chinese New Year and his bitch was no more there instead another lady was there. He introduced the lady as his fiancee, May. Eric said that his bitch died a month ago without any apparent reasons. It just refused to eat its favorite food and the condition of it aggravated when May came into the house.

Now Eric has abandoned Maoshan magic all together and he only wanted a normal life. Last time I heard Eric has converted to Christianity. 

Perhaps I have done Eric a favor by hiding the skull from his bitch. I can't imagine what would happen to him if he mated with Rose... or should I say the bitch!

The Skull 5: Missing Bride (骷髅5：失踪的新娘)

When the man came to see the skull...

The background of this story said to be happened before WWII and told to me by an old British sailor, Neil in a pub. The sailor said that what he was about to tell me really happened to his distance relative.

According to Neil, his cousin Mary was about to get married soon but she went missing and she did not appear in her wedding ceremony on that important day. Her fiance was heartbroken but after people in the village searched everywhere, Mary still nowhere to be found. The heartbroken fiance later left the sad place to be a sailor so that he could forget about the lost of Mary.

Then about 10 years later, Mary's old house was sold and the new landlord started to clear the land for agricultural purposes. The new owner chopped down an old oak tree beside Mary's old house and in the hollow section of the tree, he found the remains of Mary with her familiar clothing.

Mary's remains were later sent to her sister's place. Mary's sister, Alice decided to display the skull of Mary with her long hair still intact in her shop and tell the already lifeless skull to seek revenge on her killer wherever he or she might by.

Mary's eerie skull display did attracted some attentions in the community and Alice's business boomed due to that reason too. Though the visitors were many, but the killer was still at large...

Three years later, a stout young man came to Alice's shop to see the skull... As soon as the man came face to face with Mary's skull, the lifeless skull suddenly jumped up from the display cabinet and shrieked: "Killer! Killer! Killer!..."

The young man's face turned pale and he collapsed onto the ground. A crowd hastily rushed to prop him up and someone in the crowd shouted: "Hey! This gentleman is Michael, Mary's former lover..."

The commotion also drew the local constable to the scene and still paralyzing Michael was sent to police station to be interrogated. Perhaps Michael was too tired to disguise himself after these years in fugitive, he confessed that he was Mary's killer.

According to Michael, the day before Marry was to be married, he visited Mary in the hope to persuade Mary to cancel her wedding and escape with him to other county. But Mary refused and a heated argument broke out and in a gust of fury, Michael strangled Mary to death. 

After Michael has committed the crime, he tugged the lifeless body of Mary inside a hole of a large oak tree and fled the crime scene. He later traveled to the Far East and became a successful merchant only to return to Britain a few week ago. It was not his plan to come to Alice's shop but some mysterious force drew him in claimed Michael.

Since Michael has became a murder suspect, he had to be locked up until trail. However, Michael had hung himself in the cell with his belt perhaps to redeem his long outstanding guilt.

Mary's skull was later laid to rest with the rest of her remains.

I was curious of what had become of Mary's fiance. So I asked Neil: "I don't supposed you were Mary's fiance Neil?"

He just raised his mug and said to me: "Bottom's up mate!"

I thought I already got the answer.

The Skull 4: Tree Roots (骷髅4：树根)

Believe it or not? Tree roots can cause mysterious pains to descendant of a deceased...

I visited Mr. Anh Dung in his mansion in Hanoi, Vietnam as for a reason otherwise people like me would not have a chance to meet this rich businessman. According to Anh Dung that he and his siblings were attacked by strange illness where all of 5 folks were having severe migraine and eyesore almost at the same time.

His brother who was in the USA had the same problem while his eldest sister in Australia also had the same symptoms. Likewise Anh Dung's two brothers residing in China and himself also suffered from the same mysterious migraine and eyesore; specifically the pains were concentrated on the left side of the skull.

After exhausting all available modern diagnostic technology, Anh Dung had a very strange dream. In that dream his late father came to him and said that something pierced into his left eye and brain and the old man was suffering. He asked Anh Dung to help him get rid of his nagging problem. Felt clueless to what his father was trying to tell him, Anh Dung suddenly awakened in his dream by the crying sound of his 3 year old son.

Still bewildered of his pa's message, Anh Dung tried to consult spirit medium and fortune tellers in Hanoi but received no satisfactory answer until one day he had a lunch meeting with one of his Hong Kong business partner, Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee invited Anh Dung to have a drink in a local pub but Anh Dung declined on the reasons of migraine and eyesore. Lee's natural response was to ask Anh Dung to consult a specialist but after Anh Dung relayed he and his siblings' nagging issue and his strange dream, Lee suggested to Anh Dung that his problem might be caused by ancestral grave Feng Shui and not medical related.

Anh Dung was curious but he wasn't too believe in Chinese Feng Shui but Lee said that it is no harm to ask someone to have a look as he will introduce an acquaintance to Anh Dung. And you have guessed that the person was me. And that was how I ended up in Anh Dung's house.

After looking around Anh Dung's mansion, I suggested to him that we should visit his father's grave. Anh Dung agreed and we started our journey first thing in the next morning. 

It took us slightly more than 1 hour to reach the grave of Anh Dung's dad. There were many huge trees surrounding the grave and the place was quite tranquil. 

I took out my compass and took some readings but nothing too unusual as Anh Dung has hired a very famous Feng Shui master to do the site selections and auspicious timing selections.

Finding no clues of what went wrong, I started to frown and Anh Dung could be seen giggling beside me as he didn't expect me to find faults with the grave. So after pondering for a while, I suggested to Anh Dung that we should exhume his old man's grave as the problems must be in the grave.

That suggestion was not a welcomed one as digging out the remains of someone of status is still a big deal to his descendants for the fear of disturbing the already good Feng Shui. Seeing that Anh Dung was indecisive, I decided to pack my bag and go.

But before I even ventured to take a step, Anh Dung took out a pistol and pointed at my head and said: "Do you dare to bet on your life? I will shoot you at point blank if there is nothing wrong underneath the grave?"

Though I can see ghosts but I have no six senses, I could only guessed. It was a case of damn if I do, and damn if I don't. I had to do something so I bit the bullet and said: "Just pull the trigger if there is nothing wrong."

Mr. Anh Dung was a powerful man in Hanoi and he immediately summoned a few diggers to the site and start digging the grave.

Soon the diggers reached the coffin cover and tree roots were seen entangled with the cover and it took the diggers great efforts to lift the cover. And as soon as the cover was lifted, the old man's remains were largely buried within the tree roots leaving the old man's skull that could still be seen. Even so, the old man's skull were already very tightly grasped by tree roots making it very difficult to be separate out.

Anh Dung was satisfied with my prediction and as it will take hours to separate his pa's remains from tree roots, he decided to leave the job to the diggers and we returned home.

There was no need for me to remain in Anh Dung's house so I excused myself and took the next flight back to Malaysia.

One month later, I received a letter from my pal, Mr. Lee. There was a cash check and a note with message: "Payment for your Feng Shui audit. Anh Dung's migraine and eyesores were gone. You are always welcomed to visit Anh Dung! TQ."

I liked the generosity of Anh Dung but not his hospitality... no one can enjoy when a pistol is pointing at his head, or can you? This is the first time and last time I performed Feng Shui audit under a gun point. Ha!

The Skull 3: Bonsai (骷髅3：盆栽)

If you have tired of ordinary bonsai, try this one and you will be surprised...

So far I have only seen a few real specimens of this special bonsai in the secret altar of a sorcerer in Vietnam but this method can be traced from Song Dynasty. There is a description that instead of bonsai plants, beans of 5 colors should be planted in a skull collected in the wild. I believe this is the predecessor of Vietnamese Ngai magic but more studies should be done and this will be another interesting comparison.

This skull with beans should be kept in a shady spot in the house until it started to grow. If the ritual is successful then the beans will germinate and grow with minimum sun light. Incenses and food offerings should be given to the skull and seedlings twice a day.

It is best to vacate a small room specifically just for this skull based bonsai as this specific bonsai will give rise of a type of very fierce spirit that cannot be worshiped together. I was lucky enough to visit another very rich Vietnamese of Chinese descendant who has a special room just for skull bonsai. No one except the owner was allowed inside, children were especially forbidden to play close to it in the fear of their weak souls being attacked and devoured by the skull bonsai spirit.

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to this skull bonsai while I performed Feng Shui audit for the house owner, Mr. Anh Dung. According to Anh Dung, this skull bonsai must be fed with an egg twice a month: once on the 2nd day and the other on the 14th day of Lunar Months. Whenever Anh Dung has any unresolved problems, he would enter the room and meditate in front of the skull bonsai to get guidance. Up until then, the skull bonsai has never disappoint him.

Anh Dung also admits that his grandpa owned fairly big business in old China before the civil war during the end of 1940s. His grandparents fled to Hanoi, Vietnam in early 50's penniless. An old Vietnamese taught Anh Dong's grandpa to perform this skull bonsai ritual and fortunately with half faith, the old man followed the Vietnamese's advise and the luck of Anh Dung family took a sudden change until they started to do import and export business and became millionaires.

When I met Anh Dung, he was the only one left behind to look after the family business and this special skull bonsai. All his relatives and sisters have migrated to either USA or Europe. Perhaps it is Anh Dung's wish to spend the remainder of his life with this eerie heirloom skull bonsai but I didn't venture to ask him.

So, if you want to get rich, then try this special human skull bonsai! Don't take my words for it as the risks are all yours! 

The Skull 2: Conversation (骷髅2：谈天)

"Skull, skull what can you tell me?"

Poking a skull for answers is a very ancient game when there were not so many entertainments around. I am not sure when this game started but a record from Song Dynasty (宋朝) mentioned something similar:

Poke the eye sockets of a skull with weed and hang it up, and it shall talk.

Another similar game is to find a skull in wilderness and wash it with flowers and water. After it is cleaned thoroughly, then put it on a stool and light a piece of incense stick. Then poke this burning incense stick into the eye sockets of the skull and murmur some words such as: "Skull, skull tell me about yourself..."

Repeat the words until the incense stick is burnt half way. After that go to sleep and the spirit of the skull will appear in your dream and have a conversation with you.

If you do not intend to keep the skull, then either bury it or leave it where you found it and the game is over. Otherwise, you can keep this skull for further use as when you are more attuned to the spirit of the skull, it can be your informant on the forthcoming affairs.

For example, the skull will make noise or it will jump up and down if it is placed on a table if a very serious disaster is approaching. So said, not many decent people like to keep a skull in their homes not to mention that real skulls are extremely difficult to find these days... In some countries, the possession of human remains is illegal too.

When I was a kid and staying in a rubber plantation, human skulls could be easily found in bushes in between rubber trees then. Kids then especially in rural areas have nothing good to do and they can play with just about anything they can find.

Human skulls naturally became one of targeted games after dinner for kids. The adults too may sometimes make use of this little game to ask for lucky numbers and my late grandma won a few thousands of ringgit once after she asked for lucky numbers from a skull I picked from a bush behind her house.

I had played such games many times in my granny's rubber plantations and indeed, all sorts of spirits came into my dreams to talk and tell their stories. Some were just talking while others demanded food offerings, yet some asked me to help them find their survived relatives.

My skull game halted when my granny became an ardent Buddhist. She forbade me to play with skulls instead, granny coaxed me to accompany her to the temple when I was a little too free. So I gradually lost interest with human skulls. Furthermore, when old rubber trees were being chopped down for replanting; most human remains were exhumed and cremated. With the end of skull supply, I was forced to convert to do other stuffs else.

The Skull 1: Hunters (骷髅1：猎人)

The skull started to say: "Hot! Hot! Hot!..."

This is another story told by Albert and it came from his late old man who was also a keen hunter. The time was right after the WWII, somewhere around 1946. That was when the time of chaos and every thing was lacking. While others need to worry about sources of meat, not so for those hunters as they can find plenty of small animals in local tropical jungles.

According to the story, Albert's pa, Senior and a few other hunters went to hunt in a jungle and after roaming in the jungle for deers. After roaming around for hours, they decided to stop by under a tree to have dinner. Since it was around 4pm and the environment in the jungle darkened very fast.

So said, the gentlemen gathered around and took out their respective rations, sat down and start eating. One of the hunters known as Boy found himself a human skull and sat on it as if a stool. He was having some green chili meat with rice. So Boy and the rest of the folks chat while eating their food.

After Boy had finished his food, he suddenly plugged some whole green chili pieces into the mouth of the skull he sat on and jokingly said to the skull: "If you do not complaint, I shall treat you accept and enjoy these green chilies! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Although someone among the hunters cautioned Boy to show some respect to the dead, he just brushed aside the advice given by his seniors.

Since the sky was turning dark, the hunters figured that they must make a move to return home. No one wanted to spend his night in the jungle which was then scattered with landmines leftover by either Japanese Imperial Armies of the Allies.

Just as the group turned their back headed for home, the skull which Boy has sat on suddenly being lifted up by an invisible force and started to scream: "Hot! Hot! Hot!..."

Everyone was shocked but those were seasoned hunters and some had fought in the war, so instead of ran away, one of the hunter aimed his rifle at the skull and fired some shot. The skull was broken into pieces and dropped onto the ground.

Even so, the sound of 'hot' still lingered in the air...

A few days later, Boy again joined another group of hunter to hunt in the jungle again. When he passed through the same place he sat on the skull, he suddenly tripped and lose his balance; and his head subsequently knocked onto a boulder in front of him. This impact has caused serious injuries to Boy's skull and he fell into comma.

Boy was subsequently carried back to his home for treatment. Unfortunately, Boy died a week later. According to his wife, on the night Boy passed away, some eerie laughing sound could be heard echoed in the middle of the air... "Ha! Ha! Ha! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

So people were taught to respect human remains and not to play with those human parts whenever they gone into wilderness. I supposed we should respect the deceased regardless if the above story is true.