Relax - Vacations Gone Wrong (Part 2)

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From encountering creepy hotel encounters, meeting dishonest tourist touts to being stuck in civil unrest, what could go wrong went wrong.

AsiaOne Relax readers share their most horrifying vacation experiences as part of a contest conducted in June.

But, that's not all.

One reader who went on a holiday to celebrate his birthday, ended up in hospital after being assaulted by a bunch of tugs trying to steal his car. Another reader's tour bus went up in flames!

If you enjoyed reading the first edition of the 'Vacation Gone Wrong' series, here's part two. Read on as our readers tell all...

Eerie sightings at Downtown Inn in Chiangmai

Thailand is very famous for producing horror movies, and seriously, I never thought I would encounter one of my own!

It was in 2008 when I was supposed to join a classmate and his friend for a holiday. But a week before our scheduled departure, my classmate underwent an unscheduled surgery and had to forgo the trip, leaving me and his friend - whom I had never met - to go on an awkward adventure to Chiangmai, Thailand.

Read also:
Vacations Gone Wrong (Part 1)

One night, I was sleeping when I noticed a shadow 'walking' pass, I thought it was my travelling companion, and decided to make light of it. Just then, I saw the shadow 'fly' out and lingered outside the window! The room was dark, and I did not dare switch on the lights or show signs of movement. I chanted a silent mantra and quickly fell asleep, pretending nothing ever happened.

The next morning as we checked out, I tactfully asked my companion whether he had a pleasant night's sleep, and he claimed he did. However, as soon as I reached home, I developed into days of severe diarrhoea and had an entire week of accumulated sick leaves - much to the annoyance of my supervisor. It could very well be food poisoning and I didn't chain the two incidents together then.

However, in March this year, news reported that Downtown Inn in Chiangmai had mysteriously seen a few cases of unexplainable death. An eerie feeling crept up my spine… that was the very hotel we stayed while we were there! Perhaps it was really a blessing in disguise for my classmate who skipped the trip, as for my travelling companion, he was really a very lucky guy to have been able to sleep through the night.

-Chia Hon Fah

>>Next: Assaulted on holiday to celebrate my birthday

Assaulted on holiday to celebrate my birthday

My girlfriend and I decided to fly to Tasmania for a holiday to celebrate my birthday. We rented a car for convenience, as we did not want to go through the hassle of meeting bus schedules. On that very fateful night around midnight, I was smoking outside the service apartment that we rented, a car pulled up right behind our rented car. Four well-built men came out and tried to ply open the car door with the intention of stealing it. I shouted at them and ran towards the car hoping to stop them. Instead of backing off, I was badly assaulted by four of them and punched furiously at my abdomen and face. This went on for about 10 mins before a passerby shouted at them. Knowing that their robbery attempt was not materialising, they decided to leave and I was left with a whole body of injuries.

The passerby took down the car plate number and rang the police. The police came shortly after, took down my statement and I was sent to the hospital to have my injuries treated. The police officers took photographs of my injuries as well.

As a result of the assault, I had to spend one week in the hospital, and the holiday was more or less ruined. I could have just let them take the car since it's a rented vehicle, but my first reaction was to protect the property in my possession. This incident almost left me killed with the extent of injuries that I sustained. At one point in time during the scuffle, I was below the car and if the car had moved, I would have been crushed under its wheels. A dreadful holiday but also a good lesson learnt.

-Poh Leong Kee

>>Next: 'Get up! Your tour starts midnight'

'Get up! Your tour starts midnight'

In January, we went to Taiwan on a group tour which was conducted in Mandarin. Apparently we had overestimated our Mandarin-speaking abilities. We couldn't understand half the things that were said to us, so we called this our Great Mystery Tour of Taiwan.

One night, they checked us into this wooden mountain cabin in the woods near Alishan Mountain.

The floors creaked, the electric kettle turned on/off by itself, the ceiling light swayed when there was no wind. My husband cheekily asked me if there was any videotape in the TV cabinet that perhaps some scratchy homemade silent movie was being film? I was really creeped out! I did not dare watch TV that night. And when I brushed my teeth, I didn't dare look into the mirror either, in case a ghost looked back at me. Luckily, the bed was a divan, and I didn't have to check for ghosts under my bed.

In the middle of the night, there was lots of noise from upstairs. Footsteps walking back and forth. Then there was a knock on the front door to collect our luggage. Huh? It was time to check-out and head to Sun-moon lake. There was no morning call! We threw everything into our luggage and wore yesterday's clothes off the floor. We didn't even brush our teeth that morning. Yuck! And this is my holiday horror story.

-Audrey Wong

>>Next: Luggage ransacked, cash missing

Luggage ransacked, cash missing

I made the ultimate boo-boo by leaving some 'emergency' US Dollars at the side pocket of my luggage when I travelled to London at the age of 19 years old. As I was travelling without my parents, I thought it would be smart to keep an emergency kit of a copy of my passport, my NRIC and some cash of US$200 (S$240). Little did I know that caused me to make a London police station my first place of interest to visit.

After arriving at Heathrow Airport, I did not detect anything amiss as my luggage lock was intact. However, when I opened my luggage back at my hostel, the presents that I brought for my cousins were ripped apart and the cash gone. Being young and as this was my first trip so far away, I panicked and was close to tears. Thankfully I bought travel insurance, which provided some compensation. Since then, I learned to always carry cash on me and I have re-told this incident to many friends to warn them of such folly. To this day, I still have no clue where did the luggage theft occured - Singapore or London airport.

-Jelaine Ang

>>Next: Stuck in civil unrest

Stuck in civil unrest

A shopping trip in Bangkok turned awry when the red-shirt protestors began to retaliate against the Thai military.

I was travelling with six other friends to Bangkok in June 2010, as a reunion trip before four of my guy friends got enlisted for National Service that year.

Our hotel was situated near the shopping district of Ratchathevee. We had initially thought that the Red Shirts had ended their protests on Day 1 of our trip as we could do shopping at the wholesale markets near Platinum Mall.

Little did we realise that the Red Shirts began retaliating against the Thai Military on Day 2, and there were gunfire shoots throughout the wee hours, rendering all of us helpless; and cooped up in our hotel room, sleepless.

The shootings went on into Day 3, and we struggled to contact our family members back in Singapore.

Every shopping mall in our area was closed and there were hardly any food stalls around which was opened. We either had to travel out of the area, or we had to buy our meals from the convenience stores.

There were curfews everywhere and no taxis were willing to drive us back to the Ratchaprasong area because of the constant rioting, so we often squeezed ourselves (all seven of us) into one single taxi. None of us understood Thai, we couldn't communicate well with the hotel staff because they had difficulty comprehending us when we spoke in English.

We literally survived by watching the images broadcasted to us on local news and tried to make sense of what was going on.

It was a period of turmoil, uncertainty and constant fear because we had no idea when the conflicts would extend to our streets. We were worried that the protestors would barge into the hotel and take us hostage with every harrowing gunshot heard. We were so relieved to reach the gates of Suvarnabhumi Airport on our final day, knowing that the worst was finally over.

-Tham Yiling

>>Next: Cruise ship freak accident

Cruise ship freak accident

"Two years ago, my friends were planning on a 10-day trip to Turkey. To my surprise, they asked me if I was interested. Of course my answer was "YES!"

On the third day, we decided to go on a one-day cruise on the Aegean Sea. My friends went to the second floor of the boat and jumped off a transitional deck right into the water. The first couple of times, I watched my friends do it. Then, I gathered up the courage. The deck was wet and it was slippery since it was plastic. I had a two-step running start and jumped off. But only one of my legs left the deck and the other one slipped. I fell with my leg hitting the railing of the first floor, then spinning around and crashing in the sea. I couldn't feel my leg and I had to swim all the way to the ladder, crying while everyone was staring at me.

On the boat, there was a Turkish student doctor who gave me painkillers. My whole thigh was a large bright red bruise. I took the pills even though I didn't know what they were. Then the "doctor" wanted to take a picture with me as I was apparently his "first patient".

On the last day, we had to clear out our hotel room. We got all our belongings and decided to go to the beach for a little before we leave. We went, and after awhile we realised that the backpack with ALL our money, passports, and everything important was gone. So we couldn't go back home and had to take another coach all the way to Istanbul to make new passports.

What a TRIP!"

-Aileen Ang

>>Next: Tour bus fire

Tour bus fire

This happened years ago in 2002 during a trip to New Zealand.

I was travelling to Queenstown after visiting Milford Sound. The coach that was carrying us had to pass through the Homer Tunnel, the only road tunnel linking Milford Sound to Queenstown.

When the coach was about 150m from the tunnel eastern exit, the engine suddenly caught fire. It caught everyone by surprise and panic and chaos started as everyone scrambled to alight from the coach. Everyone struggled to find the way out as the tunnel was pitch-dark and smoke-filled. For those who managed to get out earlier of the tunnel, we shouted so that we can guide those in the tunnel out. There were no emergency phone or first aid kit at the tunnel. We had to wait some time before any paramedics arrived at the scene. Some were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation treatment.

All clothes, camera kit, memory cards that contained the photos taken during the trip all went up in smoke. The only thing that I have left is my passport, some cash and the clothes that I was wearing at that time. I forgot to buy a travel insurance so I couldn't claim compensation for my loss.

I'll never forget this nightmare that caused us all to nearly lose our lives from suffocation of the smoke if we didn't get out of the tunnel in time.

-Ang Chee Yong

>>Next: Tourist cheats in Milan

Tourist cheats in Milan

During the June school holiday, I visited Milan, the second largest city in Italy. The city well known for fashion and historical buildings.

My very first stop is Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle (reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall) and Milan Cathedral (Duomo), one of Europe's most magnificent gothic cathedrals. While I was taking pictures around Piazza del Duomo, one guy came and offered to take picture for me for free. I politely rejected him but he insisted that it was a free service for tourists. Later, he took some bird food from his pocket and put on my two hands.

Immediately a few pigeons flew onto my hands to eat the food. He took the opportunity to snatch my camera away and started snapping pictures of me. After he was done taking the pictures, he wanted 50 euros (S$87) for his service. I was furious and tried to walk away from him. Immediately his accomplice joined in and blocked my way in order to make me pay up. I try to argue with him that this is a daylight robbery. Immediately he changed from a friendly guy to a very hostile guy and I also observed his accomplice put his hand inside his jacket. He raised his voice and insisted that I pay him 50 euros. Sensing that my life was endangered, I decided to pay out. But luckily I saw two Italian police officers nearby, and I threatened to call the police for help. Finally they let me go after I gave him about 5 euros.

The Italy trip would have been a wonderful experience for me if not for this horrifying experience of dishonest tourist touts. Readers, please beware of these people when you are in Italy, especially when you are travelling alone.

-Tan Seow San

>> Next: Standed on mountain in the cold

Stranded on a mountain in the cold

"Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr......"

Stuck in the freezing cold up in the mountains with no shelter to seek, we were stranded. What was once a supposed to be a great relaxing holiday hangout in the mountains was not anymore. We spent our entire day trekking up the mountain one step at a time. Up and up we went. By the end of the day, the sun was setting and we were all looking forward to break for the night at the pitstop hut halfway up the moutain.

However, we just could not seem to find the hut!

After going round in many circles, to our horror, we realised that the hut was no longer there. Only then did we find out that the translated signboards was outdated and the routes had changed due to maintenance.

Worse still, it was too late, and too dark and dangerous to trek back down at that altitude.

Pushed into this situation, we had to brace ourselves in the cold and hunger and spend the entire night out in the open, huddling with each other. It was torturous and it felt like it would never end. Shaking and trembling in the sub-zero weather was no joke. We were vibrating like a silent mode phone.

It was only until the sun finally rose the next morning that we could get down the treacherous mountain, leaving this terribly terrifying experience of being in the dark and cold behind.

-Amanda Lau

>>Next: Goosebumps at Costa Sands Resort

Goosebumps at Costa Sands Resort

Many years ago, I went back to Singapore for a holiday and was invited to a chalet event in Costa Sands Resort. It was meant to be a relaxing and happy gathering. Delicious BBQ food, drinks and music. Indeed, it was great catching up with my friends whom I have not seen for several years.

When the sky turned dark at night, a friend who has a 'third eye', suddenly saw the walls of the room turn red in colour and she started crying. At first, she didn't want to tell us what happened because she was in shock, and she did not want the rest of us to be afraid. We thought she had some problems, so we told her that we could be her listening ears. After awhile, she decide to let us know about it. And while she was telling us about it, the spotlight near the entrance of the door suddenly flickered a couple of times. We all got a shock and screamed! I screamed 'Oh my god!' in my mind. Goosebumps went up all over! After that, none of us dared to walk near the area until the next morning when the sun was up.

The next day, I got home in the evening and the news on Channel 8 reported that someone was killed at the resort at very night we were there. Through the reports on television, we realised that the scene of crime happened at the chalet unit just below ours!

That was so scary, I felt that the 'red walls' were linked to this case. This is something that I will always remember.. like a realistic drama!

-Ang Pei Xuan

>>Next: Flight delays caused couple to sleep in hotel lobby overnight

Flight delays caused couple to sleep in hotel lobby overnight

I was going to Hong Kong on a budget carrier. Everything was normal until we were about to land. During that time, Hong Kong airport was closed due to tropical cyclone. We hovered in the sky for an hour before the pilot announced that he would get in touch with Guangzhou airport to arrange for landing there.

After half an hour, the pilot announced that Guangzhou airport was full and would try Shenzhen airport. I was hungry and frustrated then. My boyfriend went to get me some food and drinks. After awhile he came back excitedly waving a chocolate bar at me. He told me that the plane had run out of food and he managed to grab the last bar of chocolate for $10 which normally costs less than $2 in the supermarket! I was asked not to throw away my paper cup as the plane had ran out of that too! Finally after an hour, the pilot announced that we were going to land in Shenzhen.

By the time we landed at Shenzhen airport, it was over 10pm. We were told that we would be able to get some rest and food at the transit area. After waited for an hour, we were told that the transit area was closed and we needed to stay on the plane while waiting for the Hong Kong airport to reopen. By the time, the Hong
Kong airport was reopened, it was already 2am! We cleared the customs and finally reached the hotel at 4am.

The worst was not over. The hotel staff told us that they had given our room to someone else. At this time, my high heels snapped and I did not bring any spare shoes. We ended up sleeping in the lobby for that night.

-Audrey Lim

>>Next: Escaping terror attacks

Escaping terror attacks

It was 30 September 2005 when we arrived at Medan International Airport in Sumatra, Indonesia, with a group of Junior College students from Singapore. These students were to spend their time on some overseas Community Involvement Project. We had planned to spend the next six days there, including some R&R at Lake Toba on the last two days.

First stop, a handicapped school, where our students performed for the less fortunate. Along the way to lunch, we noticed that there were long queues at every petrol station, as if there was a big sale at the stations.

After lunch, we went to an orphanage some 40 km away. After that, it was down at the seaside where we had games and bbq seafood. Along the way to the hotel, the petrol stations' queues still had not subsided yet.

The next morning on 1 October 2005, we were at a local Indonesian high school for a basketball friendly match with the local students. On the way to the high school, we noticed that all the petrol stations were almost deserted, totally no queues at all. We found out that there was a price hike, the price of petrol went up more than 10 times overnight.

While waiting for the game to start, I received a call from someone whom we contacted in Indonesia telling us that we had to quickly pack up and leave the country. We were told that there might be some bombs going off across Indonesia later that day. We had head to for the airport as soon as possible, and wait there for the next flight back. While waiting to board our aircraft at 2030 hrs in the evening, we were told that a few bombs went off in Bali. It was really saddening but it was a rather eventful trip.

-John Choo

Next: Sinking feeling on cruise ship that eventually sunk

Sinking feeling on cruise ship that eventually sunk

It happened many years ago when my children were in primary school.

My second brother decided to go on a cruise trip. The children were very happy and excited, so was I. It was our first time travelling on a ship. Eleven of us boarded the ship, Sun Cruise. It was not a very big cruise and it looked quite old. We were surprised to see someone in a birdie disguise welcoming us onboard.

After having a fun-filled day of activities, we went back to the cabins and rest. My two children and I were allocated a cabin that was quite near to the bottom of the ship and water was all that we could see from the window. The cabin was quite small with an attached bathroom.

As we were tired, we did not bother much about the small bed. Just as we were about to fall asleep, suddenly we heard banging of the toilet door. Bang! Bang! Bang! We could feel the ship swaying, then the lights went off and we screamed! I thought to myself: Could there be ghost in the toilet? I dared not open my eyes to look. Though I was scared, I tried to calm my children down.

After a few minutes, I plucked up courage and tried to get to the door. Other passengers were already at the corridor talking about the same encounter.

We dared not sleep anymore and stayed awake until morning to embark home. It could have been just the waves causing the disturbance, but we sure had a frightening overnight experience onboard!

Not long after that, I read in the papers that the same cruise we boarded had sunk. I was shocked, but thankful that this unfortunate event did not happen to us.

-Catherine Soh

>>Next: The "unseen" at Bangkok boutique hotel

The "unseen" at Bangkok boutique hotel

It was a trip to Bangkok, Thailand, with my friends.We had booked our stay at one of the boutique hotels. The room looked clean and new. Things started happening from the second night. We found our room door unlocked and wide opened when we came back after a day of shopping. We tried to tell ourselves that we had forgotten to close the door properly as thankfully, our stuff wasn't missing from the room.

That was the beginning of my nightmare. All my friends heard were a woman and a boy talking in the room when they awoke in the middle of the night. They tried telling themselves that the voices belonged to the people out in the streets. I first saw "them" when I awoke in the early hours of the morning on the third day. As the room was still illuminated by my bedside lamp, I saw a woman and a boy standing at the foot of my bed staring at me. The boy looked harmless but I will never forget the woman. She had long hair and blood was streaming from her eyes. She looked pure evil and she was grinning at me! I nearly wet my pants and almost suffered an asthma attack. I didn't shout because I know my friends would have bigger reactions than me which would have worsened the situation.

I had to endure the same thing for three nights. They could sense that I was just pretending to sleep as I could feel the woman's voice beside my ears speaking in Thai which I could not understand. Sometimes she would say something & then laughed. All I could do was try to sleep before everyone else and only told them of the incident when we returned back to Singapore. It was my worst travel experience because I still had to pretend to enjoy myself throughout the trip.

-Koh Yan Yan

>>Next: Boutique hotel set in nature a shocking experience

Boutique hotel set in nature a shocking experience

We went to stay at a boutique hotel in Bali.

The first shock when we arrive - the hotel is located just opposite a field.

The second shock was there is a huge window in the toilet which couldn't be closed. Hence, anybody could climb in easily.

The third shock was the hotel booklet in the room indicated that the management would not be held liable for any injuries for the geckos and snakes you find at your doorstep.

Finally, there are sounds of geckos at night before we slept. Early in the morning, there were sparrows chirping at the thatched roof of our villa.

I am typically city girl. Being so close to nature is not fun at all!

-Michelle Loh

>>Next: Foul smell at diner on Aussie island

Foul smell at diner on Aussie island

When I travel to a country, I would always look forward to tasting their local cuisine. Great taste is what I seek, but after a particular travelling trip, I realise the environment is very important as well!

One of the itineraries during my maiden trip to Australia was to stay overnight at a resort on an island. Away from the bustling city, clear skies, friendly islanders; everything was going well, until it was time for lunch.

The place was very packed, as almost all the tourists dined there. When I came to the doorstep of the restaurant, I could smell something that smelled like animal poo - dry poo to be exact. I thought perhaps it could be coming from the toilets beside the restaurant, which I subconsciously prayed that was the case.

To my horror, as I stepped into the restaurant, the smell became stronger and even though I moved around the place trying to find a 'safe' spot, I was dismayed to realise that the smell actually lingered in the restaurant. Apart from the occasional flies that hovered around the food, this was nothing compared to the stench! With every morsel of food that I put into my mouth, I felt that I was also shoving in bouts of foul air. Looking on the bright side, I felt full quickly, probably due to loss of appetite.

How I hated my hunger pangs for not fighting against the only eating place on the island and settling for canned drinks from the tuckshop instead! Thus, this form of horror started during that lunch meal, followed by dinner on the same day, and finally breakfast the next day. On the last day, I was ecstatic when I finally broke free from this vicious meal cycle! The air was sweet-smelling again...

-Oh Mei Ying

>>Next: Soccer vacation gone wrong

Soccer vacation gone wrong

My soccer vacation to Spain went totally wrong in Madrid. It was a dream come true to catch one of the Champions League matches at Santiago Bernabeu with Real Madrid playing. However, when my friends and I went to the ticket booth to collect our tickets booked online, we realised the bookings were not valid!

Gosh! We're leaving in two days and there was no matches within this period! We couldn't just leave Spain without catching a soccer match - the main reason why we came in the first place!

The only solution was to buy from the street. We never wanted to do this hence we booked online initially. But we didn't know we got cheated! It was really a scary experience to buy from the touts as we didn't have any experience purchasing tickets this way. We couldn't identify whether the tickets that were sold to us were genuine or not. It was like betting.

We managed to speak to one of the touts who we believed was the most sincere. It was a hard time trying to converse with him in his "broken" English. But we still managed to get the tickets which we would only know if they were genuine or not at the entrance with the scanners. This time we were lucky that we finally got our hands with genuine tickets as we were able to enter the gate!!!

However, horrifying things continue to happen. After the match, we took a metro back to our hostel. When I boarded the metro, I was surrounded with a group of people trying to distract me and one of them tried to reach for my pocket. However, I was vigilant and pushed the hand away and they ran away after I did that. It was a indeed a horrifying and eventful day that I lost sleep over that night!

-Tein Jun Gang

>>Next: Student's creepy ghost experience

Student's creepy ghost experience

I just knew my best friend had a weird ability to see ghosts and spirits. He had been seeing them since he was little.

One of the worse experience he had was with a ghost at a house in Puncak, Jakarta, while we were on an educational trip of only 10 students. We were all asleep and he got very cold on the very first day. One of our classmate, Don had left the TV on and it was still a little bright in the room. He told me that he saw a "man" hunched over facing towards a corner with his head down. The ghost had long hair and he thought it was Don who also had long hair. He called Don by his name, but when he turned towards Don's bed, he realised Don was fast asleep.

When he turned back, the man's face was real close-up. The man then put the pointer finger to his lips and gestured "Shhh.." He said he got scared and had goosebumps. He closed his eyes immediately, then when he opened them, the "man" was gone. He said that it is one of the creepiest things that he has experienced with ghosts that has seen.

-Wooi Zhao Hong

Vacations Gone Wrong (Part 2)

AsiaOne | Sat, Aug 20 2011

A tour bus mishap, an assault, creepy hotel encounters and civil unrest. If you enjoyed the first edition of AsiaOne Relax's travel horror stories, here's part two...

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