I have a great group of travel friends. We keep in touch constantly via WhatsApp, are we’re often booking 5 or 6 trips at a time while simultaneously talking about banter. Now I understand the reason why my phone battery is always red.
An interesting comment was made during a discussion about one of my travel friend’s upcoming trip to Taipei. He was asking if anyone had stayed at the Grand Hyatt Taipei before, and he was reluctant to stay there because of the multiple reports claiming it was haunted.
I was naturally intrigued, so the first thing I did was turn to Google. One of the first results that showed up was a post from fellow BoardingArea blogger, Lucky, who was faced with the same dilemma last year (does anyone know if he actually ended up staying there?).
Underneath Lucky’s post were several TripAdvisor reviews backing up the claims that the property is indeed haunted. Reading these encounters reminded me of an encounter I had a few years ago.
I rarely share this story because 1.) not everyone believes in the supernatural, and 2.) I don’t want to get thrown in the looney-bin, but what I experienced back in 2011 when I stayed at a newer (and beautiful) resort in Palawan, an island of the Philippines, was absolutely 100% real.
Mr. Points Traveler and I decided to escape busy Manila and have a remote, romantic weekend together. We decided the island Palawan would be a great option since we craved serene beaches, so we booked ourselves a few nights at this brand new beach resort that was still under construction. The place was beautiful, quiet, and we lived like kings as we felt like we had the whole resort to ourselves.
After enjoying a nice sunset dinner, we headed back to our room. Mr. Points Traveler and I started to feel “heavy” if that makes any sense, and we both were coming on with a bit of a headache. No, we weren’t drinking heavily.
He decided to plug in his computer to do some work, but the wifi connection kept fading in and out, so he went down the hallway where we had a better connection earlier that day. I stayed in the room. He came back to the room in minutes and said “Ang, this is going to sound weird, but I just have a feeling that the lights are going to blow out”. After he said that, I kid you not, within minutes the entire wing of our hotel blew out. I’m not talking flickering… the blow out was so bad that some of the light bulbs actually shattered outside. Ok, freaky…
So then we sat in the room… in the dark. Kevin started feeling sick, and out of the corner of my eye I see an apparition manifesting. I was too afraid to turn towards it, but telepathically I was able to know that it was of a young 20-something girl. At that moment Kevin and I decided it was time to peace-out. We legitimately hung out in the outside lobby until the sun came out.
While lightly sleeping on an outdoor couch, I abruptly woke up from a bad dream of me drowning and coughing up tons of seawater. It was very bizarre, but in my dream I saw a dead girl being carried out of the sea. The next morning, we knew we weren’t crazy, and someone at the property had to know something. I was determined to ask the first person I saw. The first person I saw was our housekeeper.
“I have an odd question for you… did something recently happen at this resort?”
She looked at me in a way like she knew where I was going, but didn’t say anything.
“Did someone die here?”
She paused, and then all she said was, “She drowned.”
I can’t make this up.
After that closure, things felt more peaceful for the rest of our stay, and I kid you not, our room smelled like a church blessing when we returned to it.
I have always been a believer in the supernatural, and I have had several spiritual encounters throughout my whole life (outside of hotels), including one recently where an angel came to me and told me the height and weight of baby points traveler over 100 days before he was born!
I do also understand that not everyone believes in the spiritual world as well, so that’s why I hold these types of experiences to myself most of the time.
Now going back to the Grand Hyatt TPE. Has anyone stayed there? Apparently from what I read, the employees know what rooms are haunted, so talk about an interesting way to ask for an “upgrade”!
Has anyone else had any supernatural experiences while traveling? I’d love to hear your stories!
A friend of mine had a ghost in her hotel room in Savannah, GA (can’t remember which hotel it was, unfortunately). She even got pictures of it with her iPhone.
People die in hotels all the time all the time. It would have been odd if they DIDN’T have a story for you.
Advice: next time take a deep breath, remember THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GHOST, and go back to sleep.
Keep an open mind. You’ve got to experience it for yourself.
In Asia, we believe certain people are born, if you may say, with more “sixth sense” than others in detecting the supernatural and spiritual. Looks like you would be more “attuned” to the spiritual and supernatural than the average person.
I myself had a mild experience with the ghostly. Was staying at a serviced apartment in Melbourne when I saw a dark apparition briefly moving from the apartment hallway into the toilet/bathroom (Asians believe ghostly things are attracted to “dirty/bloody” places such as toilets, graveyards, abandoned buildings, hospitals, you get the idea etc.). Happened very quickly, and an hour before sunrise. Was so sure of what I saw because I never felt more awake at that time, as I woke up about 15 minutes before I saw that, because I personally felt something was not right.
The next morning, my family went down to request for a room/apt change. When they kept asking why, we finally blurted out that saw something, and that our apartment was haunted. The front-desk staff didn’t say anything, but as they walked us to the elevator to show us another apartment unit to move to, one of the staff asked what floor we were on, and I couldn’t remember what we answered, but I remembered what he/the staff guy replied: “It never happened that high before” :)
So the lesson is, you should have escalated the issue to the resort/hotel manager. People in Asia are usually pretty understanding about the supernatural, and it is especially an “occupational hazard” in the line of business in the hospitality industry in Asia. The hotel should have compensated you for that night, and moved you to another section of the hotel where it could have been “less haunted”.
Then again, in Asia, we also believe that those on the other side are “attracted” to those who are “more attuned” to them, such as yourself, hence your dreams and experience. And there are other folks, who are as “dumb as a rock” to these things, and would probably be completely oblivious and sleep thru this whole thing, like a baby :)
Keep the interesting stories coming. Cheers!
stayed at the grand hyatt in taipei and nothing happened the first few times. i even asked the staff and they said since it was blessed (again) it was fine. so one night, the exec chef and i are sitting in the lobby bar and this stool falls right over. i looked at her and she said, at least it wasnt glass. and i asked her, is it still haunted? she laughs and says, everywhere in taipei is haunted. i go back up to the room, forgetting the whole thing and take a shower and when i come out, the sheets are a mess, my luggage is completely on the other side of the room (still packed nicely though) and I cant find my effing shoes. I called the front desk and they sent up security to see if someone opened my door but nothing. the key code said i was the last one in it. I was too tired to care and since nothing was missing, I went to sleep. When I wake up, the luggage is back in the area is originally was and the shoes are in the shower stall. i cant figure it out and havent til this day. but i havent stayed in there since. screw hyatt points. not worth it. Been staying at the Westin ever since.
Perhaps I got lucky, and wasn’t upgraded to a haunted room. No issues for me in Taipei, except for one… ;)
http://upgrd.com/sitinfirst/grand-hyatt-taipei.html