My ‘Out-of-this-World’ Experience No. 13

Have you ever had experience a phenomenon that cannot be explained no matter how you tried to understand it?  Are you familiar with the phrase ‘beyond one’s imagination or understanding’?  If you have this some sort of experience that makes you feel that hair-raising/eerie or déjà vu feeling, please share through email message to merlinagp@gmail.com.  It is my pleasure to post your experience in this Blog.  Let the circle of sharing begins.

Experience No. 13: “The Unexpected Turn”
(Shared by Mark Franklin M. Sanchez <markfranklin.sanchez@gmail.com>)

Baguio City’s tourism has boomed through the years. Because of this, numerous activities were developed to further entice visitors of the City.  Back in 2011, the first ever Ghost Tour in Baguio was introduced.  The itinerary of the said trip includes Laperal House, Hyatt Hotel Ruins, Camp John Hay, Teacher’s Camp, Nevada Square and the century-old Diplomat Hotel.  But before it has been a trend to tourists, we have already done a trip to eerie-ruins of the Diplomat Hotel as students.

One of my subject in my First Semester as a student of Communication majoring in Journalism was Komunikasyon 1.  It was a subject intended for creative writing in Filipino.  Our professor (Sir Junji if I’m remembering it right) gave us a week to create a paper on a place in Baguio that has unnerving image.  For us to be able to write a good material, we have to experience it ourselves. Me, along with 5 other classmates from the said class, decided to try the Diplomat Hotel.  Two in our group have been living in Baguio but haven’t been to Diplomat Hotel.  Based from its history, it used to be a seminary and a hospital for soldiers during the World War II before it was converted to a hotel in 1973.  For all of us, that was our first time.  First time to visit the place, no one of us realized that writing a good paper was the only thing we can get from the place but also an ethereal experience no one of us could ever imagined. 

We headed to Dominican Hill where the ruins of the Diplomat Hotel lies.  It is around 45 minutes to 1 hour away by jeepney from the City center.    It was already around 8’o clock in the evening when we got off the jeep.  The darkness of the night was already surrounding the area when we reached the vicinity of the Hotel. The deafening silence was getting strange as we were approaching the gated hotel.  The breezing coldness of Baguio wind touched our body.  The abandoned hotel has two guards manning the entry of people.  Luckily, we were the only group that had approached them to enter the ruins.  It was not allowed for anyone to enter the hotel but through our charming friend, we were able to sway the guard’s mind.  As we were entering the compound, we could feel the nerve-wracking ambience of the area as if many eyes were looking towards us.  Those stares were like pinching our hearts out.  We were about to enter when a strange, very cold wind blew our way.  The only source of light was our mobile device. Upon entering, we felt the enormity of all the things that happened.  

Before we started walking around the area, the guard told us “Kung may maramdaman man kayo, wag kayo magpahalatang takot. Mas magagalit sila (If you will feel something, don’t get scared.  Souls will get angry.).”  We kept that in mind.  We split into group of three.  Our group decided to head upstairs to explore it. There were a lot of rooms.  One room startled us. The room was furnished with a damaged bed and the fountain downstairs can be seen from there.  We entered it.  All of a sudden, the wind blew hard and a cry-like sound from the said room filled the quiet atmosphere.  We tried ignoring it.  In an unexpected turn of event, we were left shocked.   A shadow running in front of the fountain caught our attention.  Again, we controlled ourselves not to be scared.  Then, as if there were slamming doors happening in the area, we all decided to leave the vicinity of the building.  We hurriedly headed in front of the entrance.  We tried catching our breath as if we ran kilometers.  

We all decided not to talk about the scene for the other group not to worry about it.  As we headed outside, the other group asked “Kamusta? Wala ba kayong naramdaman? (How’s the trip? Didn’t you feel anything?)”.  That’s when we started talking about what we’ve felt.  At our surprise, they also have a spooky encounter almost similar from us.  That was when we smiled and all thought that “Hay, nagtagumpay tayong makaranas ng nakakatakot (We achieved our goal to have a spooky experience)” which is certainly the idea of the class’ exercise.  

No one of us ever anticipated that we’d experienced that.  Supernatural, unnerving situation that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Impossible but it happened to me!"