Go Gopeng II: Gossip and Ghosts

Enjoyed a long, quiet breakfast at the mess hall all by myself. Before long, my colleagues had returned from their tree-planting activity. Next up was some light team-building activities at one of the halls. The usual ice breakers, some IQ questions, a team dance-off, and finally a kind of treasure hunt that had us roaming across the whole compound. The highlight of the day was a barbecue dinner, and a birthday celebration for the October babies (that's me!). Some colleagues also lit Kong Ming lanterns, but I stayed back.

As the night drew on, we started snacking, drinking, and gossiping. The hottest topic was the supernatural event that happened the night before. The owner of the resort actually organized a night jungle walk. Strangely, after the group had left, one Malay colleague returned. Turns out that the resort owner strongly advised her not to join. According to the story, the resort owner sensed a spiritual presence around her that would not have been compatible with the jungle spirits. On the same night, the Malay lady in question had an 'episode' in the room. Her roommate held her down and started praying over her, but it was to no avail. In the end, she vomited, and fell asleep. All of her roommates were spooked out and dispersed to other rooms. 

The noise from our drinking games caused one of the resort guides to come out and tell us to keep our voices in check. In the end, he joined us in the drinking. His name was Dominic, and he told us stories about his family back in Papua New Guinea, and also his Malay girlfriend in Malaysia. A very good Catholic indeed. Huhu. He also mentioned that he could he 'see' an aura around my colleague. The Muslim ladies from the tour company also loved soju. A fun bunch of East Malaysians.