Noises in the Middle of the Night

And no, not what you think. We only make music.

We went to Koh Samui, Thailand for our honeymoon and stayed at Baan Haad Ngam Boutique Resort & Spa on Chaweng Beach. The resort hotel was beautifully decorated like a rain forest with a tiny waterfall and a swimming pool with a horizon that extended into the ocean. Our room was very spacious with a king-size bed made of teakwood and a jet stream jacuzzi in the bathroom.

It was a heavenly place although the weather was less than desirable. It rained throughout the week and the beach at our resort was gone as water level was very high due to heavy rain. We spent most of our time in our room, which was just as wonderful.

So the question remains why this entry is titled as it is. Well… so we were in Thailand altogether 7 days 6 nights and we stayed in FOUR different rooms!

Room #1: Despite our room being quite lovely and our first night was peacefully quiet, we were awakened by sounds of passion coming from our neighbors the second night. Not that the sound was unpleasant or anything, but felt a little unnerving to realize how thin the walls were. If we could hear them, they could hear us! So we requested for a change of room and they moved us to a different room.

Room #2: Our new room was just as nice, but we stayed there only for a night. Due to the high water level at the side of the beach (Chaweng) where we were staying at, the beach was pretty much underwater. We decided to look for another resort on a different beach where water level wasn’t as high and found a nice cozy resort in Lamai Beach with bungalows pretty much right on the beach.

Room #3 : Our bungalow room wasn’t quite as nice as the rooms at Baan Haad Ngam, but the ocean view as well as being right on the beach made up for it. Also, being in a bungalow felt more seclusive, or so we thought…. until 2am in the morning, Susan was awakened by the sound of a loud BANG coming from next door. (Forgot to mention that each bungalow had two separate rooms sharing one common wall. Should have triggered a warning flag when we first checked in but somehow forgot about our room#1 experience after seeing the beautiful beach view.)

Half awakened, Susan tried to go back to sleep. Probably just the sound of somebody killing a mosquito. However, soon after the bang, sounds of voice(s) came and from what Susan could make out in her half-asleep state, she thought she heard a man in broken English mutter “I like you” a few times. Just plain wonderful… a man with a prostitute. Jason got up to use the bathroom while Susan tried to block the noises out of her head. The muffled sound of “I like you” continued and Susan found it quite strange anbody would repeat that over and over. Jason came back from the bathroom and went right back to sleep, but unable to go back to sleep, Susan got up and leaned against the wall to hear what was happening next door.

And this was what she heard, or thought she heard…

Rough man’s voice (1): I LIKE YOU I LIKE YOU I LIKE YOU
Muffled man’s voice (2): mmmmm (muffled)
(1): I LIKE YOU.

WHACK

(2): (muffled)

(1): I LIKE MEN. I LIKE YOU.

WHACK

(2): (muffled)

(1): WHY YOU LIKE WOMAN? I LIKE YOU

WHACK

(2): (muffled)

(1): I LIKE YOU. I LIKE YOU.

WHACK
..

SILENCE

..

Then sounds of zippers…

Sounded to Susan as if some man had broken into next door, killed the wife, tied up the poor husband, raped him, killed him, and tossed the dead bodies in a large duffle bag. Then in terror, Susan woke Jason up and whispered, “Shhh…. something is not right… something terrible is happening next door. We got to go. We got to get out of here!”

Half asleep, Jason told Susan to go back to sleep. “Your have such a wild imagination. How can anybody get inside? The doors have locks and deadbolt.”

Susan thought about it for a moment and completely terrified, realized that the bathroom was separated only by a curtain and a sliding door that have no locks on it. The bathroom is semi-outdoors with large openings between the walls and the roof. Anybody could climb into the bathroom and come in the bedroom through the unlocked sliding door! And there wasn’t any phone in the room to call the police or for help, not that we knew how to anyway…

Susan shook Jason awake again and in paralyze fear whispered, “We HAVE to get out of here…. he’s coming to get us next!! shh… ”

“where will we go?”

“back to Baan Haad Ngam… shhh…”

We got up very quietly, feeling terribly frightened, discombobulated, and fearful about making headlines:

Newly wed couple from Shanghai murdered by Thai serial killer during their honeymoon.

Hurriedly, we put on some clothes, grabbed our important documents (passport, tickets, wallet), and tiptoed near the door when Susan saw a glimpse of shadow coming out of the curtain that covered the bathroom sliding door and gasped “HE’S IN OUR BATHROOM! AGH!!! WE’RE GOING TO DIE!!!!”

“Honey, that was my shadow”

“oh! SHHH!!!!! Let’s get out of here! Open the door quietly and run to our jeep, okay?”

And so, both of us, like refugees in the middle of the night 2:30am, ran out of our bungalow, leaving behind our suitecase and belongings, with nothing but our pajamas on, ran toward the parking lot where we parked our rental jeep (thank goodness we had a jeep!!), quickly got inside, locked the doors, and drove away from this nightmarish place back to our first hotel Baan Haad Ngam.

After Jason parked the jeep, we ran to the reception completely frazzled, relieved to be in a “safe” place, and in a frantic voice, Susan told the receptionist the horror story of what happened, asked for a room to stay for the night, and asked him to call the police. The receptionist thought Susan was a little crazy and wouldn’t call the police, pointing out that they can’t do anything in the middle of the night, and asked us to wait until morning daylight to go back to the hotel and find out what happened. It would have been safer during the day with other tourists around. He then checked us in to our room (#4) and since we didn’t have anything else with us, we went right to sleep. Or at least Jason did. Susan barely slept and kept having frightful nightmares and flashbacks of the events earlier.

Room #4: And for the rest of the honeymoon, we stayed at Baan Haad Ngam, thankfully in the same room. Our neighbors weren’t quite as noisy as the previous two. We did, after gathering enough courage, drive back to the other resort, went to our room, packed all our belongings, checked out the hotel and never turned back our head. We did ask the receptionist if anything had happened the night before and she had no clue as to what we were talking about. For all we know, they could have covered things up as not to disturb and frighten their guests. As for the what happened to our bungalow neighbor, that will remain forever a mystery.

And in conclusion, our final night at Baan Haad Ngam, both of us were awakened to the terribly loud and frightening sound of thunder clap. And oh, how pleasant that sounded in comparison to all the other noises we have been hearing.