Does the old man rent a cursed house?

This happened in March 2010, when I was thinking of moving to Ao Taan Khu. I was told there was a nice house for rent but the Thais who were with me were dead against it. Mii P. The house was cursed. I listened to them a bit but in truth in Thailand there is much that is superstition, and I don't want to embrace that part of Thai culture.

I didn't even want to look at the place. I didn't know how much it cost to rent, they told me it was nice and I didn't want to become attached to it. But in the end they persuaded me, and 5 of us went up on three bikes - a biker gang to see the house. Immediately I saw the house I was attracted to it. It was a big house - in truth probably too big, and in its own walled grounds. But the location was tremendous. Next to the house was an empty plot for sale, and you looked out to see with palm trees framing the sea's horizon. Between the house itself and the sea was a wood, but from the upstairs window I was told you could see the sea - undoubtedly so. I liked it - a lot.

The biker gang went back to the seaside restaurant where the Thais started telling stories of the house. It was difficult to gather all that was being said. The Thais had gotten into the stories, and this cursed house was clearly a place of local colour for all the wrong reasons. I picked up that 4 people had died over 20 years, and that no-one had lived there for 6 years. It is possible that for all the time that the house had been occupied by a family or whatever, someone had died. There was a couple who had died in a car accident. A man of 40 had died, and I think another person had died. Another interesting story came about. When the French had occupied this part of Thailand, dead bodies had been carried to a funeral pyre along a path which ran through the grounds of the house - before it was built! I would like to have learnt more but could not.

I went home interested in rentng the house despite the stories, but I woke up at 4.00 am with a pain in my GERD. I decided the house was not worth the risk. I phoned one of the Thai ladies - my estate agent, and said I wasn't interested.

I next went to the beach on Friday, where the "estate agent" told me that the rent was 3000 baht a month. This is now ?60, and is a cheap rent - a friend rents a bungalow for the same. I became more interested again. It felt as if the place was destined for me. I was reminded of how in Africa the tokoloshis don't affect the mo-kweri-kweri - whites. At the same time I was single and no Thai person would live there. I went back to look again - first in the afternoon to take pictures. And that was wierd. I took the pictures and found that the back of the phone had slipped giving a black line on the photos; I cropped them before putting them on line.

I then went back at dark with a sort of challenge - do your worst. I hung around the house for maybe half an hour just staring, leaving myself open to whatever. It was all I could do without actually living there. And then I came home.

When I came home I cropped the pictures, and started to upload the pictures onto my website. Something went wrong, and I had crashed my domain - I couldn't see my websites, I couldn't send email and of course I couldn't see the pictures! The next morning was the same so I contacted my ISP. Eventually he decided my IP address had been blocked - I don't know why. By the end of the day it was back online, and when I tried to upload the pictures I could. By that time I had decided the house was not for me!

And I had had another difficult night. Pains in the digestive area. But I felt that Nature wanted someone to take it on. I felt the place was not evil but that it needed to be reclaimed. Maybe I could do that. So even though I had a difficult night I still wanted to take it on. At 4.00 am I gave up with the sleep and watched Avatar. But then spent the rest of the day sleeping, followed by another difficult night. The next day I came to my senses. This was only a house. It was not my journey, there is no Nibbana in the house it was just property, however nice and well situated. However long it would take me to overcome whatevere was going on, would it be worth the illness and the lack of time spent on mmy journey? The answer was a clear no, especially as I would be renting the house - it would not be mine. It was clear that despite certain favourable circumstances my destiny and that of the house were to cross no more. I started asking about other places to rent, and left the curse in its place.

Here are the photos.