Our trip lasted more than 4 hours actually when we had stopped for gas earlier twice and eaten brunch along the way. Luckily we were driving more to the outermost of the continent rather than in the hustling traffic woes and the blistering heat. From the roads that we had driven through, it was rice fields as far as the eyes can see with little specks of towns bordering them.During our journey there, p.o.r.nsak had reminded me by mentioning, "Aroon, you will help me to set up the offering altar right? You need to light up 3 joss sticks before you arrange all these candies and the little treats for the little ones. Just speak in your heart and mind that you are doc.u.menting this for the sake of making the public know about this place and the mystery that shrouds them."
"Understood... Any other special prayers or setup that need to be done prior to this? And what"s so special about this Wat? It"s just an abandoned Wat, am I right? Also, you had marked it as 2/5 ratings so it won"t be that scary or anything, to begin with."
"Yes, Aroon... it is a Wat or what others have known as a temple. It had been abandoned due to the previous crackdown by the government. In fact, it was more like a crematorium, rather than a temple. Later on, you will find out more as I narrate OK?"
She turned to the crew behind her and said," You guys better get ready the IR video cameras as we step out from the van. Capture the whole scene as we go along and I would let you know once the offering altar had been placed. The narration part would then commence. You may place some voice recording devices at some points when I pointed them out. And also not forgetting the EMF counters and cameras that had been "blessed" to see things beyond our eyes."
The crew nodded our head and one of the lady members of SPI produced a mobile makeup kit in which p.o.r.nsak refuses, saying that it is better for her to appear natural in front of the camera as she narrates the story.
The lady SPI member smiled as she tucked the mobile makeup unit back behind her seat that was stacked with several of the prized SPI equipment.
It was already 1:30 pm as the tires rolled in among the loose gravel of the abandoned crematorium, a deadly silence quickly ensued us. There was not a single breathing soul with a perimeter of a few hundred meters away from it; even some houses were desolate with disrepair as if it were abandoned along with the crematorium.
When one speaks of a crematorium, it is just like the final destination before putting a dead body into a furnace fire that was a few thousand degrees in temperature. This process of creating would normally take 4 hours of continuously burning in that intense heat to burn and evaporate liquids within the body and to reduce everything into a pile of dust.
Do you wish to know what does a cremated body smells like? Try striking a match and blow on it. The wafting trail of smoke somewhat resembles a cremating body. Do you know how I knew about this? I happen to live near a crematorium for 4 years before they turn it into a park of some sort. Maybe the idea of the living jogging among the dead makes it ideal for new homeowners putting up there.
We quickly disembarked, one putting an EMF counter just at the pa.s.senger seat of the van just for precautionary measures even though I had laughed at the idea.
One of my colleagues helped to haul in the cables and axillary batteries for the cameras and other electronic gadgets as they had experienced in power outage even when they had recently charged their batteries. "HunNaa, what"s so special about this place that needs to be doc.u.mented?"
"I have no idea, pheurn... Maybe someone refused to be burned at the crematorium, similar to those people who refuse to die by hanging by the gallows."
My colleague just gave me a stare to be able to think of such things at the wrong time for them. I just shrugged off their worrying thoughts away while they a.s.sisted the SPI team to take a few photos of a huge bunch of wilted flowers at one end of the wall.
There was also a lot of abandoned unopened boxes of toys meant for little boys and girls in one corner. Their boxes had faded much while some had been torn apart revealing its contents to the floor. A few dolls, a few firetrucks, soccer b.a.l.l.s, a huge stuffed tiger and other knick-knacks were strewn across it.
All of us pa.s.sed these stuff on the floor and paid our respects to it before taking a few photos of it while the video camera was kept steady and switched on as we walked along the perimeter of an abandoned crematorium.
An emanc.i.p.ated dog went by, biting a red plastic in its jaw and growling through its teeth. The crew immediately took a snapshot of the dog and hope it would be able to share a story in the doc.u.mentary, and it did in the later part.
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We had reached to the entrance of the crematorium or temple as it seems to be at this moment as the crematoria part of the building had been torn down partially adjacent to this temple. There were lots of rubbish strewn across the floor and an indistinguishable stench was permeating from the torn apart crematoria.
"Ma ni si Nek Noi, Phi Saw Khun To Yiem Khoon," p.o.r.nsak says aloud while kicking gently on the ground to clear the rubbish and to place the offerings altar. This sentence merely translates as "Come here, little ones. Big sister is here for a visit."
p.o.r.nsak signals to me and I slowly cleared the ground some more and place the wooden altar on the floor. I tore open a few packets of sticky milk candies while I said "Aroi mai" and arranging it gently on the wooden altar.
The video and camera crew was non stop recording ever since p.o.r.nsak had mentioned that she is here for the visit and unmistakenly took it as a cue for the doc.u.mentary to start. Even I who was not supposedly be involved was also been taken in by the video camera as part of the prop.
Out of a corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a baby who was peeking from behind a metal cabinet and heard some soft giggling too. I looked at p.o.r.nsak and I signalled and pointed to my third eye and my ears that I had seen and heard something.
"Ah... Don"t worry Aroon, they are here and they are harmless. We will open up a portal for them to enter the netherworld at the end of this segment, ok? I brought the thing that my uncle had brought me." p.o.r.nsak patted her sling bag beside her and that may contain some mystical items that she said will make the loss souls journey back to the netherworld.
After I had torn a few packets of sticky milk candies, arranged the mini milk bottles that looked like those for playthings for girls to feed their baby dolls, and also the glutinous candies. It looked quite a galore for the small ones to enjoy and I lit up 3 joss sticks, clasped it in my hands and muttered something to them to enjoy this little offering that we have prepared for them and stuck it in the middle of the offerings altar. I quickly rose and went offscreen as I am not part of the Narrator or the SPI team anyways.
p.o.r.nsak began narrating in her calm voice as the video camera panned the area before her and fixed on her face and then zoomed out to where the offerings altar and then back on her again.
"It was just another regular day in the market. People were busy with shopping, while merchants were gossiping about the latest TV dramas. A local guy noticed that a dog was carrying a plastic bag in its mouth." p.o.r.nsak began with a calm voice when she suddenly peaked her voice a treble later.
" When the dog tore the bag open, he was shocked. The dog was chewing on a baby"s body part. Police followed the dog and traced the source of the bag to the nearby Wat Pai Ngoen Temple. When they entered the morgue, the stench was unbearable."
SPI members who were listening to her narrating felt gooseb.u.mps all over, including me! That dog that happened to growl at us earlier may have entered our story and doesn"t the plastic bag contain any body parts, do they?
p.o.r.nsak continued," What they discovered was more shocking – piles of plastic bags that had overflowed from the storage area. Inside the bags, dead foetuses and babies" body parts were found. In total, as many as 2,002 dead babies were found."
p.o.r.nsak paused and pointed to another location to narrate and shoot. Slight perspiration had emerged under above her upper lip. After moving to the torn apart crematoria she began again.
"After investigations, police found that for years, the cremators had been paid by an illegal abortion clinic to destroy the bodies. But recently, the crematorium malfunctioned, so the bodies were piled up in the storage until it had overflowed."
"Although the bodies were properly cremated after that, locals sometimes can still hear the sounds of babies giggling and crying coming from the direction of the temple. A photo even surfaced on the news – someone had captured a shadow of a baby figure in front of the storage door where the bodies were found."
"Alright, its a wrap. Let"s move on to the middle of the temple and set up this thing my uncle had given me. Not a single minute too late as the weather around doesn"t permit."
p.o.r.nsak showed to the SPI team of the sudden overcast of dark shadows looking in the distance that threatens to break loose anytime soon sending torrents of rain in Thai G.o.dforsaken place. She definitely would not want to get stuck in here a minute longer.
She moved to the middle of the temple and took out a yellow piece of cloth and she unfurled it. She placed it on the ground using four stones to add to its weight. I saw a lot of intricate designs on the yellow cloth and as I pa.s.sed the offering altar, the first thing I noticed was its joss stick that had been through. The neatly arranged candies had been disturbed while some had even dropped to the ground. Must be some rats, I suppose.
p.o.r.nsak said some prayers on the yellow cloth and stood up and clasped her hands and bowed slightly.
"Let"s go, if those souls are willing to enter to their other side then let them be. We will not be in any power to control them to cross over but once a single soul steps over, the rest might follow," she explained as she walked over to me and held my arm with the rest of the SPI team followed suit after switching off the video cameras.
It was already past 3 pm and we decided to move to our next location that was at Ajarn Chuan Ashram which was located at Chachoengsao, a distance of 87km or a 2hrs drive. The place we are heading was nearby Paet Riu train terminus and even driving through normal traffic, we would be there about 530 pm and that leaves little daylight to safely film the doc.u.mentary.
So the SPI team decides to leave the doc.u.mentary part in the next morning as we head to look for the nearest lodging available there. The EMF gadget left in the pa.s.senger side had picked some considerable movement before we embark on our journey and the SPI team prayed that none of the spirits would follow them as they journey forward.
Soon, the van rolled out from the abandoned crematorium and back to the main road where the bustling city life greeted us once again. Some of the SPI team members began to unroll what they had taken from their cameras of that place and soon out of dozens of pictures taken, there seem to be some apparitions of naked babies at the bundle of toys that were strewn across the floor, also appearing at the spoilt snacks and fruits left by visitors at one corner of the wall plus a peeking head of a baby looking at the offerings altar when I was arranging the sweets and stuffs there.
The SPI team was ecstatic at the same time felt the p.r.i.c.kly gooseb.u.mps when they saw the smiling babies that seemed to greet them with smiles of joy as we brought them fresh offerings.