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‘The Gift Of Truth Is The Greatest Gift’

Preface

Most people have their interesting share of stories about their life experiences from the time of their school days, their careers, their hobbies, their families, their travels and so on. The unfortunate thing is many cannot recall in detail the events and happenings which could serve as valuable life lessons to others. Some find it difficult to put their experiences in words.

School Stories . Travel Tales . Hotel Happenings is a collection of 56 narrative accounts or stories of the interesting things that happened in the author’s life. The true stories span over 50 years from the author’s school days to his present retirement. There are stories of the hilarious type, the strange and bizarre, the adventurous, the scary and the thought-provoking. The book is divided into three sections, namely,

School Stories – There are 20 true life stories pertaining to school, students and teachers.

Travel Tales – 20 narrative accounts of incidents and events that took place during trips and tours locally and in foreign countries.

Hotel Happenings – 16 stories of actual happenings at hotels, both local and abroad.

Almost all the stories in the book are based on the author’s direct experiences and encounters. A small handful comes from the experiences of the author’s close friends. To protect the privacy and identity of the persons involved in the stories, names have been changed to fictitious ones but the characters are nevertheless real persons.

At the end of each of the narrations in School Stories . Travel Tales . Hotel Happenings, is a little reflection on some life lessons that can be learnt from the story to help the mind grow in understanding and wisdom.

May this book entertain, stimulate and educate.

In terms of Life Wisdom may we all be more awake!

OH TEIK BIN ( ohteikbin@gmail.com)

School Stories 11 I Was Punished …………………………………. .22 Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me? …….53 ‘Oh Danny Boy…’ ……………………………… 94 4 Unforgettable Students ……………………….135 A Most Bizarre Thing ………………………….. 186 A Most Memorable Teacher’s Day …………….237 An Eccentric Friend …………………………… .278 Of Bad Habits And Mannerisms ……………….319 Can You Beat That? …………………………….3510 So Very Panicky … ……………………………...3911 Of Dreams, Ghosts, Psychic Powers… ……… 4412 Is There A Demon Within? …………………… 4813 Unexpected Happenings ………………………. 5314 What’s Happening To Our English? …………. 5815 These Teachers… ‘Why Like That One?’ …… 6316 Of Acronyms, Acrostics & Mnemonics ………. 6717 Matchmakers Around …………………………. 7218 I Remember Them… …………………………. 7719 Difficult Ones, Defiant Ones …………………… 8220 More School Stories ……………………………. 88 Travel Tales 93 21 A Shock At Madame Tussauds 94 22 ‘Crisis’ At The Statue Of Liberty 9723 An Unusual Couple 10124 Oh What A Terrific Trip! 10525 One Cool Tourist 11026 When My Legs Wobbled… ………………… 11627 The ‘Miraculous’ Dancing Lights …………. 120

Contents

Contents28 ‘How To Stay Here Lah?’ ………………….. 12529 A Close ShaveAt The Paris Metro ………… 12930 It’s In The Mind …………………………….. 134

31 At Beijing – What A Scare! ………………… 13932 Me A Mental Case? …………………………. 143

33 Fun And Fright At The Zoo ………………… 14734 Such Uneasy Feelings… …………………….. 15235 Answering Nature’s Calls …………………… 156

36 Thrills And Fun Second To None …………... 16137 What An Embarrassment! ………………….. 16638 Tug At The Heartstrings …………………… 17039 Of Sedan Chair, Cable Car, Stinky Tofu… … 17540 More Travel Tales ……………………………. 179

Hotel Happenings 185

41 Begging A ‘Ghost’… ……………………… 18642 A Scare At A New York Hotel ……………… 18943 My Schizophrenic Friend …………………… 194 44 Incident At A 5-Star Hotel ………………….. 19845 Something Is Pressing On Me… …………… 202 46 Where Is Father? …………………………… 20647 Was It A Haunted Toilet? …………………. 21048 Lily’s Encounter With A Ghost …………… 21449 Hanky Panky In A Hotel …………………... 218 50 Ha, Ha, Ha In The Middle Of The Night …. 22251 ‘Ghosts’ At a Holy Place? ………………….. 22752 When My Head Began To Spin… ………… 23253 Imagination Or Reality? …………………… 236 54 Terror At Old Hotels ……………………….. 24055 Tragic Hotel Happenings …………………... 24456 More Hotel Happenings ……………………. 248

A Sample Chapter

Chapter 50

Ha! Ha! Ha! In The

Middle Of The Night

When I was in my mid-twenties, I went on a trip to Melaka with 5 of my friends. It was a holiday and we wanted to do

sightseeing in Melaka and take it easy. We checked into a 3-Star hotel and took three twin-sharing rooms.

Melaka is an interesting historical city with much to see, explore and learn. Among the places we visited were St. John’s Fort, St. Paul’s Hill (A’Famosa), Jonker Walk, the Melaka River, Portuguese Square, The Stadthuys, some

Heritage Museums and temples, the Melaka Zoo, Taman Mini Malaysia and Mini ASEAN. At night, for our dinner we tried the

many types of delicious hawkers’ food including some exotic Portuguese and Nyonya dishes.

On the first night of our trip, we went back to the hotel at around 9.30 pm. We decided to take it easy at the lounge area before going back to sleep in our rooms. We chit-chatted and cracked many jokes. Each of us had to contribute some jokes covering any subject under the sun. Among them were some hilarious hotel jokes. I still remember some of the following:

* Soh Chye checked into a hotel for the first time in his life, and went up to his room. Five minutes later he called the reception and complained, "You've given me a room with no exit. How do I leave?" The receptionist on duty said , "Sir, that's ridiculous!. Have you looked for the door?" Soh Chye replied, " Well, there's one door that leads to the bathroom. There's a second door that goes into the closet. And there's a door I haven't tried, but it has a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on it."

* A man lodged a complaint at a cheap hotel. ‘My room is swimming in water,’ he said. ‘Does the roof always leak like that?’ ‘No, sir,’ replied the receptionist. ‘Only when it’s raining.’

* Miss Ho Oi Lang approached the reception desk of a hotel. A hotel porter appeared and Oi Llang asked him, ‘Can you check me out please?’

The porter looked her up and down and then commented with a smile, “Sure baby. You’re not bad. Not bad at all …”

* Frederick was staying in a hotel with lots of good facilities. On one occasion he was enjoying the well-equipped swimming pool. The manager came and told him quite bluntly to get out.

“What is the reason?” Frederick asked the manager.

The manager said, "Because you urinated in the pool." "Well, " replied Frederick, "lots of people do that."

"True," answered the manager, "but you did it from the diving board."

* A newly-married couple was getting out of their car and walking towards the hotel. It was their honeymoon. The new wife felt very shy that she was on her honeymoon. She turned to her husband and asked, “Can we do something to hide the fact that we are on our honeymoon?” The husband thought for a second and replied, “Honey, you can carry the luggage!”

* The country bumpkin, Ah Gong had never been to the city and he was going to stay at a 5-Star hotel for the first time. He registered at the reception desk and a bellboy helped him to check into his room.

Ah Gong said to the bellman, “I refuse to settle for such a small room. No windows, no bed, and no air conditioning."

"But, Sir!", replied the bellman.

"Don't try to give me excuses," Ah Gong continued. "You can't treat me like I am a fool just because I come from the countryside, don't travel much, and I’ve never been to the big city, and never spent the night at a hotel. I'm going to complain to the manager."

"Sir," the bellman said, "this isn't your room; this is the elevator!"

* Two young businessmen stayed at a large hotel while attending a convention overseas. Since they were not used to the big city, they were overly concerned about security.

The first night they placed a desk against the door and stacked their luggage on it. To complete the barricade, they put the trash can on top. They were thinking that if an intruder tried to get in by breaking the lock , they’d be sure to hear him first.

At around midnight, there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" one of the businessman asked nervously.

"Sir," a woman on the other side yelled, "you left your key in the door."

* A lady in her mid-thirties was on a business trip. Since she was so tense from all the meetings, she decided she would go to the roof of the hotel she was staying in and sunbathe to help her relax. She went to the top of the hotel, took off her blouse and pants, and in her bikini, lay face down on the roof. After about an hour of sunbathing, she heard someone approaching her on the roof. It was the manager of the hotel. He said, " Excuse me, miss, but do you mind sunbathing somewhere else? " "Why?" asked the lady. “I'm on top of the hotel...nobody can see me!"

"True", the manager replied, “But you are lying on the sunroof above our dining room!"

* A farmer once went to a big city to see the sights. It was his first time staying at a hotel in the city. He asked the clerk at the reception counter about the time for meals.

"Breakfast is served from 7 to 11, dinner from 12 to 3, and supper from 6 to 8," explained the clerk.

"Oh my God!” the farmer almost shouted in surprise. "What a stupid hotel arrangement! How am I going to get time to see the city?"

* Husband: “Please come to our room fast. I was having an argument with my wife and she says she is going to jump out of the window.

Hotel Manager : “Sir, I am sorry I can't help you. This seems to be a personal issue.”

Husband : “You silly Dummy, this is a maintenance issue. The room window cannot be opened!”

We really had a wonderful time! Some of the many jokes had us laughing until our stomachs felt the muscle pains.

At near eleven we went back to our rooms to have a good rest and sleep. As it had been a tiring day touring so many places in and around Melaka town, I was soon ‘knocked out’ on my bed and slept most soundly.

The next morning, my roommate narrated something that happened in the night which I was not aware of. This was his account:

“Like you, I too slept not long after lying on my bed because I was tired. It must have been about 1.30 am when I was awakened by some sounds of a person laughing. As the room was in total darkness, I could not see anything. The funny laughter continued. The more I listened, the more eerie it became. Feelings of fear began to grow in me as uncontrollable thoughts ran through my mind:

“Who could be laughing at this time of the night?”

“Is this the laughter of a human being?”

“Is this room haunted? Am I being teased by a ghost?”

“Will the ghost come for me?”

Out of great fear, I closed my eyes and drew the blanket over my head but I could still hear the laughter sporadically. Curiosity got the better of me; I sat up on the bed and switched on the bedside lights and looked around to see where the laughter came from. I was still trembling in fear.

What I saw nearly caused me to burst out in laughter. It was you, Teik Bin, who was laughing in your sleep. I watched your face intently…rather distorted at times. At other times you were smiling with your eyes closed. Laughter burst out from your mouth now and then. ‘He must be dreaming of hilarious situations…not surprising after a night of joke sharing and great laughter,’ I thought to myself. I decided not to disturb you and I went back to sleep. I did not know how long, your Ha! Ha! Ha! lasted.”

When my other friends came to know of the Ha! Ha! Ha! hotel happening, all of us had a really good laugh.

Reflection

* Most of our dreams are associated with funny, strange or stressful or frightful happenings that occur in our daily life.

* When the mind is trained to be calm, kind, generous and we live morally righteous lives, we will be more free from bad dreams because the mind is not troubled by negative thoughts and feelings of regret, remorse and guilt.

The End

May we learn from LIFE Lessons and a good story.May we live life most happily and peacefully.

With Metta,Bro. Oh Teik Bin