Exploring Philippines 112 - Taal Volcano Crater (Post 4 - A Night at Casa Punzalan)

It was past 4 in the morning the following day when I woke up and felt the need to relieve myself.  Actually, it was the voice of Raul which made me abandon my deep slumber.  He was thrilled yet hesitant with the idea of stepping out from our room and into the darkness of the whole second floor.  With a not-so soft voice, he shared his recent eerie adventure with his wife, Cha, about what he felt while being engulfed with total darkness and finding his way to the loo and back to our room again. And since I could no longer hold the call of nature, I bravely stepped out of our room.

Imagine the temporary blindness the moment you step into the total darkness.  The darkness felt like an abyss and the total silence of the room contributes to a more dreaded scenario that only your wild imagination can play with.  And if you are scared of the dark with all those ghastly creatures playing at the back of your mind, this place could be a perfect place for a good horror experience.

Since I need to use the lavatory, I used my cell phone to somehow illuminate the place.  Though the light was not enough, even with all the goosebumps I felt, I bravely conquered the place just to relieve myself.  As I walked in tiptoed manner with my eyes moving from left to right and expectant of any horrifying encounter, I went straight to the loo which is located at the other end of that floor. 

The comfort room was already lighted, maybe because this place had guests.  Imagine if you will be the one to look for the switch in an unfamiliar place with all those scary things playing in your mind, it would somehow add more to the experience.  The comfort room for men has several divisions for shower and toilet.  And entering into a room like this one, even with the lights on, the scary stuff was simply lurking at the back of my mind waiting for it to happen.

Though I had several scary experiences, this was my first time for this kind of setting.  The place, the time, and the total serenity made this one as a perfect setting for a scary situation. Don’t get me wrong for I am not thrilled about this experience. I am not into a ghost hunting nor I am trying to scare the future visitors to this place.  This was just my personal experience and I am glad (reluctant, though) that I was able to conquer my fear that time.

Anyway, upon my entry to the comfort room, I did bother to look into the other cubicles for I might be seeing things that I don’t want to see.  I immediately settled with the first cubicle and spent some good minutes relieving myself.  But since the scary thought preceded me, the constant anticipation of a scary experience kept me on the guard all the time.  My paranoia, if you may call it, made me hear my own heartbeat.  Haha. Silly me.

After leaving the loo, the aid of an open door of the comfort room provided some temporary relief.  And as I rushed back to our room, I could not help my eyes stealing glimpses in the dark part of the open area.  And since all the remaining unoccupied rooms were open, I felt like being watched by those rooms which scared me even more.  I could not imagine the kind of relief I felt the moment I reached our room.  And we began to share some scary thoughts about the place.  We thought that the ladies will be scared too but they were unaffected by our stories.

It was almost 5 am when we were ready to leave the place.  It was still dark when we stepped into the living room.  As we wait for the caretaker to wake up, we opened the balcony window, enjoyed the morning fresh air, and appreciated the stillness of the sleepy town.  Eventually, our moderated conversation woke up the caretaker and we were out of Casa Punzalan some minutes after five in the morning.

We walked towards the town plaza and waited for a jeepney to take us to the town of Lemery.  Before taking a ride towards the town of San Nicolas, we dropped by first at a food chain and had our breakfast.  At the same time, we also ordered some burgers and hotdog sandwiches in case we will get hungry during the course of our trip.