I have a true ghost story I want to tell people. Perhaps people could give me their feedback.A few years ago, I was visiting a friend in the Cambodian countryside when I saw something I could not explain.Let me set up the story and give some background context so that it would make more sense.Cambodia is a very haunted country. It's the most haunted country I have been to and I think it's because of its recent past with the Khmer rouge killing pretty much everybody.In the rural Cambodian countryside, everyone keeps dogs. My friend told me it was because dogs can see ghosts, spirits and other supernatural creatures, entities that humans cannot see easily. Because of this ability, rural folks keep dogs as guard dogs in order to ward off the evil spirits and protect the inhabitants of the house.Now, my friend lives in a very remote part of Cambodia. The closest big city with over 100,000 people was actually an hour away. We are so remote that there are no public streetlights at night. So if you have to wander around after sunset and you don't have a flashlight, then you're flat out of luck.One night, I was in my room when I heard the family dog bark at 11 PM. Now if you understand dogs, they bark only if they see something unfamiliar. If they see something familiar and friendly and safe, they would not bark.I am a very curious person by nature so every time the dog barked, I would actually leave my room to investigate. I was staying on the second floor of a rustic house so the moment I heard the dog bark, I picked up the flashlight and stepped out onto the porch.It was pitch black so I shone the flashlight at the dog and then at what he was barking at. Turned out he was barking at a passerby just walking past our locked gates. Thinking nothing of it, I returned to my room to work on my computer some more.An hour later, at midnight, the dog barked again. Curious, I grabbed the flashlight and stepped out onto the porch again. This time, I noticed that the dog was standing near the fence that divided our house from the neighbor. He was barking at something on the neighbor's side of the fence. I said in Khmer, "Goo, teveu avey?" which means, "Goo (the dog's name), what are you doing?"The dog turned to look at me with a friendly expression for a few seconds. And then he returned to barking at the figure.My curiosity fully peaked now, I shone the flashlight onto the figure that the dog was barking at. What I saw defied explanation. I still have no idea what it was but I will do my best to describe it to you.Trapped in between a tractor on the neighbor's side and the fence, the figure was in standing a position that was at a 45° angle. So this means I can only see its profile. It was a humanoid figure with the same proportion as a man. So it had the outline of a face and a torso and lower body. Its upper body was wrapped entirely in a blue cloth. Its lower body was wrapped entirely in a white cloth. I could see the bumps of a nose and cheekbones and a mouth underneath the blue cloth. It looked like was a department store mannequin. But unlike a mannequin, I got the distinct feeling that it was alive.Now when you're human and you're standing out in the pitch darkness of the Cambodian countryside at midnight, when someone shines a light on your face, would you turn to see the source of the light? But this creature did not. This creature pretended as though I did not exist. In other words, it was ignoring me.My first reaction was complete bewilderment. What the hell was that thing? Now, I don't do drugs or smoke or drink alcohol and I don't take any mind-altering substances. I was in a completely sober state of mind. This definitely was not a dream because I never sleep that early. But I was still baffled. Thinking I was hallucinating, I turned off the light and then waited a few seconds.At that point, the dog stopped barking and returned to the garage, where he normally sleeps.For the second time, I turned on the flashlight at that location again, expecting it to disappear.It had not disappeared. It was still there, standing at the exact same 45° angle, with its profile facing me. Puzzled, I wracked my brain, trying to figure out what it was. It did not seem to be malicious. It was just ignoring me.I turn off the flashlight again. It was now completely dark again. I would try one more time.I turned on the flashlight and there it was again.At that point, I began to feel scared. Not because it was menacing but because of the mystery, because I couldn't figure out what it was. It is human nature to be fearful of the unknown.Fear took over and I decided to go back into my room. I would not venture out that night again.The next morning I told my friend all about it and he brushed it off as very normal. My friend's reaction was very matter-of-fact. He said, "so you saw a ghost," as though he were announcing that it's raining. He then said that he had seen plenty of ghosts in his village as a child. For example, when he was eight years old, at the front entrance of his house, there was a lady under a tree who told him to come play with him. She stuck out her tongue and it reached all the way to the ground. Another time, my friend's sister was going to the local market at 3 AM to set up her produce stall. She said that she saw the figure of an old man with only an upper body but no lower body just floating in the air.My friend also said that his deceased father's spirit was looking after his family. There were also enchanted shrines at the entrance of the property that had been strengthened by various local protection spells. So that was why the thing could not enter our property and why the creature was on the neighbor's side of the fence and not our side.It was the first time in my life that I have seen anything remotely supernatural. I cannot be 100% certain it was a ghost but I am 100% certain that was not a man or woman or human and it was not any natural animal on our planet. It felt very supernatural and paranormal.I'm certain it was not a human for two reasons: the awkward position it was standing in (it was sandwiched in between a tractor on one side and the fence on the other) and the fact that it did not move or turn to look at me when I shone a flashlight in his face three times.In any case, this supernatural encounter led me onto the path of spirituality and spiritual development. It was the catalyst of my spiritual awakening.I also just googled some ting mong/Cambodian scarecrows but it looked nothing like what I saw. The pictured show faces but the thing I saw I had no face: just an outline of a face. It just looked like a mannequin wrapped in shrouds.Here are some reasons I don't think it was a scarecrow:1 it was gone the next morning when I woke up. Why would be the neighbor remove the scarecrow in the morning? Wouldn't he want the scarecrow to be there all day to scare away pests and birds?2 I don't remember the neighbor having placed a scarecrow there earlier that day. There was also no garden or any crops nearby that needed protection. This was the residence and not the farm.3 The cloth resembled death shrouds.4 Why did the dog suddenly notice it at midnight? Why didn't it just start barking at 11 PM at around the same time when it saw the passerby pass by our locked gates? The dog barking at 12 am suggests to me that the ghost had suddenly appeared and triggered the dog's senses. Is it likely that the neighbor placed the thing in such an awkward position between the tractor and the fence right at midnight?My friend's house faces a ditch and he told me that lots of people died during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Their bodies were thrown haphazardly into the ditch without a proper burial. Perhaps it's one of the vengeful aggrieved spirits that I saw.
