Ghosts, spirits and black magic........Part 3 ~ Bomoh

Bomoh...... this word is spoken with reservation accompanied with lots of fear. Meaning.... witch doctor, medicine man....... whatever you want to call it ....... Fear of the mystique, the unexplained and the evil that could be unleashed, that's why most Malaysians don't even want to talk about it.

The normal reaction would be.....`Eeeiiiww! Why do you want to get involved with bomohs? Not scared ar ???' So, nowadays, the word is changed to something more acceptable and perhaps less intimidating. Traditional medicine practitioner or in Malay, `Perubatan Tradisional'.......... well, whatever you want to call it... it was still the same to me. But I was ignorant then.

I have a friend, Tom (not his real name, otherwise he'll go bombastic.... hehe!) who thinks he is the poster boy for black magic and evil spirits. He's the hyper type..... always thinking someone is trying to `curse' him or put some magical spells on him. Sometimes, he'd tell me that he's seen a ghost or someone is trying to put a curse on him. Or send all sorts of magical spells, diseases, broken glass pieces, nails, pins, worms, centipedes, poison, you name it. But he's a great guy..... so, I put up with his paranoid nonsense.

So, there was this constant need to see these `Traditional medicine practitioners'....... and for easy typing on my part and for want of a more general and acceptable term,(lest I m cursed for being so nosy, hehe!) I will just use BMH for short. But he never went to any BMH `cos there are so many fakes around and also, he feared that they would use evil spirits to do their biddings.

But that was not until we met Kak Sal...... (also not her real name). She went to Pahang to visit her brother and two days later, she called all the way from Kuantan. `Someone has sent something really powerful to you guys and it's going to kill the both of you !!!' She sounded alarmed. `Come to Kuantan now or you guys might not make it till tomorrow.'

When I heard the news, I was like, `Huh ?' Tom panicked and insisted we drove to Kuantan that night itself. It was 10.30 pm and we were in Penang. I said to myself, `Of all the stunts you've pulled, this one really takes the cake!' I mean, c'mon...... death by tomorrow ???? Tom retaliated, `What if it's true ???' I kept quiet but in my heart I protested, `What if it's not ?'

Finally, I gave in.... giving the angels of death the benefit of the doubt and so, we packed our stuff........ filled up the tank and off we went......all the way to Kuantan in the middle of the night......

It was a trip to remember...... to be continued......... hehe!