Beware of Bangungot

Sleep should be a zone of comfort. When you sleep, everything is different. It is a daily getaway from the daily hassles of life, and a reclusion where all great things can happen. This is also where the not so great things happen, but hey, its just a dream.

Sounds great right? But what if one doesn't wake up? The old folks had always warned us. Sometimes sleep can kill. In the Filipino Culture, sleep at times is feared.

The Scariest Places in the Philippines

Since a lot of Filipinos had outgrown the fear for the mythological beings of the Philippines, what replaced it is fear of ghosts and hauntings. We now have a tendency to believe that supernatural events that happen are caused by ghosts or some spirits. There might be isolated experiences in some places, but there are many who claim hauntings are stronger in some places.

We Pinoys like being scared. Somehow it becomes entertainment, something that we can talk about. Especially on times like these. Times when it is believed that spirits are let loose on earth. When that happens, not everyone would want to be in one of these places.

Ghouls - Corpse Eating Aswang

Death is something that we fear. To many, death is a source of pain and loss but there are some who grow more excited as death nears. They aren't the tyrants or the mass murderers of the country. What I'm talking about are the guys who feast when someone dies. Literally feast when someone dies. They feast on the dead. They are known by a lot of names like segben, buso, kagkag, balbal and others, but they are still popularly known as aswangs, only these feeds on corpses.

They are said to look like ordinary men and women when they are not invisible, although their nails are curved and they smell rotten bad. When a person is about to pass away, they are said to be near. These type of aswang senses the sweet smell of ripe langka from the dying. The nearer to death, the stronger the sweeter and stronger the smell.

Tikbalang - The Pinoy Man-Horse

To many Pinoys, the mere looks of a tikbalang is very terrifying. Imagine meeting a tall, well-built man with the head of a horse and horrible teeth. Maybe the teeth went bad because of smoking all those cigars. Even I find it really creepy and the thought of encountering one is frightening. It is said that the creature's legs are extremely long when it sits, the knees levels with the head. Inspite of its scary description, the tikbalang is never violent. Meeting one spells out only two things, the creature's submission to you or the creature making you lost.

Beware when you are traveling, never get separated from a group. Even as a group, the tikbalang may still make you lose your way. The way they do it, they exhaust and confuse the traveler. It has also been told that the creature sometimes kidnaps children and keep them deep in the forest. For what purpose, I cannot say. One thing for sure, they won't be eating those kids.