Thursday, July 16, 2009

Camping Stories: The Doppelganger

The forest is indeed a mythical place; home to the flora and fauna and also the source of many myths, legends, and amazing stories waiting to be told.

It is a sacred place to be honored and respected; and I have shared the Do's and Don'ts in the forest to avoid any misconduct of behavior which could land us in trouble when we are there.

As a sequel, I would like to share some stories from the camp which I have heard from some of my friends who are great fans of camping and most of these happened during the school days......those good old days...
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This story happened in one of the camping grounds near Rawang; a place which was pretty popular among the scouts in my school.
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They were all camping as usual on the site; and then split into groups for activities.
One of them led the group; and then they started on their task and trekked through the forest.
It was some time, and they were panting from the strenous journey.
Their leader was far ahead of them and they were trying their best to catch up.

They then saw their leader on the opposite of the river and scratched their heads as they thought he was right ahead of them.
They saw him; and was surprised how he managed to get to the other side so soon. As they tried to catch up, they bumped into their leader who was staring at them at the front of the line.

They were once again surprised, they just saw him across the river, how did he get back to this side of the river so soon?
As they threw him the question, he puzzled them further with his answer
"I was all the while here; I never got to the other side of the river. Besides, it is still a long way to find the way to cross the river. From here to the opposite side, it is almost impossible to even wade across, so how could I possibly be there when you saw me?"

Thinking it was probably an illusion, they didn't say anything although each had an uneasy feeling at that time.

On a separate occasion, another girl scout is involved this time.
They have woken up from their sleep the previous night and went down to the river to freshen themselves up and to enjoy the feeling of cool water on their faces.
As they made their way down to the bank, they noticed one of the girls was already there and she had her back towards them but they could make out her size and outfit.
They called her loudly and jokingly, they reprimanded her for coming out alone so early and did not even invite them.
There was no reply from her and as they were busy cleaning themselves up, they ignored her.
When everyone was done cleansing themselves, they noticed that the girl was gone and was surprised, how could she leave so quickly and so silently; under everyone's noses?
She had to somehow make it through them to get back to the campsite.
They felt that it was really odd; and made their way back to the site to check on her.

As they approached the campsite, they saw her getting out of the tent and marching towards her, they reprimanded her once again
"Hey, so arrogant ar you, down by the river. You've already gone on your own and don't even invite us, and then when we called you, you didn't even bother to acknowledge us. Then you just came back here on your own...how did you manage to do it without anyone of us noticing you ar?"

The girl looked genuinely puzzled and her answer freaked them out, "I just woke up from my sleep, I thought I was late this morning. I have not even gone down to the river, I just came out of the tent. How could it be you guys saw me down at the stream then?"

The group was seriously freaked and all could have sworn that they saw her; just like how the other group saw the guy across the river.

What is the explanation behind this?
Is there a doppelganger at work; and how did they attract a doppelganger?

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