We took a ghost tour with the International Society for Paranormal Research.  It took place in what is coined as “actively haunted properties.”  Yes, we do have passive haunted properties, which are just residual energies   We got to the Gray Line station around 7:30 PM 9a bit early for an 8 PM departure. 

I am not sure how nervous everyone was.  I guess the nervousness may be directly proportional to their believe.  I just see it as an adult haunted house amusement ride.  No, that is not an ipod in the picture.  it is a digital thermometer.

Here we are at the front of the haunted house, which is situated in a project area.   In the 1980s to the 1990s this was an area where over 700 people were murdered just four houses away.  We had a police officer waiting for us to escort us to the house.  He stayed there to protect us from physical harm. 

This is an eerie place.  There are a lot of empty buildings - but, you can see the incomplete rebuilding efforts.  This house has been for sale for a very long time.  It is own by a Swiss man.

After about 20 minutes of information on ghost and what our guide did and what the participants experience have been, we went in to the haunted house.  There is no power and heat.  From what we can see, there were also no neighbours.  The group was made up of about 22 people.  There were a large number of participants who believe they have had an encounter with a ghost.

These are the tools of the trade - electro-magnetic reader, temperature gauge and a divining rod   Here we are checking out the readings.  At this time the electro-magnetic reader has shot up to 10 from a 5.5 reading.  There is something here.  Well, that's what our equipment was telling us.  So, the next step is to use the divining rod (I think there is a PROPER name for this).  You hold the rods levelled and than you ask questions like "Is there someone here?  If there is can you please move the rod?" 

Here is Monica divining and I think it did move once.  We tried to get further response and Nada.  After about five minutes, we decided to move on. 

This is a picture of the main floor of the building.  The toilet is to the right at the end of the room.  While the electronics were telling us there was something in there, we did not have much like with the rods moving.  BUT, we found another magnetic anamoly right on the little brown heater box sticking up on the ground.  The electro-magnetic moved to 4 and the temperature was changing.  This time the rods moved when we asked if there was someone here.   Than, we asked if it was a female or male and it was a female.  Than we asked if it was an adult or a child and it was a child.  Wow, a female child ghost!  Folks, the problem here is that we are not sure if the rod is moving because of the person holding it or because it was the ghost.  It does not need much to move the rod - a slight tilting and viola! the rod is moving

A ghost finally?  No.  The lady up the stairs was our guide.  We were restless and were eager to check the upstairs.  The guide, who is a psychic, was probably avoiding our group as we were not taking this seriously - we were cracking jokes and making fun of the ghost. 

It's here.  We were getting readings from our electro-magnetic equipment and temperature was fluxtuatung by a couple degrees.  We were all looking for the active spot.

It is not as bright as the picture would have you believe - it's the camera's flash.  The anamoly is in the middle of the circle form by our group.  We are asking questions and the divining rod was not responding.  We are just a bunch of jokers and the entity cannot be bothered with us or we are just to dense to notice or connect

Michele takes things into her own hands literally.  We tried again to get something going but no takers from the entities.  This was getting really boring.

Yours truly also annoyed somewhat with the lack of contact took the divining rod to try out.  Our guide came up to check on us as I just happen to have these rods in my hands - the first or second time this evening.  My duties was ask questions when the group detect anamoly.  But, the evening was almost over. 

As I held the rod when our guide came in, she asked questions of the entity.  Yours truly could not believe his eyes.  The rods moved towards each other as I held it as stationary as possible.  Hell, I even tried to compensate because I thought I caused it to move.  I could feel a very very light pull on the rod as they moved toward each other.  Wow.  It moved a couple more times and every time when our guide asked the questions.  OK.  it could be me.  I don't really know.  But it was weird that it moved as soon as our guide started to ask questions.  Yours truly may well have a paranormal experience. 

At the end of our ghost expedition, we were debriefed.  Our guide had not told us what to expect and wanted us to find out what was going on.  She said that there were many entities in the house.  Essentially there were so many anything we say would be true.  See the couple on the left of the picture?  The woman took a picture when we first entered the house and got a creaky picture.  She ask our guide and I took a look at it and than proceeded to explain it away.  I explained to our guide that it was the slow flash that captured a reddish blurry face floating in the air with out a body.  I said the flash should have captured everyone but there was no one there beside the face.  And than on our way back, I asked to see it again.  Than, I saw the others standing in the room and what I saw the first time was a zoom.  If everyone is clear with the flash than a disembodied face is highly unlikely.  Now this is a really thing.  I asked her to email it to me.  When I get it, I will post it for your enjoyment.

For a unique experience, I highly recommend this ghost expedition.  It was a lot of fun and truly a memorable event.  We have the best group and we did laughed a lot.  Is the place haunted?  You check it out

Gala Beach Resort

I went to Gala Beach Resort with my family (one boy 7 years old and a 2.5 years old girl) Dec 12 to Dec 19, 2004.  In general, everything I have read is true.  I will sum it up like this:

1. The beach is great and the hotel is the last on the hotel strip outside of Playa Del Carmen.  You get to walk for a couple of miles south without any hotels.  If you go north on the beach, you can walk all the way to Playa Del Carmen.   

2. The resort is a lot smaller than the ones we typically go to.  The good thing about being small is that everything is centrally located and it is a short walk from room to pool or restaurants.  The kids club is within a 5 minute walk from our hotel room. 

3. The amenities are also great.  You can get free boogie boards for use at the beach.  Extra pillows are delivered promptly within 10 minutes.  There are lots of hammocks on the beach.  There is sailing available also.  The best is the free bike use where you can ride to Playa Del Carmen.  BTW, the bike path is on the other side of the road from the hotel.

4. Internet access is poor.  There is an Internet service that opens at 10 AM and closes at 2 PM.  It opens again at 3 PM to 8 PM.  On weekends, the hours are even shorter as they close at 3 PM.  You can get dial up Internet access from the hotel to your room at US$30 per day compared to the US$2.50 for 15 minutes.  They have only 4 PCs.  But, you can connect your own notebook at the same price.

5. The food is below par.  We traveled exclusively all-inclusive.  So, we are well qualified to critique the food.  Yes, there is a lot of fresh juice.  There are omelets, pancakes, and waffles stations.  But, that’s about it for breakfast.  For lunch, I would go to the Beach restaurant where you can get grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.  For dinner, the best bet is the main buffet.  We did hear of a family getting sick on Wednesday while the other half that when to town was fine.  We did not get sick on the food.  The Italian and Mexican restaurants are fine.  The seafood is your best bet.  In our opinion, the best food for all-inclusive was Beaches Turks & Caicos.  But, the cost is twice as much as Gala.  So, be happy with what you get and if you do not like it go to Playa Del Carmen for a US$4 taxi ride.  The burger at Johnny Rocket is great.  Carlos & Charlie are known for their ribs.

6. If you can afford it, up grade to the Royal Club for US$70 a night.  You get a beach view room with a part of the beach allocated for Royal Club members only.  This area is heavily guarded, which gives us a bit of comfort as we have digital cameras (take pictures of those fleeting but memorable moments), walkie talkies (for parents to keep in contact with each other), money (tipping the hard working waitress getting you cool drinks  on the beach) and other valuable stuff (floaties, sand toys and suntan oil) with us when we go to the beach.  We never lost anything the time we were there.  I have left my fins there all day when we when for lunch and an afternoon nap.  There are also a lot of other benefits.  We have a 7:30 PM flight back and they gave us a late checkout at 2 PM.  The late checkout was absolutely worth the upgrade because it made the day so much easier to manage.  We were at the beach till 1 PM.  We showered and finished packing by 2 PM.  We have lunch and the bus was there at 3 PM to take us to the airport.  That was very helpful as gave us a couple more of prime time hours. 

7. Yes, there is very little to do in the evening.  But, it’s only a 40 pesos taxi ride to town and there is a lot happening there.  While we think Barceló Maya is the best hotel in this area (Maya Riviera), it is a 40 minute taxi ride to Playa Del Carmen as it is more south from here.  We were at the RIU Palace last year (Just a 10 minute walk north from the Gala) and we do not recommend that resort for families with kids. 

8. The kids club has been talked about a lot in the tripadvisors reviews.  Yes, the kids club is a magnet for kids because there are a lot kids there.  Like many of the parents, there is a sense of guilt leaving your child there all day.  For the first two days that was what our son wanted.  Luckily, the last two days he wanted to be with us.  My view is that kids attract kids.  And if there are a lot of kids, than that is where your kids want to be.  The program is good.  There are parts where they watch movies and play Xbox, which we think are bad for the kids.  In general, it is a lot better that what we have experienced.  It may be one of the best (better than Beaches, which is the flag ship of family all-inclusive) kids program.  The Barceló Maya is also good. 

9. Outside activities to consider is a trip to Xel-Ha especially if this is your first time.  It is the world biggest aquarium.  You get an inner tube and float down the river populated with a lot of fishes.  There are cliffs to jump off and ropes to traverse across rivers.  But, there are a huge variety of choices such as an ATV outing, speed boating around a river and a ton of ancient Mayan sites to visit. 

10. All in all, it is a great resort for families with young kids.  The food is the only shortfall but you won’t die from starvation.  As we were leaving, the resort was gearing up for the Christmas and we noted the food did pick up a notch.  After all, the Christmas guest are paying a lot more