I had always imagined that it would sound different. Never had I thought that it would sound like the quaking of a duck or droning (hmm, is this the right word?) of a goose. When I found out, it really freaked me out. I think if it were you, you would too.

It all started during our holidays, the first night at Awana, Genting. We returned to our room very late and all of us were just exhausted. Our room was located away from the Tower block. I was nursing my youngest one and naturally, fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night. The curtain at the balcony was not drawn so I could see it was very dark outside. I felt as if I had slept for a long time. I looked at the clock on my handphone - 12.59. The night was quiet and then I heard that sound. I was sleeping closest to the bathroom, it sounded as if it came from the dressing table next to me. It was a monotonous tone some sort like a sound of a bird or duck - I couldn't quite figure.

I shook my DH to wake him up. The sound was rather loud. I assumed that he had heard it too. So when groggily he said, it was the sound of a lizard. I did not think much of it. But I thought I knew how a lizard sounds and if it was really a lizard, it must have been quite a huge one! I did remember feeling kind of creepy and scared and I moved closer to him. I thought how ridiculous can I get, feeling afraid over a sound a lizard makes.

When I returned to Singapore, that episode was quite forgotten. It was one day last week, my friend who just came back from Port Dickson, told me a story that caused my hair to stand. She stayed at Tiara Beach Port Dickson, and she said that she would not dare recommend anyone there. Although, it was said to be newly built, it looked very run down. There were many flies and ants in the area although she claimed that she did not see any rubbish.

When she entered her room, she was greeted by a mild unpleasant smell, like some leftovers that have gone bad. The family called the maintenance staff and they came to take a look but nothing came out of it. Anyway, her family decided to keep the trip to PD short and stayed only a night at that place, before moving on to Melaka.

After they left, her brother-in-law told the rest of the members that it was a good decision to leave Tiara Beach early. He said that there was a pontianak (aka Cik Pon) at that place. At this point of the story, I remembered laughing at her and said how can he be so sure. Did he actually hear it? I would soon discover something that made my skin crawl!

She said yes that her brother-in-law heard the night creature. Curious, I asked whether it was a high-pitched laughter like they always picture in movies. She said no, that's not how a Cik Pon sounded like...it's like a quaking of a duck, rather monotonous something like Kek, kek, kek, kek.....My eyes and ears almost popped out! Could this be true? I said to her, that was the exact sound that I heard at Awana, the sound was so close to my ears!

It took days for me to accept that it was what it was that I heard. My mom had heard it too way back in the 1980s when we went to Langkawi, when it just opened its doors to tourism. I told her the story and she affirmed that the sound I heard was what I dread it was. My maid also said that the sound of a Cik Pon is not like how they make it to be in movies. It is a common thing in her kampong, back in Indonesia to sometimes hear Cik Pon. My sis-in-law also heard the same sound in Thailand. It was also in the middle of the night. The next day, they asked the staff whether there were ducks or birds that made that kind of sound and were told of what it could really be.

At the time, I heard the sound. I didn't know what it was. I scanned the room for signs of birds or animals that could have entered our room. On Saturday night, we were still talking about that incident that happened the night of 20th June 2005 at Awana Genting. What a discovery! Only now, DH knew that the sound that he heard at our stay in Strawberry Park, Cameron Highlands in 2002 was not a bird with a big beak but that of the Creature of the Night.