Travel Ghost Story: A Horror Tale Of My First Night In Tbilisi

Adventure is that one thing which we all seek from our travels and anticipate indulging the adventure in every single day of our trips to make it a memorable one. However, sometimes, our travels give us adventures which we really not look forward to or perhaps they just fail to make a pleasant memory. Something similar happened to me during my visit to Georgia. I was encountered with an unwanted, unanticipated adventure on my very first night in Tbilisi, remembering which to date sends shivers down my spine.

I am sharing with you my travel ghost story, a story rather a reality which I never want to live again. I will tell a little backstory too to give you an understanding of the different unpleasant experiences I encountered that night. It might help you to decide whether there was actually some supernatural being that night with me or was I just hallucinating – because to date I am not able to explain to myself what exactly it was…

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So, here is my travel ghost story – the first ever paranormal experience of my life, which I encountered during my very first night in Tbilisi.

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A little of a back story…

Early morning flights are never my thing and annoyed with quite a travel day ahead – a grumpy me is handover with wrong boarding passes, which thankfully I noticed were not correct before walking that long never-ending walk to the immigration counter. Thinking about the coffee which I am going to have as soon as I pass the immigration, my short-lived happiness suddenly comes to a halt. “Mam, you have traffic fines on your name and you have to clear it before flying out of the country”. Ugh! This is completely contrary to what I was thinking a few seconds ago, here I am paying more than expected traffic fines still at the immigration counter.

Now I have to make my way run to my coffee and to my flight because the unpleasant morning surprises have already taken a lot of my time. Thankfully, Sree (my best friend and travel partner) already got my coffee and like that we are finally on board. Just a short hot minute into the journey, my right eye is now feeling some kind of burn and irritation. And another short hot minute later, my right eye is all red. I am confused at this point, am I crying or it’s just my eye which is discharging? Eye infection on a much-anticipated trip, wow girl, what made you deserve that?!

I am still not over on how on earth I am going to see Georgia with just one eye, which already looks so beautiful from the runway. At least stepping into a new country is able to give me some sort of happiness, but just like before, my happiness again turns out to be short-lived. “You’re from Pakistan? Please get to the side for further inquiry.” Hearing to these words from the Georgian immigration officer – I am affirmative that this is going to be my worst nightmare!

Sree just got his immigration done (he has an Indian passport – a little more privileged than a Pakistani one), and I am still here, waiting to be interrogated, with two lovely families who are also being made to stand with me for “further inquiry”. Curious to know what made them also look suspicious like me, I am trying to roll my eyes to see their passports. And there it is! The lady is holding four Egyptian passports for herself, her husband and two wonderful harmless-looking kids.

Here comes a tall, bald, grumpy man – double in size than me, not speaking a word and just pointing towards my passport. “Why the hell he is just turning the pages of my passport”, I am thinking and just like that, the “further investigation” is done and I am free to enter Georgia! Yay, finally I made it to Georgia officially without being deported!

“Passport privilege is a real deal, people – and being a woman of color with a weak passport, I have faced this discrimination a lot of times at the immigration”.

For more about this issue, read my post on Traveling As A Women of Color

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Now we are on our way to the touristy Rustaveli Avenue in the heart of Tbilisi. I have booked this cute vintage looking hostel, which does look great in the pictures I saw online. Excited by now and seeing a little bit of the beautiful Tbilisi from just one eye – we are now standing in front of what looks like an old residential building without any mention of the hostel anywhere on it. “Are we at the right place?” while I and Sree are still trying to figure out where the hostel is – our lovely guide Erik makes his way inside the building and is confirming now that there is a small homestay apparently, which will be our home in Tbilisi.

That building right there is giving me some strange vibes for many unknown reasons. The apartment is on the third floor and we are struggling to carry our heavy suitcases on the never-ending dark staircase. Suddenly, out of nowhere this bulb on the rusty dirty wall lights up. “Oh, it’s a sensor bulb, don’t get scared”, said Erik, while I was there almost sweating and mildly freaking out from the creepy vibes that strange place is giving me.

Grasping our breaths, we are finally greeted by a lovely lady, who doesn’t speak any English but looks very welcoming and warm. “Is this really the hostel you booked?”, Sree is inquiring, while I am still confused about what went wrong with the booking and how the hell we end up in this creepy old rusted building with practically no human in sight except me, Sree and the house owner. “I already had a long day, please let me rest”, I said to Sree – managing our luggage and thinking how am I going to look in all my vacay pictures with an infected eye. Sigh!

A little about the homestay/hostel/haunted house

The apartment looks like straight outta 60s English movie sets. The house has a wooden floor with high ceiling and grand looking doors for the rooms almost as high as the ceiling. The sweet-looking lady of the house had this beautiful huge vintage piano apparently owned by her Grandparents sitting lonely in the main hall as if waiting for someone to play it. Strangely, the house has these portraits of women from the Victorian era on every wall, which adds more to the overall creepiness.

To brush off all the rough encounters of the day and also to lighten up my not-so-great mood, Sree has somehow talked me into a walk across the block and boy, I am not regretting it! Rustaveli Avenue is so beautiful and lively at this hour of the night. You can imagine how great that place is when I am approving it after seeing it just with one eye!

Also Read: A Photo Tour of Things To Do In Tbilisi

“Ah! Finally, this day has come to an end”, I said to Sree while walking into the dark, empty and borderline creepy narrow street to our creepier home for the night. Little did I know what was or perhaps who was waiting for me in the apartment that night? Climbing the stairs to the apartment, I am cursing the sensor lights, which light up as we walk past them and BANG its freaking dark again! Surprisingly, I and Sree have still not seen a single human in the entire building yet… quite fishy, right?

Finally calling it a day (it was really quite a day), I said goodnight to Sree who is still watching videos on his phone without headphones on – screw you Sree! Fighting with the pain in my right eye I am falling asleep quicker than I expected and really looking forward to the first full day of touring Tbilisi.

It is always difficult for me to get a comfortable sleep on the very first night of sleeping at a new place. Feeling uneasy, I am suddenly awakened as if someone forced me to wakeup pushing me against the bed. “What the hell is happening”, saying to myself I rubbed my eyes, looked at Sree if this is any of his annoying pranks but well he seems to be sound asleep. ‘I am sick and I had a long day’, saying this, I am convincing myself to fall asleep again and boy, I succeeded in that and how!

Not exactly into the deep sleep – I am again forced awaken and this time I really feel the aggression. Now I am super annoyed and definitely not convinced to sleep again unless I find what is actually happening around me. I am supremely freaking out, shocked and scared holding my phone in my hand now. The time on my phone shows 03:00 AM! It was really EXACTLY 03:00 AM in the night and Hollywood taught me that the evil powers are the strongest at this time of the night. (No, I promise I am not exaggerating and I didn’t watch The Conjuring before falling asleep).

Looking around finding absolutely no one else in the room, plus the sight of Sree sleeping peacefully while I am being forced awake at 3 AM in the night has given me enough annoyance, by this time. Brushing it off again, I am one more time trying to somehow get my much-interrupted sleep back – a little scared, yes, I won’t lie but hey, it’s a new place, a new bed so maybe that’s why I am having troubles falling asleep. I don’t recall for how long I did actually sleep but the next thing I remember is slightly opening my eyes to change sides and I saw something or perhaps someone sitting at the edge of my bed who just flew away towards the room’s exit the moment I saw it.

Though I am still not completely awake – I am certain of what I saw. A black shadow or a figure, which looks like an average height person with no face or hands but it did have a human-like figure. The moment I opened my eyes, the very same moment it flew away out of the room.

I am sitting on the bed, scared to death, looking around, struggling to recall what I just saw. Was it a dream or I did actually saw a ghost? I questioned myself. I can feel the fear engulfing my body which has by this time started to shiver. No, there was certainly something sitting at the edge of my bed, my brain is telling me on repeat. I am feeling a weird sense of numbness, not knowing what to do and for some very strange reason, I am not waking up Sree who is sleeping just a foot away from my bed.

Gearing up some courage, I bend down to check my phone from the table. It is only 03:20 AM; there is a long night still ahead of me. I chose to sit right there on the bed, still and numb, while my brain struggles to think what the hell am I supposed to do now? The very next thing I am doing is typing on Google, ‘Sunrise in Tbilisi today’. Yes, I cannot bear that dark night anymore, I need light, I want the next day to start so I can see life again in the dark, creepy and now I am pretty evident haunted house and the street outside my window.

Covering my face in the blanket, then peeking out of it to see if anyone is around – I don’t remember how I spent time waiting for the sunrise. And finally, my very long wait came to an end. I can see the light of the sun coming from behind this beautiful mountain right from my balcony. A little while later, I can hear some cars passing on the nearby main road. And a little more lately, I can now see kids going to school. “Thank God it’s the morning and I have survived that night”, I said to myself while getting all comfy in my bed and for a change not shivering with fear but smiling this time.

Next Morning, The Horror Continues…

A couple of hours later, my wake up alarm is ringing and I am up again to start a brand new day in Tbilisi. And what about Sree you might think? Well, guess what? He is still sleeping while I had an adventure of its own the entire night, this guy right here is still sleeping! After somehow waking him up, I am sitting alone in that same room where I apparently had a ghost encounter some hours ago. I chose to have some time by myself and walk towards the tiny yet very cute balcony in our room which has doors that opens inside the room.

Trying hard to forget whatever happened the last night, I pulled the balcony doors and took that first step in the balcony and BANG! A tenth of a second later, I am shaken from head to toe, standing still and clueless in the balcony. The very moment I stepped in the balcony, the door which was pulled inside the room somehow was being shut with such a great force behind me that all my hair flew in the air and my body is shaken to death!

Not thinking much about anything, I pushed the door to open it in panic and run all the way to the main hall. Sitting there I am thinking how on earth can the door be shut from behind where there is no means of wind to pass – that too with such great force that would shut the door behind me? It is not even slightly windy outside. I tried to put up all kinds of scientific reasonings, trying hard to convince myself that the incident was not supernatural, but alas, I failed. I failed to prove it to myself because the truth is – there is no source of air that would make the doors pushed towards outside from inside of the room.

“Holy sh*t! This place is legit haunted”, fearfully I narrated all the incidents to Sree who thankfully calmly listened to me and tried his best to relax me. The next thing we are doing is packing our bags and bidding adieu to the weird, creepy apartment because my no means I can stand spending another minute after the series of incidents that happened to me. And even after leaving, we never saw any other signs of human life in that building. Surprisingly, only I am encountered with all the haunted encounters and not for once did Sree feel anything unusual. The ghost really did hate me for some reason…

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Parting Thoughts…

To this very day, whenever I think about that night and all the incidents which happened with me, my mind forces me to believe it was all due to my sickness and the preceding unpleasant events I faced since the very start of my trip, which definitely took a toll on my mental health, at least that day. However, I also think that I wasn’t sick enough to hallucinate and I cannot find one good enough reason to prove that scary balcony incident. That loud banging sound of the door being shut right behind me forces my heart to believe it wasn’t natural. It felt like something was mad at me, it wanted me to leave that place. But why only me?

Well, I guess I am never going to get a conclusion or an explanation for all the incidents that happened with me that night and the next morning – what do you think of this travel ghost story? Let me know your thoughts or logical reasoning which would help me to understand what exactly happened with me on my first night in Tbilisi.

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