"She was a tragic beauty. Sadness had left its fingerprint all over the face."

-John Mark Green-

Gone are my smiles when I found myself stepping to the stairs of the abandoned Gold House built on top of the highlands of San Miguel. I have passed this huge four-story house quite a few times and ended up marveling at its shining exterior and taking a picture of myself with this unique architecture as my background.

From afar it looked like a house of a rich Chinese man because of its roofing style and design and its color variation. The house stood out among the houses in the locality for its grand beauty and exquisite look. Yet this facade beauty is hiding a sad eerie story inside. It was abandoned long before it was finished! Since then, creepy and haunting stories slowly spread throughout the whole town.

STRIKING YET EERIE

Not old, but abandoned young. It was not so long ago that this house, owned by an Arab businessman who married a Filipina from the quiet and remote Barangay of the town of San Remegio, Cebu was constructed. According to the young man I asked, the house was built around 2010 and his father worked as one of the carpenters. The Arab-Filipina couple come and go abroad for their business while the construction of the house was ongoing. To cut the long story short, unexpectedly the Arab died that led at the top of the construction and a few years later the wife also died. Since then the house was abandoned and left unfinished.

The metal Gold-plated gate and the not-so-old doorknob.

I uttered a prayer when the caretaker inserted the keys to the elegant lock. . .silence. . .click! I've been hearing stories of ghosts lurking around this abandoned house (some said it's the owner, hoohoo) but for "the sake" of my blog content this time, haha! Damn Yes! (Kidding). I swallowed my fear and pretended to be very brave as the caretaker opened the door to us. Anyways I conditioned myself already to run as fast as I could going to the exit door whenever I hear and see creepy activities inside. (Shaking)

My toes curled for both fear and excitement about what was behind this majestic door. Shall I witness a shining or a broken house inside? A bare house? Or what? For sure there are plenty of cab webs everywhere! Let's see!

Open Sesame!

and,

This broken watch hanging on the ceiling was the first thing I noticed when we entered the house.

There were only a few parts of the house that were dilapidated on the first floor. Mostly, the ceilings were broken and the electrical wirings.

The smell of dust greeted us as we entered the first floor of the house. It felt creepy at first but thankfully I have a bubbly company that keeps throwing jokes for us to forget the haunting tales and focused on the intriguing beauty of this abandoned house. I think ghosts don't show in a broad daylight too! Or who knows it's just a tale to protect this house from invaders! More positive mindset and I am good to tour around the whole house!

The house looked warm because of its vibrant color! Everything looked like Gold: the stairs, the floors, the designs, the ceilings,and the pillars. Everything is shining like Gold. We saw some appliances and furniture around. The caretaker said, someone had tried renting the place before (only the first floor) but the tenant left when they noticed some paranormal activities in the house, especially at night. But looking at the lively color of the house, there's no way a ghost will dwell in this bright space! (Well, maybe except at night time.)

We looked around and saw a unique telephone, a hanging frame that looked like a cute carpet with strange designs on it (there were few of these around the house), a wooden stand clock and gold pillars and stairs, some kind of oven, and mattresses. I can still feel how scared I was to touch anything to check the details.

This telephone caught my attention. I don't know if it's antique but it looked like one! I wanted to check if it was heavy but in the end, I choose not to touch it!

This part of the first floor is where cabinets and books, some clothes, and toys were stacked.

We then proceed to the second floor to check what other things we will discover. We were lucky that we were given a chance to explore the abandoned house. The relative of the owner of the house closed its door and not allowed anyone to enter. Thanks to my sister's friend's connection to the caretaker, here we are, exploring the abandoned house!

Second floor.

The golden stairs. The stairs were full of dirt and has a lot of unused and broken tiles on its side.

So this is where Santa secretly hides when it is not Christmas yet? The second floor looks messier and dirtier with boxes full of papers and clothes. There were two big rooms on the second floor with one toilet. We didn't bother opening the rooms and we only explore the open space which I think it's supposed to be a living room.

Down on the floor were hundreds of unopened decorations for the house. There were tiny gold statues, lamps and lights, chandeliers, and an accessory box. The caretaker said they posted the items for sale on Facebook but nobody tried to ask and purchase them even though they already sell them for a cheap price.

Open the window and you'll see the beautiful landscape view of the mountains. The second floor has an extended Veranda at the back part of the house. The open terrace could have been the owner's spot for relaxation, drinking coffee while watching the sunrise. But now the veranda is slowly reclaimed by nature. Some plants and vines started to grow and dominate the place.

THIRD FLOOR.

We hardly see the stairs, or where to step on as we climbed up to the third floor. The stairs are covered with soil and broken twigs and the dirt of the birds. The wooden baluster was also full of cab webs. This is the top floor yet this floor smelled like warm earth compared to the lower floors.

The ceilings became the bird's home and shelter and it was full of dirt dripping down the walls.

The ceiling outside was all dilapidated caused of Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. But still, the third floor looked stunning on the outside because of its Gold walls and pillars.

I see Universe in this grand ceiling on the third floor.

The main highlight is on the third floor. Seemed the place is for an entertainment area or a place reserved for the king. There are also rooms on the third floor that we didn't explore (off limits). Other than that the whole third floor is bare and flat.

We stayed a couple of minutes only and then we decided to go down. Though we didn't see any paranormal sights we all knew that we were not comfortable in the place!

There's one floor left that we hadn't explored, the basement. The caretaker frankly told us that we could not go down. The place is dangerous as snakes and other animals were living below. He didn't try going down either.

During the whole tour, I felt creepy because of the smell, the ambiance, and its story in my head but I couldn't help to feel pity and sorry for the owners. They have spent a huge amount of their money to build this beautiful majestic house not knowing they only have a few years to live. They were not able to enjoy their life in their supposed-to-be home, worse the house they built was left unfinished and abandoned.