SAVANNAH, a city in the state of Georgia in the United States, is a place that embodies Southern hospitality. Stop by a tourist information booth to ask for directions and, before long, the avuncular gentleman behind the counter will be showing you photos of his beach house in nearby Tybee Island.
Ask the hotel concierge about city tours and she will go out of her way to ensure you book the right tour; in addition, she will rave about her favourite places to eat in town.
However, while the people in Savannah, with their effusive warmth, are certainly a draw, some of the city's more well-known attractions are not the living but the dead.
Popularly known as the most haunted city in the United States, Savannah can be considered the playground of those belonging to the other world.
Two yellow-fever epidemics, hurricanes, fires and fierce battles during the American Revolution resulted in makeshift graves all over the city, most of which may never have been exhumed. It is estimated that the historic section of Savannah alone may be built over as many as 9,000 graves.
As a historic port-city, the settlement has seen motley characters, ranging from voodooists and slaves to colonialists, traders and pirates. Before the official founding of the city in 1773, the area was known to Native Americans as a burial ground.
These factors work together to ensure that the city is a backdrop to a host of supernatural activities. Hence, a trip to Savannah wouldn't be completewithout going on a ghost tour, with many operators offering options on foot, in a horse-drawn carriage or even in a hearse.
I choose to take a trolley-bus ghost tour. Before starting, the guide passes around a photo album with pictures taken in The Pirates' House, a restaurant that is one of our stops. Each picture has white translucent circles,which the guide claims are orbs, or energy manifestations of spirits.
I attribute the orbs to dirty lenses or reflections from the camera flash - I am not a believer. Surely, everything can be explained scientifically.
Telfair Musuem of Art
One of the first stops is the Telfair Museum of Art, the oldest art museum in the South. Former owner Mary Telfair bequeathed her family home to the Georgia Historical Society to be used as a museum when she died in 1875. In her will, she specified that the museum would have "no eating, drinking, smoking, or amusements of any kind".
About a hundred years after her death, the rules were gradually relaxed. One evening, the museum was hosting a reception on the lawn when a sudden storm came up. There was no choice but to move the reception inside.
As the guests started to eat, the storm intensified, thunder boomed and the lights started to flicker.According to an account by a guest, "a gust of wind blew through the building, a window rattled, a glass fell and broke, and mysterious voices were heard".
Now, all receptions are confined to the new annex, which is apparently not covered under Mary's prohibitions.
Juliette Low birthplace
ANOTHER stop is the Juliette Low Birthplace (10 East Oglethorpe Avenue), which is now a house museum. It marks the place where the founder of the Girl Scout movement was born.
There is a touching story behind the house - that of the love between Low's parents, General William and Nellie Gordon. They were deeply in love and when he died in 1912, she was devastated.
Nellie died a few years later in her bedroom on Feb 22, 1917, with her children around her. Her daughter-in-law Margaret was resting in the next room when, to her shock, she saw General William coming out of his wife's bedroom. He walked down the front stairs and was gone.
A few minutes later, Margaret's husband came and told her that his mother had died. At the moment of her death, her face had taken on the radiance of a bride going to meet her bridegroom.
Together, Margaret and her husband walked down the stairs, where they found the family butler with tears streaming down his face. He, too, had seen the general walk down the stairs and out the front door, looking happier than he ever had.
Pirates' past: An actor in costume entertains guests at The Pirates' House restaurant
The butler said: "I thought you might like to know, the general came to fetch her himself." However, it seems, the general may not have taken Nellie completely away. Today, there have been sightings of her still walking around the old Gordon home.
The home's maintenance man claimed he frequently caught glimpses of her sitting at the breakfast table when he arrived early in the morning. The faint sounds of a piano, which Nellie loved and played, have been reported as well.
Pirates' House
MY TOUR approaches the highlight of the night - The Pirates' House (20 East Broad Street). It dates back to 1753, when it was a tavern-inn frequented by pirates and rogue seamen. A wooden two-storey building with shutters painted a faint blue, a colour believed by voodooists to keep evil away, it is now a popular family restaurant-pub.
My tour group is led into the main dining area and through a maze of dark and narrow corridors to reach the many private dining rooms at the back. The private rooms are small and dimly lit, and retain the original hand-hewn ceilings and dark, heavy beams. On another occasion, you would call the rooms cosy or quaint, except that with the thought of these rooms being haunted, eerie becomes the word of choice.
My guide recounts a time when she stepped into one of the rooms and suddenly felt violently ill. Besides the strong urge to throw up, she also felt the room spinning. She left the room and recovered.
Guests have also reported seeing a man in a pirate's get-up walking around. Thinking that he was an actor hired by the restaurant, the guests asked the maitre'd to bring the man back, only to find out that there wasn't an actor on duty that night.
The tour culminates with a trip to an underground rum cellar. It is said that bloodthirsty pirates and evil sea captains regularly drugged young men or got them drunk in order to kidnap them for slave labour on board their vessels.
The Pirates' House restaurant
The knocked-out men were then dragged down to the cellar and through a secret tunnel which led to the river. To prevent trouble, anyone who woke up in the cellar was killed on the spot. The small cellar is dark and dank. Pieces of rock and debris litter the dirt floor, and centuries of plaster and paint have been chipped off the worn-out brick walls. The air is chilly and I shudder, imagining the young men who met their ends in such dire circumstances.
My nerves are already on edge from having heard so many ghost stories, and the sound of diners scraping their chairs above the cellar and the thump of waiters' footsteps make me very jumpy.
"I bring people here every night and very seldom do people not get any orbs in their photos," says the tour guide. I set about taking photos, curious to see what will turn up.
And suddenly, I see them. Hundreds of orbs flooding the photos I just took, big ones, small ones, some more distinct, some less, overlapping orbs making a smoky white screen.
The thought that I am surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands, of spirits makes my heart skip a beat. I hesitate a split second, then scramble out of the cellar quickly, nearly tripping on the steep stone steps.
After going back to my hotel room and thinking about it, my rational side takes over. Maybe those orbs are just specks of dust. Or special effects. But who knows? I sleep with the lights on.
Orbs appear in photos of the cellar in the same building
Tybee Island
SAVANNAH is not all about the dark side though. If you visit on a sunny day, take a drive to nearby Tybee Island, a small but charming beachfront community half an hour away from downtown.
Along the way, colourful kayaks fronting beach equipment rental stores, giant statues of sea turtles and quirky shops selling beach souvenirs beckon.
The main attraction on Tybee is its 5km of unspoilt beaches. The most popular public beach is on the southern side of the island, near the Tybee Pier and Pavilion.
There, crystal-clear waters kiss your toes while resting seagulls dot the landscape. Sand and blue sky meld into each other at the horizon, like colours on a paint palette. As far as the eye can see, there is an uninterrupted view of the ocean, with no islands or ships to break the horizon. The clear waters are ideal for swimming or just wading.
Another good place to visit while on Tybee is Fort Pulaski. A national monument, it was built by the Confederate forces during the Civil War to guard the mouth of the Savannah River.
An 18-year project, it was completed in 1847. With its massive 2.2m-thick walls, military engineers were confident the fort was impenetrable. Yet, in 1862, when enemy forces fired at the fort, the projectiles bore through the thick walls quickly. The Confederates surrendered 30 hours later. You can still find shells from the attack embedded in the walls. Apart from that, the fort is well-preserved. Standing on the second level, visitors get a panoramic view of the Savannah River, Atlantic Ocean and salt marshes. Free guided tours are conducted Mondays to Fridays, and other programmes such as musket or cannon firing demonstrations are held regularly.
Even if you are not interested in history or the military, Fort Pulaski makes a pleasant afternoon romp, with its picture-perfect setting, wide open spaces and walking trails. Wildlife is abundant; you might spot an alligator swimming in the moat around the fort.
Another must-visit Tybee institution is Crab Shack, a casual restaurant that serves seafood boiled or steamed - never fried - so that you can taste how fresh the catch is.
Half the fun is dining outdoors on the boardwalk patio. You also get to chuck all your empty shells into a hole in the middle of the table, which leads to a garbage bin below. Even though everything on the menu may look tempting, resist the urge to over-order because the portions are huge. Order a seafood sampler and you get three types of crabs, a small mountain of crawfish and another pile of sausages, corn and potatoes, served with big bowls of golden yellow melted butter. Ask for oysters and you get them in a bucket.
With food like that, you may find yourself heeding the Southerner's call: "Y'all come back, you hear?"
1 Pack a good pair of walking shoes. Savannah is a visually charming place with well-preserved antebellum houses and 21 town squares set amid tranquillity, and Spanish Moss trailing elegantly from the trees above. The historic district, where most of the sights of interest are, is a compact area and walking is the best way to absorb the sights.
2 Spend an afternoon in River Street, a cobblestoned waterfront promenade of quaint shops and restaurants. Look out for River Street Sweets, which sells delightfully buttery and light pralines. It also carries all sorts of fudge and candies in mouth-watering flavours and colours.
3 Try Southern staples like grits, an oatmeal-like porridge made of cornmeal. It can be eaten sweetened with honey or savoury with butter and cheese. Other Southern fare to sample are collard greens, fried okra, fried catfish and peach cobbler.
4 Reading the book Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil before going to Savannah will greatly enhance your experience. John Berendt's murder mystery-travelogue, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for four years, is based on the sensational trials of a rich antiques dealer who killed a young male hustler. Interwoven into the story is a rich tapestry of eccentric real-life characters the author encountered during his stay in Savannah. Spin-offs from the book include a movie and many Midnight tours which take visitors around the places described in the book.
5 Book your hotel well in advance if you intend to visit during St Patrick's Day in March. During the holiday, the city is turned into one big party, drawing revellers worldwide with a parade and lots of beer.
2 don'ts
1 Do not expect speedy service at restaurants. Savannah is a laid-back city and service is leisurely at best.
2 Do not wander out of the historic district, especially at night. The crime rate outside the area is very high.
