I am taking a short break from house chores to write this heading and to remind myself of the Royal Belum 2019 adventure email.
Later honey...
----------------------
Final Execution:
@elsdines @traxxfmofficial #traxxfm I compiled my various adventures and compressed them into a story called Royal Belum Adventure 2019. It's in your email. What the mind can conceive it can achieve. Enjoy it honey.
Royal Belum Signage, Jungle Adventure.
--------------------------
* The email - Royal Belum Adventure 2019
My darling Els,
If beach is your thing, my weekend retreats before I got sick was camping in the jungle alone. On weekends I will normally camp out for a night in the jungles of Ampang, Ulu Yam, Batang Kali, Genting and Ulu Langat. My father used to hunt deer and wild fowls in his younger days. I normally tagged along when I was a teenager. However this one was my greatest adventure still. Basically I went in as part of a ranger's routine expedition.
I took a trip to Kuala Kangsar and then veered to Pulau Banding. There was a jetty there for us to take a boat to Royal Belum. I brought with me some coloring books and crayons for the Orang Asli kids. Also I brought some raisins packed in small boxes. No sweets. We stopped at the Orang Asli settlement at Sungai Tiang. It was a quick stop. Basically to distribute the goodies to the kids and off we went.
ORANG ASLI KIDS PHOTO
I didn't go to the tourist spots. My mission was to be away from people. Unfortunately I need to have a ranger accompanying me to enter Royal Belum. The smallest military unit is two. Otherwise I don't mind being by myself.
We continued for 2 hours into the smaller tributary where it was real dense jungle. No human. The minute I jumped out of the boat I landed waist high in the sludge. I had to slowly lean forward and pushed myself out. Otherwise I will be sucked in deeper into the mud not unlike a quick sand. I peed at the river bank and a flock of rainbow colored butterflies surrounded my pool of urine due to the salt. The sight was sublime.
We went to the salt lick to watch deer and tapir footprints when they came to lick salt. It's actually a mount of salt as big as a tiny shack in the jungle!
We also had a chance to watch a herd of elephants at an opening the size of a football field in the middle of nowhere.
We heard a huge thump and a loud splash. So we went to check out. There was a couple of adolescent elephants playing slide by the river bank. They climbed up the bank and they slide down on their back. So cute...
I saw the Rafflesia, which is the biggest blooming flower and plenty of wild orchids. The giants like Meranti, Merbau and Tualang made me feel like a dwarf.
The 3 weeks was to check the motion sensitive cameras. The ranger was checking on the animal population in that vicinity using an industrial grade laptop to view the images from the cameras. There were shots of a sunbear, a panther, a tiger, a couple of deer and an elephant using the spoors within the 20 km radius. We had a satellite phone too. That was comforting.
Plenty of fish to eat. I thought I had to eat snakes and monkeys. Also we brought chicken curry and beef floss along with a small packet of rice. I brought oats and Jacobs Wheat Crackers too. The plastic wrappers we burned.
Would you believe I only had 2 sets of clothing for the 3 weeks? 1 set was for during the day (most of the time wet due to sweat, rain and humidity) and one set for sleeping (the dry one). They were a pair of long sleeves cotton turtleneck t-shirts and a knee length spandex. No underwear; not practical. Then I had a pair of knee high socks to avoid leeches. I also had a pair of shorts and a sarong that doubled as a blanket. Footwear was a pair of Teva hiking sandals.
I also carried 3 lighters, my Special Ops Kukri, the Buck Whittaker 437T (7:7), an otter box, a pair of mess tin, first aid kit and some water purifying tablets. Very minimal.
SPECIAL OPS KUKRI,
BUCK WHITTAKER 437T
The jungle is not for people like you. It was sticky and icky especially after the third day LOL. Did you watch Survivor? Something like that. Everything is Spartan. Even the toilet was a dug out behind the bush. You dig with the machete and then once done you cover it with dirt, This was no wanderlust baby.
At night I had plenty of time to think. My ranger buddy was not much of a talker. So I lied in the flickering campfire light thinking about you most of the time. How you had changed my life. This journey was not possible without you in my heart. Occasionally there were rustles near the camp ground; a bunch of rats trying to scavenge remnants of food in the mess tin. Too dark to wash them thoroughly.
I slept with the memory of your, "I'm done-zo" in the background. Boy do I feel blessed. You made me laugh honey. I am whole again...
-----------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment