Those little things

Monsoons are really all about timing. Three days ago, after our first successful day-hike through the Taman Negara, a 150 million year-old jungle that springs out of the middle of peninsular Malaysia, we were contemplating a second round of jungle trekking after lunch. The warning signs of a monsoon were obviously, obviously there: clouds that were much too grey, flashes of lightning every two minutes or so, and roaring cracks of thunder. But no rain. After deciding that we only have a few days here and that the monsoon might miss us, we hemmed and hawed before finally deciding to just stay put. The monsoon most certainly did not miss us. It hit us massively. And instead of wallowing in a flooded jungle, we watched the small river village of Kuala Tahan grind to a halt. Fisherman gunned the outboard Hyundai motors, bailing out buckets of water as they steered, racing home in the blinding, driving rain. Their children, for the most part, took the rain in the face and smiled for the foreigners who took photographs of them. Meanwhile, Vanya and I watched the scene unfold from our seats on a floating restaurant, sipping fruit juice and hot tea, while the river swelled from the rain.

The last time I updated this, Vanya and I were about to spend our last day on the island of Pulau Tioman, off the southeast coast of peninsular Malaysia. When I say Pulau Tioman out loud, it is usually followed by a sigh. It is universally likeable. We ate breakfast that morning at a family-run cafe about 1/8 of a mile north of our chalet, ordering a somewhat traditional, western-style breakfast of eggs and toast. About ten minutes after the order, Vanya saw the father of the house/cafe -- not just the father, but also the server/busser/cashier -- sneak around the side of the house with a newly purchased bag of bread from a grocery store down the way. Which he then turned into our toast!

Afterwards we took a speedboat two towns south to Tekek, where we embarked on a 3.5 mile hike across the island from west to east to the small(er) town of Juara. The island was/is volcanic, and therefore has an extremely high center ridge, but the hike itself was not so difficult. We saw a lot of monitor lizards on the way over, explored Juara (but decided our town was better), and ran into a family of monkeys on the way back. Vanya accidently scared a baby monkey into dropping its half-eaten mango. As I write this, it pains me to think that the baby monkey probably starved to death as a result of Vanya's action. On the speedboat trip back to our town, I shared one of the three Carlsbergs with the captain and his brother, both of whom seemed to be looking forward to the one hour round trip journey together. We later realized, however, that in a mostly 'dry' muslim society, the opportunity for the two brothers to sneak a beer together on the sea probably would be a lot of fun.

As I mentioned in the last post that "it won't all be like this," which is to say that it wouldn't all be an island paradise. And it hasn't been. The trip to the Taman Negara jungle involved a lot of the traveling part of "traveling." A three hour ferry off the island. A four hour bus-ride north. A night in a crappy town. A three hour bus ride. A twenty minute taxi ride. A three hour long-boat ride. And finally... jungle. But much of this land trip showed the un-embellished, Malaysian underbelly not shown on the "Visit Malaysia 2007" posters and brochures (2007 is Malaysia's '50th' birthday). Lots of really, really old plastic signs for Coca-cola and long-gone restaurants. Construction equipment that, had I not actually seen it in operation, I would have assumed was broken. There is also much talk about de-forestation in the Malaysian jungle, all of which made more sense to me when I saw logging trucks go by with questionably large -- really, they were gigantic -- trees for lumber. One of our legs was a four hour bus-ride on the state-run bus company, and Vanya and I got the last two tickets for the bus (how lucky we must be! The stars are shining for us!). We then spent the four hour trip breathing engine heat and diesel exhaust due to a faulty side-panel in the back of the bus. By the end of it, Vanya was actually covered in black soot.

But the Taman Negara jungle was awesome. The first day (pre-monsoon) was spent hiking a quarter-mile series of suspended bridges, ascending a 1,000 foot hill to a look-out point, and checking out a "swimming hole" much too stagnant and brown for swimming. The following day we explored an extremely claustrophobic cave -- really a series of small caves -- with a rope to guide us in and out through small openings. There were hundreds upon hundreds of bats, and seeing as most of these "caves" were no bigger than the size of an average room in a house, that meant there were hundreds and hundreds of bats right next to my head. In my face, so to speak. But they eat bugs. At one point I put my hand on a rock for balance, and found it approximately 1 inch deep in bat guano. After the initial disgust, I realized that it wasn't really too different from placing my hand in fresh, white snowfall. After a little more hiking (5 miles in this jungle will completely exhaust most decently fit individuals), I found four leeches on my ankles and Vanya found one on her thigh. We headed back shortly thereafter, but this decision was only mildly related to leeches. On the whole, we saw boars, monkeys, a number of different snakes (poisonous?), and many different birds.

There is, of course, much more I could write, and some I have already forgotten to write about. We are currently in Kuala Lumpur, capital city of Malaysia, and enjoying it thoroughly. In general, we have been eating quite well on this trip, with Malay, Indian, and Chinese food at our fingertips everywhere we look. Roti Canai, which I would describe as a mix between nan and a croissant (served hot), we eat at all hours, regardless of whether this is culturally appropriate. I am currently on a mango binge, as the Indian honey mangoes here are huge; today Vanya and I shared one that was about the size of a premature baby. And we have been drinking a lot, in the form of freshly squeezed fruit juices for about .50 cents a glass. They are delicious and blended on the spot, and, well... I love them.

More to come.