-Human Observations Report…-

here… http://jenncrystal.blogspot.com/

I know that this day will eventually come, I’ve just not been thinking about it much. But I will not blame you for doing what you have to do, for I can’t promise you forever.

Sometimes, you just want to eat your heart out…

I only wish the best for you.

Heard on the news today, somethng like “The people of this country are very priviledged because we are free to believe in the religion of our choice despite of it being a Muslim country.”

I was like…. hello? …uhh… what did you just said?

Priviledged for having religious freedom?”

Well, I don’t know, but can anyone enlighten me of any country who forces religion upon its citizens, besides like say, Afghanistan, in case I never heard of that country before? In fact, I’m not even so sure that this statement is entirely true!

Sometimes, the media seems to be doing its best to trick the uninformed into believing that its all so great here that theres no more room for improvement, that the world should emulate us, and stop complaining cos we’re the best!

Well, good luck Malaysians. Hope you keep your brains safe and wide opened…

Would you…

Walk with me,
Dance our dance,
Talk our talk,
Hold my hand,
Share our soul…

Would you?…

…I’m rambling…

Was rummaging through dear Cats old blogs and found this, so i decided to repost it as a reminder for myself, and for anyone who happen to need a little guidance in life. I know I do, and its especially dedicated to you, my special one, the man of strong faith and lighted heart. You will always be my inspiration.

Whatever the future holds, I will always love you.

God : Hello. Did you call me?

http://www.petitiononline.com/isa1234/petition.html

Need I say more?

Day 3

Its the last day here for half of us. After having our breakfast, we will be leaving while the other half will stay for one more night to go to Lata Berkoh, a picnic site further upstream. It was supposed to be a very enchanting place, judging from pictures of them – going up the narrow river, where tree brances arches over the water, as though protecting it from the outside world. Within the banks, seem to lie an even more mysterious world, where it must have been so long since human walked among it that the forest spirits are still dreaming their dreams from ages ago. But not this time. Hopefully, I will come back someday and see this beauty for myself, to get to know more of this ancient treasure, to once again nourish my body and soul, drawing strength from the beauty and wonders within the depths of one of the oldest forests in the world.

As I leave on a boat, back to my ghastly abhorrance of eye-sore metropolitan existence, I take my last glimpses of this forgotten beauty. It is a heaven of untouched beauty. My heart felt heavy and tears starts to well up in my eyes. Its like I truly belonged here, but for now I had to go. In my soul, I can almost hear the spirits of the rainforest sing their song to me. Makes me wanna say, the hell with civilisation, I’m going back to the wilderness. I will miss it for sure, and I hope to return again someday, hoping that it will still be there for me…

Day 2

We work up early to get ready for our  itenary today, the Canopy Walk as our guide said that there should be alot of people today, so its better to get in line early, especailly since its a public holiday and theres only a limited amount of people allowed on the hanging bridges at one time. We reached there early and the walkway was not open yet. But theres already a huge crowd there. Also greeting us this morning are a couple of leeches - not too surprising since it rained yesterday.

The bridges were layed with a single row of foot wide wood planks along the way, its supports skillfully tied around trees without using a single nail as to not damage them, and the sides were lined with safety nets. Starting from a 3 storey tower on a hill, the bridges gets higher and higher, and the valley gets deeper, up to a point where we were more than 10 storeys high. I was slightly freightened by the height and the shakey bridge, but the astounding scenery, overlooking the salt lick and inner forests eventually uplifted me.

In the mysterious deep valleys, gorgeous gigantic palms which echoes its prehistoric heritage shelters the delicate forest floor. It makes me believe that the garden of eden is right here on earth…

Just as I was begining to feel comfortable up there, the bridged came to an end, too soon. There was another branch which should lead us further, but was unfortunately closed for repair works. So we hiked back to where we started and met our guide there, where we bumped into this cute lil blue and green thing. And someone else played with one of those gigantic ants.

Soon, we were on our journey up Bukit Teresek, a 7 km climb uphill, which really tested my dulled strength and stamina. Some parts were really steep, but fortunately the way was mostly of natural steps. There were more large, tall trees here on this trail, and occasionally some nice, twisted branches. Some even spotted a mouse deer. I saw a big iguana.

We reached the top, took at few pics at the edge of a cliff, and went down the way we came up. There will surely be sore legs and shoulders tommorow, but nothing beats the thought of the way back to our guest house – there has got to be a better way.

Come afternoon its time for some wet boat rides to one of the Orang Asli (aboriginese) village. Leaving the guesthouse to our usual place, we decided to be a little more inquisitive and find a better way down, which should also mean a better way up. Ahh…if only we had done this sooner.

On the long, narrow, shallow, topless boats, while everyone is having a splashing fun time, I continue to nourish my eyes with my remarkable surroundings.

As I realised, the further we move upstream, the more beautiful it is. The trees are older, taller and taller, thicker and thicker, … more and more haunting. Rare spots on the earth which are still so pristine, free from human activity. How I wish to thread its inner paths, just to be mesmerised by its spleandour, to consume, to take in the purity, and to let it consume me.

According to the guide, his father and the leader of this particular tribe were buddies. I thought it was nice. I like orang asli people. They still live the primitive life of hunting and gathering. I suppose they live a good life here for there should be an abundance of resources for them. Without a care for the outside world. The ones here are of the Batek tribe and are the only tribe who is allowed to stay in the National Park. Makes me wonder though. I thought all aboriginese belonged to our various rainforests for the past millenias and should be kept so. On the contrary, many were ousted from their lands for overbearing dams and luxurious developmental projects. I’d rather the government focus more on promoting ecotourism. Its certainly more beneficial for everyone than those lavish mega projects. Afterall, tourists love what our natural environment has to offer.

Anyway, the tribe leader and an assistant showed us their tools and tricks essential for their wild existence. Its obvious that everything they use are 100% bio degradable. They live sustainable lifestyles, sheltered under shacks covered with palm leaves, and they will move before they deplete a location of its resources. It is also said that they will move when a tribe member dies, and their body would be left on top of a tree – however according to the guide, those bodies were never found afterwards.

They showed us how to start a fire in 30 seconds – using wood from the meranti – and how to make their blowpipes. Everything they use are from natural resources. Some have such unique textures we never knew existed, like rubbery wood, spongy dried leaves and sand paper leaves. The guide explained to us how they fashion the blowpipe, straightening it from bamboo over a fire and dip their poison needles in the juice of roots from the ipoh tree – yeap, the tree which the town was named after. We were shown how they make the poison needles, from cutting, sharpening of the tip, to putting on the butt. The regular blowpipe is about 1.5 metres long and can be extended. One can shoot further pointing the pipe upwards. They are usually able to shoot up to 50 metres high – the tour guide showed us, pointing up to the tallest tree around. Then we get to try using the blowpipe for ourselves, shooting at a poor, cute lil penguin who looked like hes ready to celebrate Christmas but somehow got lost and is now stuck here, getting shot at by dozens of people everyday. I am ofcourse excited for some blow-piping action and perhaps with a lil experience in archery and some yoga-breath-control, I unfortunately managed to hit it on shoulder – first catch of the day! Poor poor penguin.

After our lil game, the guide announced that they’ve made mini blow pipes to sell to us. I can’t help but get one, just to show them some love, and of course as a momento for me self. Predictably, it barely works like the long one.

That night, we were gathered around the compounds of our guest house and shared some stories, mostly paranormal ones – just like how everyone does during childhood. It took a while for us to warm up, as it is the first time we sit and chat in a group like this with each other. Soon, tales starts pouring out from those who has enough to share. Some even started suggesting that there is something creepy about this place. My supernatural senses tells me that I need not be too concerned. And so, it went on  for about 2 hours or so until flying termites started to gather around a fluorescent light near us into a swarm, so huge I’ve never seen so many of them together before. When we moved further away from that light, they followed us to another light nearer to us. Supposedly, they were attracted to our warmth…

Warning!: Extremely long post.
(And very outdated as well…)

Its been a long time since I’ve surrounded myself with dense, tall trees. I love trees, seeing them, being among them is one of my sweetest joys in life. I’ve always wanted to visit Taman Negara, since its like "the desitnation" for nature lovers, but haven’t really had anyone who are interested enough. Then my parents used to be quite worried about me going on this type of outings.

And so, my collegues just happen to be quite an adventerous bunch and someone just suggested about going there earlier this year. Sun Sun was quite excited about it, but for some reason, I felt hesitant. Perhaps I’ve gotten comfortable with city life again, and perhaps even afraid of some slightly more challenging or risky activities. But I guess i’ll just wait and see how it goes.

Eventually, one of them just got around to finding a suitable travel packages for us, and then gathering a list of people who are interested. Thankfully, Sun eventually managed to persuade me to go, for it would be the most beautiful experience I’ve had in a long, long time. Counting down to our departure date, doubt evolved into excitement and before we knew it, we’re on our way!

Day 1

The journey back to the heart of nature…

Jia Shyan managed to gather 18 of us for this trip, 12 of us are colleagues. On Thursday 1st of May, Han and I left my house early in the morning towards the agency’s office at Radius Hotel, Changkat Bukit Bintang for our inclusive bus ride which departs at 8 am. 3.30 hours later, we arrived at Jerantut and stopped for lunch and continued our journey up north. From what I saw in the map, I thought Taman Negara was pretty far, but surprisingly it didn’t take too long, and the driver was driving at a safe speed.

We stopped midway at Jerantut for lunch and by 2.30 pm, we reached our destination. We actually spent about the last 2 hours of our journey cutting accross oil palm plantations and I was unpleasantly surprised that we weren’t greeted by wild jungles instead.

Upon arrival, we had to hike uphill a little, and walk quite a distance to our accomodation. I thought we will be staying in a chalet, we’re not really sure. We stood at a junction waiting for our “leader”, Jia Shyan to tell us where to go, when we spotted a place that looks like a nursery, but which says “Tahan guest house”. Needless to say, we were quite intrigued by the look of this place, and even more surprised when our leader came and say, yeah, this is where we’re gonna stay. Hmm…ok. Oh, and no aircond (I’m ok with that) and no water heater… O.o… Oh, and we also have to take off our shoes upon entering the building – how traditional. As I enter our respective rooms, I also realise that there were no power points either. But despite the lack of ammenities that us city dwellers are so used to, I find this place somewhat pleasant, and very clean and cozy, apart from the mysteriously childlike paintings on every corner and every door. The place was run by a malay man appearing to be around the age of 40, who seems to have his whole family living there, in a typical kampung house, somehow attached to the 2 storey guest house building at the counter. It feels like every thing that was there has a personal touch to it, and the very basic needs of guests were well thought out. Like having a bucket for washing, a small face mirror, sufficient toilet rolls, a tiny wash basin, and despite the size of the room, a table and 2 chairs, and a nice little balcony for each room on the upper floor, which is good for hanging clothes dry. I also eventuallly found out that there is a couple of power points at the common areas, should the need to use electrical items arise. And they politely requested guests to be thrifty when using water, for the water came from the river nearby, and the water treatment were done by the villagers themselves. And it all adds up to the cozy feeling of it.

Soon we finished unpacking and were changed into our trekking clothes, ready for our first quest, our first step into the jungles of Taman Negara and a little adventure into the Telinga (Ear) Cave. But then we first have to walk the distance from our guest house to the jetty at the river nearby, which is the Tembeling River, down a steep slope and along the banks full of large, slippery pebbles – which is the most gruelling thing we had to endure for the next 3 days. To be honest, I did not expect too much out of this trip for Taman Negara is such a popular destination and knowing my fellow Malaysians, I’d expect it to be over commercialised. We even half expected to see McDonalds and Starbucks while trekking. Fortunately though, that wasn’t the case. While on the side of the river where we stay is a small town, with resident villagers and low key tourist accomodations, the other side of the river is left in its natural wilderness, with the exception of the Information Centre and Mutiara Resort, the most luxurious accomodation I see around this area – damn rich people, can’t they leave the forests alone?

Lining this side of the river are a couple of floating restaurants, run by various touring agencies and perhaps some private locals, which also serve as jettys, as I was about to find out, that for every activity we’re about to do for the next 2 days will start with that little shallow-boat ride across this river to one of the jetties on the other side, which is the starting point of a certain trail, depending on where you want to go. There were 2 guides leading us in all our activities, one of them who seem pretty experienced and knowledgeable about our rainforests.

The walk to the cave took us about an hour, but it was nothing compared to what is to come. But I , for one thing, seem to feel tireless when trekking in jungles. The beauty of nature seems to give me strength. I may sweat, I may pant, but I could go on, a whole lot more. My lungs feel pumped up with a rich supply of pure, clean air which I feel so deprived of and my muscles start to awaken. Its saddening that people seem to fail to appreciate things like this these days. Walking the trails, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least, that this was by far, the best forest I’ve trekked. The trees were really tall, and old trees with huge trunks are safe in their havens here. I smile as I look at those large trunks and ponder about their age, how long they have been here watching time pass, and the occasional lilttle creatures fumbling about at its feet, and I wish it a long, healthy life. They’re all happy and thriving. Even the greens are greener here, unlike those half dead ones in the city.

Along the sloping paths were natural steps, lined with roots and carved by footsteps of past trekkers. It starts to feel more like Lord of The Rings elvish territories, where tree branches from both sides form arches, welcoming me, and its roots leading me up. Surprisingly there weren’t many insects, like mosquitos, and no leeches were spotted. From what I later read, the lack of insects can perhaps be attributed to the presence of bats in this area.

Soon, we were at the entrance of the cave and we had to put down our back packs outside with one of our guides, because the cave is very narrow – which is the reason why it is named Ear Cave. Then we lined up to get into the cave following behind our guide and were instructed to follow the footsteps of the person in front, for the rocks are wet and slippery, often with gaps in between, some which were quite deep. Missing a step, one could imagine, can easily result in a fractured limb or two, perhaps even open skulls. There are ropes along the path for us to hold on to, and is our only lifeline, in case of anything. At some point, my torch light fell off my grip while I was standing among tall rocks with deep gaps. Luckily it landed on a flat surface where I stood, missing the steeps by mere centimetres, or it would have been gone out of reach.

It didn’t take long before we started spotting bats. Our noise and flashlights seem to have awakened them and some were flitting about while the rest just hung onto the walls and ceilings, trying not to be too bothered by us. We’re not so sure if the wet stuff dripping down on us are really cave water or bat droppings. We just try not to think about it and I’ve already put my hood on. The stench grows a little stronger as we moved along, spotting more bats too. The path wasn’t very long, but quite challenging as there were places where we had to swiftly quickstep up some slippery rocks, slide down some, crawling through narrow holes on all fours and doing the  spiderman pose thingy. Deep inside the cave was a large toad, sitting on a piece of rock near a small stream, standing at about 15 cm tall. I’d assume the hole behind him had been his dwelling for a long time. Maybe hes trapped here and didn’t managed to find a way to get out. Must be lonely, that poor old toad, perhaps even waiting for a princess to kiss him and turn him back to that handsome prince.

At the other end of the cave is a small hole about 3 to 4 metres high up. Kinda tricky. And the guide told us that there was a blind man who came and did it all. Impressive, considering the terrain inside the cave. This was my first time exploring a cave, not counting Batu Caves and I find it pretty interesting. Some of us agreed that it was way too short, while half soaking in wet cave dirt and bat poo. And so we hiked back to where we came from, and crossing the river, it hit me that we had to brave the long walk, the pebbles and that steep slope to get back to the comfort of our rooms, before washing up, and preparing for our dinner followed by the night trekking. And this is what we’re gonna do for the rest of our stay, for every meal and every activity we’re gonna have. And to make things worse, among all the floating restaurants there, ours had to be one of the farthest away. Wicked.

The dinner was simple. White rice and a some a vege, a meat, a fish, and some fruits, but were cooked deliciously enough, and so are the rest of the meal we would be having here. Then we went across for some video at the information centre, which showcased many fascinating treasures of the Taman Negara, its exotic flora and fauna, though many which we weren’t able to see, since animals are often frightened away by the presence of large groups of people, and spotting animals are also dependant on  your luck. And since it already started to drizzle, our chance to spot anything good is naturally reduced a great deal.

For the night trekking, we were taken along a path, lined with some kind of planks, which were not wood, feels like plastic, and seem shaky, flimsy and noisy, it makes me wonder why they’re there. For the first part, there wasn’t much to see other than spiders and their webs. There was one web which was particularly enticing. At a first glance, it looks like a plastic sheet wrapping around the tree, and it shined with rainbow colours when light was reflected on it. There was also an ant trail. Not your usual ant, but gigantic, inch-long ants. Ahh… I like – but not if it bites. Then we reached the observatory, which overlooked a salt lick, where animals often come for their mineral supplies. We spotted a couple of deers but thats about it.

The better part came when the guide said he would take us to see some glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. I’ve always wanted to see them, ever since I was told about it by my guide when I went to Ulu Yam when I was in form 3. Back then, we managed to spot a number of glow-in-the-dark fungus and it was no less enticing. There were a couple of them growing within a few metre area. Kinda small, about 3 cm tall – one of the mysterious wonders of nature. The guide mentioned that there is this place, somewhere uphill where there are usually alot of them. But this is all we get tonight, and I can still go home happy.

On our way back, it started raining heavily. We put on our rain coats and soon enough, I smell the stink of my own body. I bought those for 3.50 and they’re so unbreatheable. Pei Sun’s one seem much better and cost her only 3.00. But since we’re not gonna use it all the time, guess I’ll just have to bear with it for now. At the end of the trail, around the information center, one of us spotted 2 wildboar piglets hiding under one of the stilt houses nearby. Then they ran out in the rain, towards another house, finding their way back to the forest I presume. They looked lost, poor little piggies. Many of us squeled – they were so cute!

Annoyed by the friendster blog when I just realised that older posts will not be viewable unless you go to the oldest post in the list, and click previous> previous>previous> and so on and so forth.  If you happen to know how to, do inform me. And I also cant seem to find where my photo albums are, that the only way I was able to access it was through the link I posted in my blog. Its all just so wierd to me. And so I don’t quite feel like blogging here no more. But then again, I’ve not been spending time on my new blog, which is still not quite done. I dont even know where to put it yet. Call me lazy, call my indecisive. >.< Yeah…I’m like that.

Lifes…. been alittle awkward lately. Awkward things happen, but not all is bad. Been down with the cough, and then some flu and fever. Must be the weathers. Still coughing till now, like… its been a month now. Stupid haze. Just keeps coming back. Blame the government. When the rakyat make so much noise, then only they ask the Indon government to do something. But apparently, its some MALAYSIAN COMPANY who has been behind all the burning and clearing and while they enjoy some fast bucks, the people here have to suffer. And knowing that its our own people, the government quickly shut up and as usual pretend nothing happen. The peoples fire died down, but not quite the forest fires. What shame…

Again, I’m pessimistic about humanity. Why would we even think we’re the greatest living being that ever existed? Look all around us, look at the news paper, look out your window? What do you see?? Destruction. Hatred. Madness. Its madness out there. People are getting crazier and more stressed out by the day. Its a huge negative synergy working out there in a vicious cycle. I try to do my little bits, but will it be enough? Whats with all these madmen and women attacking young girls in their privates, with pests, sticks, fruits and vegetables? And then knives and broken glasses.

Perhaps its a good thing that more and more colleges are offering courses in psychology. We need them, really. Mental health is such an imprortant aspect
of our lives yet is it so often neglected. How can people become so sick? How to bring up our kids so that they wont be one of these very sick people? How to correct those who are already sick? What are the signs that you’re sick? What to do if you’re getting sick?

Actually, I strongly believe that they should start teaching psychology in school, as part of the pendidikan jasmani, or in fact to intergrate in to the MORAL class, instead of memorising all those nonsensible nilai-nilai moral. How does memorising stuffs build a persons character anyway?

We have laws and we have religion. But I dont believe that threat of punishment can actually do much to prevent people from doing horrible things. Most of the time, I do things because I feel that its the right things to do, and that it makes me feel good knowing that its best for me, and hopefully others too. And then there are things that I wouldnt do because I know that by doing it, I would have harmed someone, or made someone miserable.  How much good will it do me anyway? And in the end of the day, we always do unto people what people do unto us. We learn how to treat people badly when someone have treated us badly before. But we are also able to learn how to treat people nicely when people have been treating us nicely before. If we are able to create a synergy of positive, kind and thoughtful behaviours, then this energy shall flow through and come back to us to create a better kind of vicious cycle.

Then perhaps the world would be a slightly better place.