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| Our "A" Hut room |
Today, I woke up very early as I wanted to catch some fresh air and enjoy some lovely view today. Somehow, I wasn’t able to sleep well last night probably due to the new surroundings and the constant drop of tree branches and small buah terap fruit on the roof. Most importantly of all, it soon dawned on me that this morning would be packed filled with activities and it would be a strenuous day today especially with young children and not-so-young bodies like mine! Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa…………
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| My room.... |
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| The outer deck view... |
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| The morning mist.... |
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| The morning view through my camera eyes.... |
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| On the way to Kg. Chuweh |
I could have sworn that during the climbing up of the flight of stairs from the pontoon to the cafe and from the café to the room, my stomach, heart and spleen exchanged places that they are all cried out,man! What more is going happen today? I wonder……
Then as I stretched myself at the patio of my hut, I really enjoyed the morning breeze and the thin wisps rise of the small clouds from the lake surface.
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| Arriving at Kg. Chuweh |
The calm waters and the thin rise of water vapor makes the scenery from where I was standing such a captivating scene and I was calm. I was in my element when I heard an audible voice, “ Woi, for goodness heaven sake, you are half naked on the patio! Go and get yourself cleaned up and get ready! “ Yup! Back to reality, I guess!
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| At the banks.... |
Today, we were all pumped up as we have three activities lined up that day. It was a trip to Orang Asli village in Kg Chuweh, waterfall hiking at Sg.Enam and Rafflesia sighting at Royal Belum. On the way to the café , I met up with the resort workers comprising of one Jahai tribe worker and two Temiar tribe workers. I greeted them and they returned that pleasantries with me. After a good breakfast, we were down the flight of stairs from the café to the pontoon where we met our boatmen for the day, Awang and Alif in two separate boats. Robin and I checked and set our lines for the day. Disappointingly, there was nothing on the lines.
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| The scenery.... |
Capt Edwin, Robin, Jaclyn, SLing and myself were in one boat skippered by Awang while Fook Meng, Lorna, SYuen, Joo Li, Ethan and Sophia Joy were in another boat skippered by Alif. Awang is a local boatmen who knows the places well especially the waterfall area as he brought many people to these places. Pleasant young man , informative and very skillful in what he was doing. Our first destination was Kg Chuweh , the Orang Asli settlement. We were told by Awang that the villagers have moved from their traditional huts and moved into PPRT type of long house beside their old settlement.
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| At the centre of the village.. |
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| SLing with the big fallen Merbau tree... |
This village comprises the mixture of Jahai and Temiar tribe. Long known as hunter gatherers ,many of the young people had left their village to seek a living elsewhere while the older folks are left behind at their settlement. This was typical of most OA village actually. We were also told by Awang that most adult had left for their fishing grounds in the early mornings and probably on their way to Gerik Market to sell their catch of the day.
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| At Sg. Enam....heading towards the waterfall.... |
Upon arrival at Kg Chuweh, we managed to climb the slope steps and got on to the home. We stopped by at the so-called makeshift “dewan” cum hall and met up with the Batin of Kg Chuweh. He was reserve a little bit by our presence but nevertheless lightened up as Capt Edwin and Lorna spoke to him. There were souvenir blown pipes and tree roots such as Tongkat Ali for sale by donation at the hall. The rest of us distributed food stuff to the children around the village. Simple yet robustic lifestyle was noted on the village front. Houses made from bamboo and flooring of bamboo were noted. The children seemed happy enough while the older folks including the women were seen resting in the house or tending to the children. After some photographs, we headed out to our hiking trail onwards to Sg.Enam Waterfall.
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| Apa tengok tu? |
As we moved along the lake heading towards Sg.Enam, we were informed that we would have to trek to our waterfall destination. It is about 1 hours in and 1 hour out kinda thing. With children around, I was a little apprehensive a bit at first but we prayed that we would be safe and blessed along our journey. Throughout our morning boat ride to our destination, the view was beautiful and calming. The submerged trees and shallow pockets were a real challenge to the boatman, Awang but he maneuvered around them expertly though. Moving along a small river, we reached the thick bush landing strip as Awang tried to move the boat as far in as possible so that we do not have to hike too long and too far. That was very considerate of him but alas, the river bank was shallow and was in the low tide mode. So, we have to trek through the bushes amidst elephant trails of punched out holes on the ground.
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| SYuen leading the children for the hike... |
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| At the lower waterfall pond area... |
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| Lorna, SLing & Jaclyn... |
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| Moving on to the waterfall |
There was a lot of excitement and adrenaline pumping enthusiasm that morning and rightly so. To me, it is always a rich experience wadding trough the bushes and river side terrain as you will never know what you will get and what you will encounter. I was only afraid for my heart to stop beating as I enjoy the trail, honestly but I am still alive! Thank God for that! Awang led us through the trail followed by Robin and the rest. As usual, I was at the back of the pack as I guess, I am accustomed to it and trying my best to help Sophia Joy to get used to the adventure. Both Fook Meng and Joo Li are sporting enough to allow me that opportunity to lead Sophia Joy through the trail which was good, actually.
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| Made it to the waterfall |
Giving encouragement and helping Sophia Joy gives me a lot of joy and happiness as memories of helping the young people in the Royal Rangers ministry comes flooding in easily. Now, these boys and girls of the Royal Rangers ministry are themselves young fathers and mothers to their children. Oh! How I have grown so old nowadays! Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa……..
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| My moment at the waterfall |
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| Spidey moment at the waterfall..... |
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| Capt Edwin & Ethan... |
As I walked through the grassland along the river banks, I kept my eyes on SYuen and SLing too. SYuen is a product of the Royal Rangers Ministry success. She was able to take care of herself, waded through the grassland and helped SLing along the way. I am so proud of her and so proud of how the commanders of the Royal Rangers ministry had poured their experiences and expertise to make her what she is today facing the hike and the journey in life too. Along the way, we noted that there were a lot of punched hole in the soft grounds signaling elephants walk ways and there were also fresh elephant dung along the river bank. It also signaled that elephants were nearby too. We managed to get a glimpse of fresh tiger tracks.
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| Our walk back.... |
Awang told us that it was probably a few days old but upon looking at the tracks, I knew it was fresh and probably early morning of the day. I believed Awang did not want to alarm nor raised a panic mode to us and thereby, giving us an answer that the tracks were a few days old. By experience, this was fresh and I was immediately very alert all the time for the group. From then on, it was alert mode and so did the rest. There was one time when we heard some loud falling of trees sound but Alif, our another youngish boatman, immediately told us that it was just a tree falling down. Again, probably not to alarm us but to Robin and myself, it was definitely some wild elephants around who did not wish us to disturb their grounds. By this time, Alif was quick to usher us away from the area and moved on to another path quickly. I thank God that we managed to wade through the river bank and then onto the ascend to our waterfall.
This is the part where my limbs, stomach, heart, kidneys and spleen would exchange places but thankfully, it wasn’t that bad of a climb, actually. I’ve had worst, to be honest. Sure, it was still a challenge for me and so it was for others too but I was glad for SYuen and SLing as all the walking and climbing up Bukit Beruang Hill and Hutan Rekreasi Ayer Keroh somehow worked in their favour. We soon reached a small waterfall area that had pushed the limits of the womenfolk and the children. From here on, the men, Robin, Edwin. Fook Meng and myself walked on further to Sg.Enam Waterfall. After another 30 minutes of hike, huffing and puffing our way to the top, we reached the waterfall. This was only the first rung of the 6 rung waterfall. We decided that this was as far as we wanted to go as the waterfall was superb. With rushing waters cascading down the years of channeled & crafted out rock groove, the water was fast, invigorating and a welcome “massage” to our weakened bodies but not our spirit. Very proud of my friends, Robin, Edwin and Fook Meng for pushing, encouraging and helping each other to get to this place. We had a lot of fun here and the place was just so beautiful.
Amidst the lovely setting jungle, steep terrain and big boulders, clean, fresh and cold water flowed through. That’s the beauty of nature, I guess. What an honour and blessing to have enjoyed such magnificent view and experience nature’s goodness to us. All your troubles seemed to take a back seat when you are here amidst the waterfall and it’s rushing waters. This is life, man. Enriched by the insects sounds, chirping birds and the rustling flow of water, I could have sworn that life worries stopped for awhile as you experienced paradise for that one moment in your life. Blissfully happy is how I would describe my feelings at that moment. Nature is very close to my heart and I would be happy to die here for all I care! We then decided to walk back to our families and joined them at the small waterfall area/pond. After spending some time at that place, we decided to head back as lunch was awaiting us in the resort.
We started trekking back to the place where we had parked the boats. Somehow, the journey back to our boats was much faster. However, this time around, Awang took us through the river walk instead of the river bank grassland. We never knew that the walk along the river would be drama filled and eventful time for all the men. It was hilarious as we got ourselves stuck in the soft ground and gripping mud of the river. It was as though the river wanted our legs, limbs and shoes! Yeah, I must say that the river walk back sucked all my energy to zero, man. It was hard to climb out of the stuck mud hole but luckily with great help from friends around, I was able to get out of it. For me, it wasn’t that bad though I was up to my thigh stuck in the mud at one time. It was only when I took my foot off the shoes that I was able to pull myself out of the hole and then pull out my shoes! It was hilarious through and through but very energy sapping indeed.
My whole body and legs felt like jelly after struggling at the mud bank in the river. It was tiring and I could feel cramps starting to ravage my thighs and legs but I kept a brave front indeed. Guess, that’s the idiotic way of mine – keeping a brave front. Hahahahhaahaaaaaa……….I guess, others would have felt it too but they too could have kept a brave front too. Kudos to them for roughing it out and staying sane despite the epic battle against …….the mud!
Really, I could have sworn that I would have let fly some 4 letter flowery adjective words, some flowery Hainanese, Cantonese or Hokkien words & phrases and probably more had it not been these nice, sane and gentle people around me. Hey, hey, there are children amongst us and so I had to be civil, right?
After a good wash-up as advised by our boatman, Awang, to wash away the unwanted dirt and to clean ourselves, we boarded our boats and headed towards our resort as lunch awaits us.
Our adventure continues………………..
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