I had a very surreal day yesterday. Decided to go walking in the National Park at Teluk Bahang, and followed a very steep but fairly easy track to one of the beaches
– it's a turtle hatching beach & they had baby turtles in a tank, which were very cute
There was another track to a beach further along the coast, but I'd been warned that the signage wasn't as good and virtually no-one used it. But how hard can it be?
The track was ridiculous – slogging up a very steep hill on what looked like a faint drainage track, following faint red dots on trees about 20' apart and trying not to grab any of the many spikey trees that lined the trail. The descent on the other side was even worse, had to be very careful not to follow a false trail as I picked my way over boulders & through wait-a-whiles.
(the trail runs mid-picture left)
I sat down and let the heart rate drop and took stock of what I had – 1/3 litre of water, half a pack of biscuits, about 6 e-load tablets, mobile phone with no signal, Ipod. Had a think about what to do and decided to go back up to the ridge where the bush wasn't as thick and there was more chance of finding the trail. It was a bitch of a climb and I was stopping after every 5 or 6 steps to rest and untangle myself from various pointy vines & leaves. Sometimes I'd see what looked like an easy descent but I was also channeling Bear Ghrylls – 'make a plan and stick with it'.
Finally got to the ridge and found the trail, followed it down very carefully this time. Emerged on the beach relieved but exhausted, still another 3km of steep up & down to go and no water. So if the local streams have anything nasty in them, so do I. The walk back was a slog, temperatures of 30 degrees + and probably 95% humidity. Finally made it back to the bus stop completely exhausted with a banging headache, nausea and faint shakes (which I still had 6 hrs later) – normally a sign of heatstroke for me.
The bus aircon was good so I dozed off on the way back to town, then gingerly walked to the hotel. Cleaned up and rested for a bit, then decided that the nausea might be because all I'd eaten all day had been a Nasi Lemak and a pack of biscuits. So I headed up to the rotating restaurant in the hotel – somewhere I've been meaning to visit all week.
At first the motion didn't helping, especially as it juddered a bit, and I was wondering how I could quietly throw up. But as I tucked into the set menu of prawn cocktail, sesame seed salad, onion soup, crumbed snapper and green tea ice cream and watched the sun go down over Georgetown I relaxed a bit.
Until the singing started – they had a house band crooning easy pop ballads in the best bad kareoke style. Because video of their performance was piped into TVs around the room you could clearly see that the girls must have been chosen for their ability to squeeze into shorty shorts & white plastic boots more than their voices.
After the tiramasu we'd gone full circle
and I could watch the world go round over coffee
I got the bill and found that I'd got an early-bird discount so it only cost 58 Ringitt. And I'd got a 50 Ringitt voucher for booking on line, so total cost was about $3.
The day before I saw glow in the dark scorpions and almost got mugged by a pack of monkeys. That all seemed so normal.
– it's a turtle hatching beach & they had baby turtles in a tank, which were very cute
There was another track to a beach further along the coast, but I'd been warned that the signage wasn't as good and virtually no-one used it. But how hard can it be?The track was ridiculous – slogging up a very steep hill on what looked like a faint drainage track, following faint red dots on trees about 20' apart and trying not to grab any of the many spikey trees that lined the trail. The descent on the other side was even worse, had to be very careful not to follow a false trail as I picked my way over boulders & through wait-a-whiles.
(the trail runs mid-picture left)
Got to the beach fine and it was nice - not much different to the previous beach, but nice
After a bit of a rest I headed back. The climb was even harder the other way, my legs were getting really tired and I was getting low on water. On the descent I somehow strayed off the trail. What I should have done is go back up to find the trail, but my legs were tired so I kept going down towards the sound of surf. I ended up in dense undergrowth surrounded by vine-covered boulders with no idea where the trail was. I tried traversing across the hill by scrambling over the boulders but got spooked when a leaf litter 'bridge' collapsed underneath me and almost dumped me into a hole. Panicked quite badly and got very quivery wondering if I was going to make it out, even tried calling for help but the surf was drowning me out.
After a bit of a rest I headed back. The climb was even harder the other way, my legs were getting really tired and I was getting low on water. On the descent I somehow strayed off the trail. What I should have done is go back up to find the trail, but my legs were tired so I kept going down towards the sound of surf. I ended up in dense undergrowth surrounded by vine-covered boulders with no idea where the trail was. I tried traversing across the hill by scrambling over the boulders but got spooked when a leaf litter 'bridge' collapsed underneath me and almost dumped me into a hole. Panicked quite badly and got very quivery wondering if I was going to make it out, even tried calling for help but the surf was drowning me out.I sat down and let the heart rate drop and took stock of what I had – 1/3 litre of water, half a pack of biscuits, about 6 e-load tablets, mobile phone with no signal, Ipod. Had a think about what to do and decided to go back up to the ridge where the bush wasn't as thick and there was more chance of finding the trail. It was a bitch of a climb and I was stopping after every 5 or 6 steps to rest and untangle myself from various pointy vines & leaves. Sometimes I'd see what looked like an easy descent but I was also channeling Bear Ghrylls – 'make a plan and stick with it'.Finally got to the ridge and found the trail, followed it down very carefully this time. Emerged on the beach relieved but exhausted, still another 3km of steep up & down to go and no water. So if the local streams have anything nasty in them, so do I. The walk back was a slog, temperatures of 30 degrees + and probably 95% humidity. Finally made it back to the bus stop completely exhausted with a banging headache, nausea and faint shakes (which I still had 6 hrs later) – normally a sign of heatstroke for me.
The bus aircon was good so I dozed off on the way back to town, then gingerly walked to the hotel. Cleaned up and rested for a bit, then decided that the nausea might be because all I'd eaten all day had been a Nasi Lemak and a pack of biscuits. So I headed up to the rotating restaurant in the hotel – somewhere I've been meaning to visit all week.
At first the motion didn't helping, especially as it juddered a bit, and I was wondering how I could quietly throw up. But as I tucked into the set menu of prawn cocktail, sesame seed salad, onion soup, crumbed snapper and green tea ice cream and watched the sun go down over Georgetown I relaxed a bit.
Until the singing started – they had a house band crooning easy pop ballads in the best bad kareoke style. Because video of their performance was piped into TVs around the room you could clearly see that the girls must have been chosen for their ability to squeeze into shorty shorts & white plastic boots more than their voices.After the tiramasu we'd gone full circleand I could watch the world go round over coffeeI got the bill and found that I'd got an early-bird discount so it only cost 58 Ringitt. And I'd got a 50 Ringitt voucher for booking on line, so total cost was about $3.
The day before I saw glow in the dark scorpions and almost got mugged by a pack of monkeys. That all seemed so normal.
If you'd had an iPhone with you in the jungle Steve Jobs would have know where you were and could have come to save you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea. You could create a new app - maybe iGivup or iMf*cked - and when you use it it alerts the apple rescue team. Within minutes an
ReplyDeletean iCopter is hovering overhead dropping a long white cable. However you would only be able to take things you bought from apple with you so you'd need to be using an iPack
The trouble with the iPack is that if you meet someone else with an iPack all your clothes and other possessions get swapped and you end up wearing their underwear whether you like it or not.
ReplyDeleteWhat do apple software pirates wear?
ReplyDeleteAn iPatch
i-i, Cap'n. That they do.
ReplyDelete