Rafflesia

July 9

This morning we got up pretty early to begin our trek. We had breakfast at the hotel which was really a terrible system. For ordering you put your room number and what you want on a piece of paper. Then they make it and bring it out to you. Sounds like a sound system... Except not when there are 20 or 25 hungry people waiting for food.

Their system of delivering was pretty much whoever was closest to the door who didn't have food yet. It didn't matter if you had been there for 5 minutes or 20 minutes. I got my food before David did and I felt bad. I offered it to him but he said it was too late so he wasn't going to eat it.

We got picked up around 9am and we joined a car with a few people in it as we'll as picked up a few more people. Marion and I were in this car but all 10 of the other people in our group were in a van. Two of the girls we were with are from holland. One lived and worked in Australia and is traveling for the year. The other just met her in Asia for 2 months. They're 25. The one girl did the same tour with the tour company I am using in Australia. She said its great but really disorganized... And very basic. Although compared to Asia, basic in Australia may be luxurious. Well see. There were also 2 girls from England and a guy from South Africa.

We had to drive for maybe 45 minutes to get to the place where we were going to start our jungle trek. We also stopped 2 times along the way. Both for bathroom breaks? Our driver/guide was extemely friendly. He was showing us photos of his little boy. He said he "wasn't like him" because he's part dark and part light skinned. When he said that I immediately understood what he was saying but no one else did until they saw the photo. I don't know if that's from being around people who don't have English as their first language for a while now? His wife died and he works so he sees his boy a few times a month because he lives with his parents. It's a very different life. He has to work everyday though.

When we arrived, one of our guides was explaining the trek to us. He told us that going there would be pretty hard and tiring but that the way back would be really easy. He then threw in a little tid bit about letting him know if a tiger is following us. It was funny because you could see everyone kinda process what he said, stop and be like... What!?! 

On the way up, I was in the front of the group. The first 10 minutes was a pretty steep incline up but it was really flat ground (no rocks or roots to have to climb up). I kept waiting for the hard part. We were pleasantly surprised. Of all the treks I've done, if I had to rate it I would say that it was the second easiest. The little walking jungle safari we did in Chitwan was easiest not only because it was short but it was rather easy terrain and very flat. On this jungle trek in Malaysia I think there were maybe a handful of times when I started to feel out of breath but it wasn't bad at all. The hour trek we did up to the viewpoint in Koh Phangyan was way harder than the 5 hour trek we did today. 

Every time I heard water though I was completely expecting to be at the part where we had to take off our shoes and walk across knee deep water. I was always like, "it's coming!" ... It never came though. Thank god. And I ended up being able to give Jillienne the socks I bought because her shoes and socks got wet when she was crossing one of the rivers on accident. I told her she didn't need to give me money for them as long as she kept them. I don't want them back! I don't need another pair of socks taking up space in my bag haha!

There were multiple times when we had to cross rivers. Sometimes there were bamboo bridges (you better have good balance to get across these babies). Other times we crossed rivers by hopping between rocks and stones. One time I slipped and almost brought one of the guides down with me. Luckily I caught myself and him though before we both fell in! We also had to basically walk up a few areas that were essentially creeks. I say walk up because it was running down a hill... Mountain... Still not sure what the qualifying factors are for mountains.

We hiked about 2.5 hours there and 2.5 hours back. "There" is to see the largest flower in the world, the rafflesia. I had no idea that would even be an option here actually so that was cool. I can now officially say I've seen the biggest flower in the world! When I looked it up though, Wikipedia said it is a flower from Indonesia, so maybe well see more. It also said it gives off an odor of rotting skin. I didn't notice that though when I was there. I was wondering why Brett had called it a vampire flower. It was definitely cool to see but for hiking all that way it was a little anti climactic. 

Other things from the hike to remember:

1. We got to drink from bamboo. The bamboo here was hollow and just had water in it... I don't know if it was rain water or what. It definitely wasn't sweet like the last bamboo juice or water or whatever I had. 

2. If you have a photo of a flower, it's probably some type of ginger flower. Everything was a ginger flower. It was kinda funny.

3. There were some weird bugs and lots of bees. Good thing you didn't get stung!

4. You wore long sleeves and long pants and it wasn't even too hot, but definitely do that again because not only did it protect from sunburn, but it also protected from scrapes and leeches and branches and trees and insects and everything else in the jungle. I consider that a win.
5. You fell over. It was funny. Usually you have that moment of, "oh, I'm going down now!" But I never had that. I don't know if I tripped or if my knee gave out or what happened. All I know is that randomly I was just on the floor. When I fell it hurt my ankle and knee. After walking a few steps it went away though.

Toward the end of the hike, we finally came to a road and we thought we were done. Even though the hike wasn't super difficult, we had been walking for a long time and all of us were pretty exhausted. Some mentally, some physically. My body didn't hurt too much but I could tell I was dragging from concentrating too hard on where I was walking and from walking for so long. I was really glad I decided to stick with my hiking boots rather than buy the cheap shoes that can easily get ruined and be chucked because I think having the orthotics definitely made a huge difference, especially after that fall. Marion said her feet hurt so much... But, he kept walking past the road and we went up to see an aboriginal village. 

We got to all try using blow dart guns which are actually sweet. They're so easy to use. You don't even have to blow very hard and aiming is super easy as well. I hit the target. It was pretty fun. The blow gun was super long though which I think they use for hunting animals. We also saw a traditional hut (just one in the middle of a normal village) and a monkey on a chain who was flipping out with all of us there. It was really sad. The aboriginal part took maybe 15 minutes. Then, we loaded back into the van.

For lunch they took us to a little stall that was serving Indian food from a buffet. They ran out of rice at one point though and we all had to wait a while before we could get more. They looked at your plate and gave you a sticky note with how much it costs for you to pay. It was strange. At this point, on tours when I am given food or taken somewhere I just assume its safe since they take so many tour groups through. But yea. I wouldn't have chosen to eat there.

After lunch we loaded back into the jeep and rode out to a tea plantation. It was gorgeous. Like rolling hills Tuscany style. He drove us through the plantation and we got to get out at various points. Some of them were photo opps and one was a stop so you could buy and taste Cameron highlands tea. Of course it wasn't a free tasting. You had to buy a mug or cup to taste it. I had passion fruit and it tasted exactly the same as it does at home although I am not an avid yea drinker. At this point it was already around 5pm and supposedly when the your was ending. We were all exhausted and we still had to go to the strawberry farm and the insect farm. 

Next stop, the insect farm! If you decided to do this, you had to pay a 5 ringgit entry fee. It was pretty cool actually. There was a huge leaf bug we could hold as well as a walking stick. The walking sticks we have at home are maybe a few inches long. This one was probably a foot and a half long. It was crazy. There was also a rhino Beatle. They had flowers and frogs and snakes and lizards... Even chipmunks. Why a chipmunk would be in there on display, I don't know. 

After about 30 minutes there, we headed to the strawberry farm. It was just rows of strawberries in planters lined up. Nothing exciting. And then, of course, we could buy some more food to test the strawberries. There was cheesecake and even white strawberry coffee. I got nothing. Jill, Marion and I were all really ready to leave. And everyone was just sitting on the roof of this building chatting and eating. We thought maybe if we migrated downstairs to the vans that we would convince people to start going. 

It didn't work. We did however get to see one if our guides, he had to have been from china or Japan, play with cats and dogs and he kept calling the cat "pussy" while although correct, was hilarious. He was an interesting guide. He always was the one speaking to us but he talked so fast and his words kinda slurred together and stuff that you literally ended up not having any idea what he said. Like for the intro speech before the trek we heard a lot of oks (he said this at the end of every sentence) and tiger. And Marion asked about a bathroom at one point and we had no idea what came out of his mouth for the answer.

Finally everyone else got a move on and we left. We had an hour to shower (both of us) and then we met for dinner at 8pm. 10 of us went to eat at a Chinese place where you cook things in a hot pot. It was a really good and filling dinner. We all had our own spoons and plates, but we had a number of dishes that we put into the hot pot. It was like eating at The Melting Pot except the food was all vegetables and meats or tofu. There were fish balls (didn't taste bad but I hated the texture) and fish and cuttlefish and jelly fish (I don't like jelly fish... Or cuttlefish), tofu, beef, chicken, and a bunch of veggies and we each had an egg. It was a really cool meal experience. We had a spicy broth and a chicken broth. The spicy broth wasn't too spicy though. And the chicken broth tasted like nothing. The table was a HUGE mess! Very gross haha. Brett said this is a really simple and easy idea for having friends over to eat. Maybe I'll do it one day.

I decided to go back to the room after this meal experience but a few people got alcohol and drank in the hotel before heading to "The Jungle Bar", a well known backpacker bar. I needed some chill time to myself and I also needed to fix my pants still. 

I did the invisible stitch perfectly... Aside from doing it inside out so its invisible on the inside of my leg. But, the pants are fixed for now which is all that matters! This was also the first time I have really thought about how much I miss people. No offense to my family, but it was mostly my friends. Obviously I have made a lot of good friends here and we literally are a big family during traveling, but its not the same relationship as it is with my close friends from home. Being busy is definitely a blessing because then you don't think about missing anyone. I barely think about home because its go go go all the time.

I actually talked to Cam this evening and he reminded me of how scared I was to leave because I told him I was a little nervous about coming home. My time here/away will end so quickly and then it will be back to real life. Whit made me laugh by telling me that nothing could be worse than sending your debit card home in a third world country and having an awful roommate who can't flush. Then I felt better. Well see what home has to bring when that comes...