Thursday, September 29, 2005

My Adventure of Past Nocturnal Excursions



Any sane person would find venturing into a dark and forbidding jungle at night to be somewhat intimidating. If the truth be told, during the early days of my nocturnal excursions, I had doubts of pursuing this particular endeavor. Honestly, I was scared.

Tales of missing trekkers, hidden by those of the Unseen or rubber- tappers being attacked by wild animals haunted my mind. I was an avid trekker during my school and university days, as my appreciation for nature developed early on, but all of these jaunts were done in broad daylight.

My father, a very superstitious person, never did understand this particular passion of mine. He would usually shake his head in disbelief, wondering how his eldest has chosen such an endeavor as a hobby. My mother, who had tried to dissuade me from the very beginning, could only roll her eyes as she had ran out of words to nag me with. She found out from the onset that it was exasperating to say anything as talking to me would be like talking to a brick wall.

We all have heard tales of mysterious, unexplained incidence encountered by other people. I could not deny that even I had experienced some really weird stuff throughout the years. For example, during a hike up Gunung Jerai in Kedah, my companions and I suddenly came upon a well kept garden, complete with mowed lawn and bubbling brook, when we were cutting through thick foliage moments before. We hastily made a wide detour.

Another time in Gunung Ledang, whilst on night watch, not only was I presented with unexplained balls of light playing in the trees overhead, but just a few metres away where we had designated a solat area, I could make out the 3 figures, clad in the white tudung which the muslim women usually wear during their solat, standing as in prayer. I checked the girls’ tent. They were all asleep.

Fortunately, the green lungs of the Klang Valley are not as intimidating. I have never encountered any unusual situations either in Bukit Gasing, FRIM or Genting. God willing, I will never experience any. It would just spoil the whole Frogging trip, don’t you think? Heh.

Although…. there was this particular incident in Templer’s Park last year. 8 people had gone in and I had made it a habit to constantly check our numbers then and again to ensure there were no stragglers. It would’ve looked pretty bad if I had lost somebody out there. I was getting confused as my count at times were 9. When I counted again it would be 8 again. This went on quite a bit but I kept it to myself. Fortunately, when we exited, everybody was accounted for.

Fortunately, these incidents were rare. It is not advisable to be an uber-superstitious person nor would it be too clever in being a cocky little bugger also. You would only need a healthy respect for Nature and hopefully learn to appreciate her in her fullest glory along the way.

16 comments:

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Leen AshBurn said...

Eeeps. Mental note: Should not read this when alone at home at 6 bleedin o'clock in the morn!


I want my momeeee.

an0nymous-ign0ranus said...

leen, you remember the story of the telecoms tower at gunung ledang, as recounted by your udder boss?

the little people can be very tech-savvy too.

kepala_angin said...

scary lah.. now ada goosebumps after reading your post. thank god it is broad day light.

Angel Eyes said...

9,
Went through one experience before when i was in shah alam, at bukit cahaya seri alam.. that particular park...

Was with a friend and my family members when we had a so-called family gathering at the lake during dinner time and i was holding this torchlight of mine... and i was soo busy 'suluh sana sini'.
my aunt asked me not to but when i asked why, she told me not to ask so much at this kinda place.. fine with me, i ignored her 'warning'

God willing, as i was bz with the 'suluh' thingy, i saw 3 figures on the trees.. ( u knw what i mean on these figures rite?)
immediately i stopped everything one shot.

during bedtime, i heard someone screeching her fingernails on our chalet wall, trying to enter our room. as a result, we couldn't get to sleep at all.

next morning, yup.. there were marks on the wall... it's really scary...

Fiza said...

leen: wot were u doing up at 6am anyways? tido la =), and what about the telekom tower up mt. ledang?

babe: i wouldn't be surprised if they started blogging.

KA: siang2 takde hantu.

Angel: freaky siot!

chics said...

i love nature, really.. but can I just love nature but not going for any excursions?

takutlah kene makan rimau

Zed said...

hmmm had my fair share of meeting the "other world" during these outings... gunung ledang is cool, also did gunung tahan. i swear that this is a one time experience! gotta be really2 fit for "tahan", i guess the name says it all. also did nuang, and trekked from the beginning of sungai pahang all the way to kuantan. becoz of these times, i am an absolute believer =) keep trekking, and remember nothing is left behind and only pictures get taken away. cheers

madnessinvain said...

I agree with you 9, have some respect to the Nature, they share this world with us. :)

an0nymous-ign0ranus said...

the story of the telecom tower up mt ledang - telekom had installed a tower up there, did the test and all was ready. on the day it was supposed to be launched, there was absolutely no signal at all.

orang kampung did a little kenduri at a clearing and the signals came back.

and this happened more than 10 - 15 yrs ago.

Inn said...

Had some experience in Templer, in Ledang and Jerai. Trekked Nuang a few times coz that place is always the Orientation camp.

We lost a senior once, crushed under a tree during solo camping. Coach never did quite recover.

angel eyes - yikes. that's scary.

kepala_angin said...

did u go for that futsal tournament last friday? ;-) tak nampak pun any yg pancit2 like u said.

Sports Freak said...

the only abnormalies you'll find in Bukit Gasing are shaking cars with fogged up windows :)

Fiza said...

chics: well, u did visit the zoo so that's another way of appreciating nature.

zed: one of my regrets is not having the chance of climbing mt. tahan. lucky u.

Madness: hear! hear!

babe: i guess telekom forgot to pay up to the other 'local inhabitants'

inn: that's not a very nice way to die, now is it?

KA: you should hv walloped that striker of theirs la.

Sports Freak:aik, macam ada pemgalaman je.. =)