At times, I just can’t imagine how’s the
life of people who sees things in black and white, often stereotype. These
people- philosophically known as post-modernist – do not realize that things
should be put multi-coloured, and that people have multiple ways in conveying
messages. To share, people may blog. And people may just prefer facial
expressions and body gesture, too. Nevertheless, more often than not, words on
papers might be too heavy for some that they talk a lot to share. To have a
pillowtalk, to nag macam maknenek, to rant, to vlog, and to blablabla….
Oh well, the not-so-long introduction would
be enough to explain why I’m not quite in the mood to blog lately. Tu je nak
cakap… yeah, you get my point there. =.=
My last weeks of my third semester is hectic
that I can’t barely breathe eventhough the semester exam had passed breeze. Nak
cari masa senggang walaupun sebentar pada waktu malam memang sangat payah.
Sekejap-sekejap ada ‘meeting’, sekejap-sekejap ada je orang yang longgokkan
‘task’ kat aku.
And it was because of these busy-ness that
I joined persatuan silat cekak ustaz hanafi trip to Janda Baik; well, to have a
kind of retreat I guess, besides taking care of trip’s budget (sebenarnya
memang terus ambil alih tugas daripada dia… hoh) from this problematic egomaniac
advisor that can’t deal situations of college’s administrative formalities. Oh
gawd, I better stop lamenting.
However, the juniors’ committee did their
best job in preparing activities for us. And it was a clear manifestation though
through this event that I, somehow lose my touch to nature (not in a sense of
being a greenthumbers).
Janda Baik was, and still is, a
land above wind that constantly humid with mosses and lichens on tree barks but
surely there are times when heat is intolerable at certain days in a year. If my
memory serves, I still remembered those days when Janda Baik was rumored by the
elders where ghosts, pontianaks and spirits roamed the area and children were
threatened not to play outside as dusk subsided. Globalisation, however, fades
the beliefs as people and international tourists thronged here. Including us,
the locals… :P
masterchef... sape lg kalau bukan ayap.
We checked into a resort named Centella
Asiatica in the first day. ‘twas a resort with balanced details of softscapes
and hardscapes I can say. We had bbq later at night and played fifa games while
eating and conducted internal masterchef competition. All things went easy
until later at midnight that I realized the kiblat direction in the surau
deviated at about more than 10 degrees. The heck..?!!! Nasib baik ada bulan
sebagai panduan, dan Allahlah yang menentukan perjalanannya. =)
The next day we went jungle trekking. The track
was slippery all the way up to the waterfall because it was raining the night
earlier. Leeches were expected to drain out our blood, but not a single
bloodsucker managed to catch my legs although I just wore a three-quarter and
short socks. I was delighted about this, also with the fact that there’s other
members who were attacked by many leeches even though diorang pakai seluar
panjang siap masuk dalam stoking… hahaha.
tanak nasi dalam buluh
I could still recalled childhood memories of
being wandering in the dusuns with my uncle in the back of my mind when I was
at the age of four, I think. Dusun durian that belongs to my late grandfather
(may Allah bless him) in Gua Musang was very dense back then that there’s a few
occasion I was been chased by wildboars and also an encounter with Pak Belang. Leeches
were abundant and they loved sticking their suckers in my small tiny legs after
a vacation into the dusun, but, to my continued amazement, I found hardly any
leeches under my uncle’s sarong. That, I thought was very awesome. It was only
then, that my uncle shared his magic tricks of getting leech-free in jungles,
with wearing only slippers.
Lata Tampit was a sight to behold, with its
7-levels near-vertical waterfall. Our jungle guides were very generous in sharing
us jungle survival tips. They explained the ways to cook rice in bamboos, to
ssiang ikang, to carefully select the edible jungle herbs, to differentiate the
onaks and duris and many more. Dah macam tak payah buat Duke Of Edinburgh
Awards kot… hahah!!!
buluh sebagai cawan pinggan mangkuk hayun
It has been a very long time from my
previous adventure into the jungle, and the only part that I think I’d lost my
touch of nature is, to be aware of the surrounding while trekking. I looked to
the earth most of the time that I neglect what’s above, beside and behind me. And
it was of this track-focusness that I bumped onto an overhead bamboo. Sudah terhantuk
baru nak terngadah.
Magically,
nevertheless, I kept my coordinates intact. The skill of affirming north,
south, east and west as well as the position of sun’s ecliptic trails were
ingrained solidly in my semiconscious mind, I think, as I walked down the
track. This skill, as I asked the elderly people, is common amongst anak laut,
not jungle people. And oh, penguins are the sifumaster of this skill….
