PRE
EXPEDITION CURSE (PEC)
10.30am, 23 August. The rented Getz just wouldn’t start!
Huey and I waited 45 minutes for the rental guys to come to the
rescue.
They took only 5 seconds to rectify the problem. Lesson: Always
put your auto car to DRIVE-mode when you start the engine.
Huey tried to rectify the situation by rattling on his self-fulfilling
prophecy: “Something must go wrong before the trip starts”.
And that, wasn’t a mishap, yet.
Five hours and one Chicken Riceball meal in Malacca, Mishap No.
2 was waiting.
Huey tried to squeeze the car into TC’s driveway. But brushed
against the Iron Gate, causing a big dent and some paint fell off.
No one was injured.
The guys sent it to the mechanic immediately.
SET
OFF
4am,
we set off from KL after nasi padang, maggi goring and teh tarik
susu – driving in the into the morning's light, through winding
roads and settling dewdrops.
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We
finally arrived, past Gerik, at a Police guardhouse by Tasik Temenggor,
with a carpark, sanitation, and a simple cafe. 7.30am. That was
our launch point.
When Huey first took out his feathercraft, it was a shock. I had
never seen any kayak of that sort before. With a skin, or is it
a membrane?
It was packed into a bag, making us look as if we were backpackers
who'd hike the depths of Antarctica and float through crossings
with a leather kayak.
To assemble, Huey laid out the tools - skin, bones, and ligaments
of the kayak.
But we had also become a circus. The Kahuna was the whip; we were
the animals, crouching on the floor, assembling it.
The audience? Malaysian Ah-peks who slowly gathered at the launch
point.
"How much like this (the kayak)?"
"Where you all going?"
"How many days?" "Where you come from?"
Mama-mia circus trivia!
Later in Day 2, an orang asli boy, aged 10-ish, saw us suffering/
paddling under the hot sun and almost offered a free speed-boat
ride to civilisation. Although his generosity didn't come through,
the boy blurted: "What happened?"
What really happened is that four city dwellers needed a breather
to see the leaves and the trees, because it was more important than
enjoying toilets that flush.
So they left their luxuries for the lake.
Except for 13.5 litres of water each; Tupperwares of food including
treats like dried mangoes, chilli-crab cup noodles and tasty army
rations; eas-to-pitch tents, garbage bags, a lonely lamp, half-ripe
bananas, Muesli bars and preserved dates for adequate dietary fibre
and bowel movement during the trip.
Everything cloth and battery powered snapped in waterproof duffels
and ziplocks. Not forgetting Geoff's GPS system.
THE START OF A THOUSAND STROKES
A spilt moment, a roomful of memories. The throbbing in your heart
is incredible when you have not entered a kayak for 8 years. Suddenly
you are floating in the water.
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The
first ripple. The first stroke forward into the horizon, and the
glide.... like flight.
I cringed. Then paddled on for 500metres just to let those heavy
memories settle.
I am an amorphous creature, the kayak is my skin, my organ, my wings.
There is water bobbing beneath my legs.
It wasn't so long ago, that I naively declared to Vera, a senior
in school, while standing on the KLSSC jetty: "I love the sea,
I Love the sea!"
Because you cannot grasp its meaning, you cannot own it, and you
can never understand it, even if you think you could.
Later when Vera was gone I didn't have the courage to row. Because
a cloud would appear, revealing her ponytail, her smile and the
last look we all had of her.
…I turned and waited for the guys under a bridge.
They
were stuffing objects into their kayaks, making sure nothing was
missed.
Huey told me all Kayakers have good souls. His theory could be right.
1ST HOUR
TC has another theory - paddle near the land, not in the middle
of an open lake, there is more wildlife to be seen.
Theory 2 - paddle near Geoff, if you want to see wildlife.
Theory 3 - paddle near Huey, if you want shade, and if you want
to ride his backwash (hah!)
Theory 4 - paddle near TC, if you seek insights and a chat.
I was trailing behind and began to wander if it is ever possible
to last three days, when the first hour is only so slowly creeping
by...
SPONGEBOBBING IN THE LAKE
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If
we grew very long legs that could reach the bottom of the lake,
we’d be stepping on layers of vegetation, letting out trapped
air bubbles.
The Temenggor, a valley inhabited by Orang Aslis, became a lake
in 1979. Dams were built to eradicate some people. And Orang Aslis
had to move up the hills to avoid rising water levels.
Quickly disappearing under the flood, were the graves of orang aslis
ancestors, and heavy machinery used by loggers, which they did not
have time to remove.
Some animals also perished, along with insect species, perhaps,
never discovered.
No Noah’s ark.
A cross section of Tasik Temenggor would look like a sunken underwater
village, with four kayaks floating on it. The lake is a cemetery.
And we bask in its beauty.
There could be a Lochness monster. Or a mermaid. Or hands that lurk
underneath.
The trees around us look dead. No leaves, only waterlogged trunks.
But some survived and trees grew mangrove-like breathing roots to
adapt to the water.
CAMP 1
At a base with empty slit houses, the guys put up hammocks and assembled
tents. Huey obtained army rations during his reservist, and we cooked
them on tiny muddied steps, eating vacuum-packed Dhal rice with
chicken and seafood pasta for dinner.
Again, the food was packed many years ago. I was beginning to feel
a little spooked, mummified, everything we were living and eating
came from the past.
CAMP
2, DAY 2
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TC
had a poop in the water while grabbing onto a tree trunk. There
are photographs to proof.
Geoff cooked up more rations, this time on a bamboo table. We found
shelter in what looked like the ‘community centre’ of
the orang asli, on an island with a pitch and a raised bamboo longhouse.
It stormed on both nights. With winds so strong you don’t
know where they could have come from. TC and I heard footsteps too,
but the rest didn’t think much of it.
At 5.45am on Day 3, Geoff and Huey went for a morning row. They
reported sightings of real animals – Hornbills and monkeys.
Huey also saw a family of wild boars sleeping by a stream the day
before, but didn’t seem too excited.
Geoff saw a pair of hornbills up a tree, and heard their wings flap
as the prehistoric looking birds flew away.
I saw dead insects and fungi. And a pair of dragonflies making love
in flight.
All of us also spotted butterflies and mushrooms on elephant poop.
You know…the trip was amazing.
It helps you settle and rediscover yourself. Like… Zen. Like
a different state of being.
It clears your mind from the daily humdrum.
Like a much-needed temple retreat.
I learnt that little in the core of my soul has changed.
Perhaps the water, the technique keeps everything constant.
Only the surroundings and circumstances distract sometimes.
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text & photos: Mindy
