A Rainy Day Story

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Close your eyes. Now imagine a long stretch of dazzling white sand and the sun setting over the Adaman Sea. That's where I am writing you from. It's an island named Langkawi in the Northwest of Malaysia. Currently on an Asian summer odyssey, flying solo with a love of all things natural; undeterred by bad weather and evil monkeys. I like to write my stories due to my ever disappearing memory and to prove to my future self that I did live a life of adventure.




This morning, I awoke to the rain that I had fallen asleep to. Darn it! It's the first day of rain that I have encountered so I guess I'm lucky. Around midday I grew restless and decided a little bit of precipitation can't stop me! I've driven through a typhoon, don't you know. So I got myself onto a rental motorbike and in no time I’m cruising the wet roads heading to the 7 Wells Waterfall. Upon arrival I bought ice cream and chips for some energy, considering I chose to forgo breakfast. I needed some sugar for the 600 step climb to the first pool. On the way I ravaged my ice cream, saving the chips for a victory snack at the top- some 5km up a mountain. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, there's a slight issue. There happened to be an aggressive monkey stalking me for my bag of chips. After a quick battle of hissing and kicking, I proudly warded off the evil monkey... for the time being.




The rain had stopped but the humidity was through the roof and the water felt great, but I have a mission to accomplish so on I went. A sign posted at the trail head advises to not bring food on the trail, as to avoid unwanted animal attention. (They should have put that at the bottom of the stairs!) Either way, I conceded to munching on my chips before I continued, to escape another close call. Unfortunately, the aforementioned evil monkey was still lurking in the distance. Literally as soon as the bag started to crinkle, it began charging at me! More for out of fear of rabies shots than this nuisance, I threw the bag as far away from me as possible. Ego slightly bruised, I consoled myself that it takes more than that to stop me, and off I ventured into the jungle. Due to the storm from the previous night, the small trail is deserted- as no one was interested in climbing a muddy mountain that has become strewn with fallen trees and branches.Now let's assess what I'm wearing: sandals and a dress. Okay probably not the best choice. Generally, there's a maintained-for-tourist trail but not here. That's the cool thing about Langkawi, it isn't over developed; so jungle trekking it is!




The humidity engulfed my entire body in sweat. My mind began to wander. I pondered about what animals were out there and what I would do if I was attacked. I thought about how many mozzie bits I would rack up, and what other parasites might have been lurking on the bushes I had been crawling through. I passed a sign with emergency numbers, which I found ironic as I had no phone and there was absolutely no one else out there. After sizing up my next obstacle on the path, I wiped some mud specks off my legs that I noticed had been there a while. Oh, they didn’t move… what kind of dirt is this? I rubbed it harder and to my horror a curled up leech was stretched out on my shine! There were 3 on my left shin and one on my right shin and one on my right ankle. I feel obligated here to mention they were teeny tiny, mini leeches, but leeches non-the-less and equally terrifying.




Maybe it’s a good thing no one else was around because the ensuing panic attack and freak out was, if nothing else, overly dramatic. For my sanity, I high tailed it out of there but I didn’t know exactly where the leeches came from, so I was scared of everything. Trees in my way, all these suspicious branches and all the water… ahhh my brain was on overload. Paranoia set in. About every 200 meters, I stopped to inspect my body to insure no more blood sucking parasites decided to hitch a ride.



To completely shatter my nerves, of course there was a big one between my toes. I had probably missed it from before because this one was much bigger, as it filled up on my sweet crimson nectar. I couldn’t get it off the first try and started screaming and flailing around. Even the evil monkey would have been afraid if he happened upon this scene. Mother Nature must have mistaken this for a rain dance, because shortly after, the sky started to sweat again. I didn’t care. I was walking like a maniac, not stopping to cool off at the first pool, straight down the 600 stairs, to the parking lot, on my motorbike and onto the highway where no leech would dare follow. I guess I’m not the nature adventurer I fancied myself as.

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Photos

Chenang Beach
This is where I came to chill after an adventurous day, with a nice cold brewskie and write this story.

Mt. Gunung Raya
View looking South, off to the wonders of Malaysia.

keepin it local
Tons of local villages and docks are scattered around the coast of this sleepy island.