Penang National Park Monkey Beach

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Early Sunday morning my new friends/photographers picked me up in their hunting jeep to go to Monkey Beach. We decided to take a boat in and hike back. We had the place to ourselves which was exactly the plan. The sun lit the white sand leaving the jungle and scattered rocks in the shade but you could almost see the line of shade disappearing. We got to work. They set up lighting, I climbed on to rocks, we all kept an eye on the monkeys who stood near by looking for an opportunity to steal our backpacks. Around 11am hikers started arriving from the corner of the beach. The sun was blazing making the lighting situation a little more challenging but we got our last shots and packed up to start the trek. It was a difficult trek. Halfway back it started to rain, then pour and yet another tropical storm appeared. We hid with other hikers on a covered boat jetty. The lighting and thunder sounded like they were right above us. We had to stop and wait because we had very expensive camera equipment. The storm got worse. I was scared. The couple kept asking me if I was alright and offering me food. Thank god they saved their stories of cattle and football players in the open perishing from lightning for the drive home. As we hiked along in the rain I noticed how the photographer made friendly conversation with everyone we passed often exchanging jokes and making people laugh. He reminded me of my dad.

I was so grateful to have been taken in by two different families on the other side of the world. It was as if my support network in California had popped up in Malaysian in a different form, like the same hand under a sheet popping up in a different place. I thought of Dustin Hoffman's demonstration of existentialism in the movie ‘I Heart Huckabee’s.‘ We are all connected. It's beautiful thing to trust in humans.* It is one of the many gifts of travel that has increasingly made it easier for me to venture farther away from my shell. As a global citizen, I felt at home in Malaysia.

*don’t worry Mom and Papi, I’m still extra careful

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