Musings of a barefoot traveller

Day 1: 5 Sep 2005- JB-Kajang-Fraser's We had everything planned out. Meet early, pack breakfast while TT settle the car, and leave on a weekday so there's no queue at JB customs. As we departed from the car rental office at 9+am, we were feeling quite smug about departing on schedule. Then...Ming and TT noticed a persistent draft in the car, and we discovered that the rear window would not close completely! Reluctantly, we U-turned (not that easy to do on some Malaysian roads), and headed back to JB town, concluding that we'll never start a roadtrip before 11am. Our 1st driver! To save time, we did the ultimate sacrifice by eating at a highway stop instead of going to Melaka for lunch :). However, as we veered closer to KL, realised that we were pretty near KAJANG, and the famous Kajang satay we missed last time going to Nuang !! A quick round of consultations later, we concluded that no-one was in any particular hurry to ascend the mountain, and anyway, how often do you g...

Day 3: 7 Sept- Goodbye Fraser's!! Sniff!! Hello Chiling!! And a mysterious night stop.... Well, I did kinda wake up at 7+am, the sun was shining, wisps of mist brushed against the pine tree tops, and it looked like a brilliant morning for some light hiking and birding....just that...was simply too engrossed in my volume #8 of Lucifer, and Ming wasn't exactly up and raring to go as well! Shortly after I put down the comic, wondered why I haven't received any SMS'es in the last 12 hours. Looked into Eric's pouch and zounds!! IT WASN'T THERE!!!! Roused the rest of the folks and searched the bedroom more thoroughly. It still wasn't there!!! Heart racing slightly, got Eric to accompany me to the restaurant where we had dinner last night and the tavern where we had drinks. Zero. Zilch. Nada.... I can only feel slightly relieved that I backed most of the phone numbers up already, well, up to the letter 'P', and anything not in the SIM card. In the midst of ...

Was coming up from a rainy, cold, morning dive, and heard Daniel calling,"Dolphins!! Quick!! Dolphins!" My 1st thought- this better not be a joke. Back on Mr Loh's bumboat, the water was slightly choppy...and empty. However, Daniel, Marco and Mr Loh were all insisting that dolphins were actually JUMPING out of the water just before. Okaaaayy...braved the rain some more and squinted into the distance...and...what's that? Dorsal fins just grazed the surface! Wow! And a few seconds later, one jumped into the air with a graceful flick. It was so amazing to watch them it took incredible presence of mind to grab the camera and position it towards them. As we motored towards SJ jetty, could see Jani jumping up and down (guess her ankle must be healed by now), and more jumps! And breaches! And flips! These were the Indo-Pacific dolphins, could see their pinkish underbellies and mottled grey backs, and Jani said there was even a completely pink baby! Nice view for lunch break ...