As the water wasn’t great we went on a couple of boat trips up the Mangrove lined river away from the town. The first one we did at night and this was a fire-fly watching trip. Basically the boat cruises up very slowly along the riverbank with the driver waving a red torch above his head. This attracts the fire-flies as the male of the species thinks it’s the female. What else would get a bunch of blokes out of the trees? The effect is staggering as thousands of what looks like little fairies come drifting out of the trees towards you and they’re so tiny but you can catch them gently and then let them fly away again. This was actually pretty cool and we had heaps of fun trying to (gently) catch the little buggers.
The other river trip we did involved going up the river again for a nature spotto where you hope to see some local wildlife. This didn’t disappoint either and we saw about five big black and yellow snakes (I think they were members of the cobras species?) asleep in the branches just above the river. Apparently they can jump and if they wanted to they could have easily just dropped down off the branch into the boat with us but luckily they are primarily nocturnal so we could observe them from less than two metres away in complete safety…apparently. As it was we saw more huge monitor lizards, birds and some kind of hybrid spider crab that looked just like a giant crab only hairy, the kind of stuff nightmares are made of really.
We also had a lovely and much needed surprise one afternoon when the bar/venue next to our guesthouse sprang to life with the sound of hardcore heavy metal music! This was very much unexpected and we went over to check it out. It was a Malaysian metal extravaganza that had been going all afternoon with bands from all around the country. This was the last thing I was expecting on an otherwise quiet afternoon but after a month on the road I was only too happy to hear some angry live music Malaysian style. Unfortunately by the time we were aware of the goings on there was only one band, ‘The Padangs’ left to play. They were obviously who all the kids were waiting for and they were actually really good. Super heavy with lots of screaming, I was in Asian metal heaven! The locals had their own brand of metal dancing that involved one guy hanging onto his friends legs, while his friend had his arms on the floor (think wheel-barrow races at Primary school). The guy with his upper body on the floor would then leap up off the ground and slap/punch those around him while his friend spun him around in a circle-hilarious! I thought to myself “why hasn’t anyone at home thought of this?”. Then I realised if you hit the floor and then came back up again in a bar or venue at home you’d come up covered in spit, beer and broken glass! So anyways ‘The Padangs’ went off and it was over all too soon.
Back to the surfing. So one evening I was getting in a few waves before dark when I met one of the local sea creatures in a most unfortunate way. The sun was just about to sink below the horizon and as all surfers will do I thought to myself ‘may as well get one more in eh’. With that I began the walk through the shallows back up the point. I was just exchanging a few words with one of the local guys when I felt the most extraordinary feeling in the side of my foot. I literally stopped what I was saying and doubled over grabbing my right foot. You can imagine the kinds of thoughts (foul expletives) that were running through my mind. The bloke I was talking to was saying ‘jellyfish jellyfish’ and I was saying fffaaarrrkk!! I looked at my foot and it was bleeding out of a cut about an inch wide and it was burning like I couldn’t believe. I turned tail and raced back to my towel on the beach and tried pressing that against the cut to stop the bleeding. All that did was put sand all through the cut and it was beginning to feel like my foot was on fire. I was at the end of the point and our guesthouse was about 500m away which was looking like a damn long way just at that moment. I realised that I was on my own and I had no way to call anyone for help so I was going to have to walk back. Shit. The stagger that ensued was one of the most painful experiences of my life and I was really starting to wonder just what the hell had bitten or stung me. Once I got back to where Kate was at our bungalow I started on the whole ‘get the first aid kit No I’m not joking seriously just get it arrg my foot No really I got stung or bit I don’t…just get it lemme sit down I’m freaking dying over here please just get something arrg it hurts like a arrg please do something get the panadol the aspirin anything I don’t care Jesus please and so on. All in all I think I took it pretty well really. Kate said ‘I’ll either pee on it or get some vinegar.’ I said ‘I’ll take the vinegar thanks’ and she went to the store across the road to get some. When she put that on there it did absolutely nothing and by now I was ready to cut the damn thing off! The bloke at the guest house took one look at it and said ‘sting ray stingray-very painful’. I said…something (use your imagination here). Sting ray stings bleed and jellyfish ones don’t so with the diagnosis made it was off to the doctors which turned out to be about twenty km’s back up the main highway. The next hour or so was one that I would rather forget but if I had to describe it I would probably say it’s like someone pushing really hot thin sharp knives or daggers into wherever you’ve been stung and then taking them out and pushing them in again. Once we found a doctor and waited for her to finish up her previous patient I was in the room and having needles inserted into the wound in order to kill the pain, sounds like a bit of a contradiction really but it worked. After that it was just another quick shot in the arm to guard against any allergic reactions as the poison makes it’s way around your body. Add in a few tablets like anti-histamines, swelling reducers, anti-biotics and painkillers and I was right as rain. Travelling is full of so many rewarding and life-changing experiences that let you grow as a person….yeah right!! I was absolutely spewing that I’d managed to stand on a sting ray and I have vowed to never go through anything like that again if I can possibly help it.
Alright enough ranting, so after that little ‘mishap’ things went pretty much back to normal other than the enormous bandage on my foot, the limp and suddenly being known throughout the community as ‘that sting-ray guy’. So after a few more days we decided to move onto Kapas Island to see if we could find some crystal clear water where I could watch out for anything that might be lurking beneath the surface but more about that next time. Til then.
This is Tim after had been to the doctor for his sting ray sting.
The stingray cut.
One of the many big spiders we have seen. These spiders are called The batik orb-weaver nephila antipodiana spider (the guy at the Butterfly farm in Cameron Highlands called it Ox spider so not sure which name is correct). We have seen heaps of these absolutely everywhere. Their body is big - about as big as your thumb and with the his long legs it is a hands-breadth. The guesthouse owner said that the spider isn't poisonous and he said that it doesn't move at all - he just stays in the same spot all day. Even though he said this I kept an eye on it every morning... and guess what - she moved and we never saw her again.... If you want to learn more about this spider then go to this website http://malaysianspiders.blogspot.com/search/label/nephila%20antipodiana%20spider
This is a cute tiny bird in his nest.
For dinner one night we had a Nasi Ayam (Chicken and rice) - a malaysia dish. I was looking at the chicken thigh and i thought it was pretty damn large for a normal chicken - really large!! I thought that we were eating cat (there are millions of cats in Malaysia)- the size of the chicken bones i thought matched the size of the cats bones. I was then convinced that i had eaten cat until i saw these huge chickens/roosters and figure we must have eaten one of these beast.
Cherating beach and the surf break in the background - it is sooo small that you probably can't even see it.
The punk festival goers dancing to 'The Panangs'.
The singer of 'The Panangs'
The mangrove river cruise. We cruised up the Cherating river where the guide spotted snakes, lizards, otters, and crabs amongst the mangrove trees.
Houses set on the river bank..
A mangove seed.
A poisonous snake. We saw many of these chilling out in the mangrove trees. Our guide said that they would only come down from the trees every few days to catch a feed of rat or a fish.
A Hornets nest. We didn't hang out near it for very long - thankfully!!
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