& the real trip begins

it's monday night here, the twenty-fifth, and alex and i are in an internet cafe in taman negara-- go figure, who knew they'd have the internet in the middle of the rainforest? i'm going to post my observations from my journal from yesterday's train ride.;


it's 4:45 am and alex and i are on the train along with one other man. we are going to jarentut, a town three hours from taman negara, where we are headed. taman negara is the largest national park in malaysia. we are going there to hike and sightsee, as it is nothing but rainforest. in here live elephants, tigers, bears, and leopards, but those are animals we probably won't even come within ten miles of. last night i only got about three hours of sleep because of how early we got up, so i'm going to pass out for a bit.

it's 8 am, and we have about five more hours on the train. i woke up about thirty minutes ago. alex is offending the entire train right now by clipping her nails (with my bright green insect nail clipper! yesss). just a little bit ago an elderly woman with a basket speaking maylay asked us if we wanted to buy any food from her, but we have no ringgets, so we couldn't. just having left singapore, we have yet to change over our money. the man behind us heard her, spoke to her, bought some fruit and gave it to us. at first we were skeptical, but after watching him eat it, we tried it too. it's still a mystery fruit to us, but it was good and refreshing. to have not accepted the gift would have been extremely offensive.

we are, by now, the complete minority on the train. it has filled slowly over the last three hours, and we get many looks from locals. no one speaks english. the traintracks are lined with palm trees, and at this hour in the morning, the sun comes in the train and out from behind the clouds. we hope it's going to be a clear day, but the weather here can be so unpredictable.

the villages come and go, and they're beautiful, with monochromatic rainbows for roofs and rust that adds character and waterstains on the wooden doors that build unique designs. i can see the backyard trees through the missing boards in some of the houses and i'm sure the people who live there appreciate the moving air. the children here are amazing, with wide eyes when they see alex and i.

outside, i see dense trees with thick, tropical leaves. the colors are textbook kelly and lime greens, sometimes with fruit growing that i dont even recognize. i see some paths, dirty trails that are only shoulder width apart for one person to walk through. i can barely see between branches.

but sometimes there are large fields with nothing but ash and brush.

this is the statistic they talk about, because about fifteen minutes after staring out the window, i see an open area with tree trunks that have been turned into logs. they're lying in piles, with smoke coming from machinery i dont recognize.

this old train feels like a wooden roller coaster without the fun ups and downs. alex is now talking to a local, but she doesn't understand him and he hardly understands her. but he wants to learn english and he wants us to teach him. he turns to me and says "oh-key?" and alex tells me to say yes, so i do. he comes back five minutes later with kope (see below) from the car before us and i take it gratiously. ive been up for only an hour. i need some coffee.

..

alex and i napped a little bit around eleven on that same train ride. i woke up to a loud black man speaking maylay to a woman who wanted no parts of it. at this point, i'm taking advantage of the fact that no one speaks our language, so i say something to alex about wanting to get off the train. the next thing i know, the loud malaysian man asks me, loudly of course, "why? it's a beautiful day, and the ride ain't so bad!"

shit. i gotta watch what i say now?

as it turned out, he taught english in the northern part of the country. lucky for us, he was a drunk muslim, and we got to deal with him.

just in case you didn't know, it's strictly against muslim religion to drink. and the country's laws.

in his drunken stupor, he so kindly serenaded alex and i with songs from the beatles, celine dion, michael jackson, pink floyd, and greece.

"i had four beers. they were eight percent alcohol each. i'm thirty-two percent drunk!!"

..

this morning alex and i didn't need an alarm. instead we were woken up so politely by the call to prayer over the intercom in the building next to our hostel.

we woke up around eight to make reservations for the next day before catching some breakfast. for a stuffed banana pancake, coffee (kope), and an onion omelette i spent 3 usd.

i love cheap.

..

tomorrow we'll leave here for a two-day journey to ko samui in thailand.

..

i'll make the hike post later with pictures.
ps. kope = coffee. brewed with sugar water. and finished off with sweetened condensed milk. it's heavenly.






Y rae. racho. d.