Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Water, water, everywhere



Kiss the Monkey


My clearest image of Sarawak is an angry sea trying to dash me against the rocks. Also my sister Jackie. Also my sister Julie. Julie hurt her toe. Jackie and I, emerge bruised, bleeding freely, after a bout with the sea. It was so angry, it was foaming. The surf roared. Every time you lifted your head, another wave dashed you against the rocks. We got out of there. Barely. Intact.

Cuts and scratches are funny after the fact. We examine them with interest, tracing the network of scabs on our arms, our legs. A bruise is good for a laugh. Maybe two. The larger the bruise, the more impressive. Jackie beat me there. She fell on her sit-upon and sustained quite a nasty one. I fell through a gap in a wooden bridge in the jungle and was similarly empurpled. Upper thigh. I'll show you if you want. It's still there, purple around the edges, getting better. Mom makes a face when she sees it and suggests Aloe Vera. I tell her she doesn't really care because she didn't wake me up putting Skin Repair on the edges of my broken skin like she did with Jackie.

We squished through a rainforest, to get to a waterfall where the water was red, as if with blood, but it was really because of the alkaline soil (Simon said so and he knows what's what). It was nice sitting on the edge of a little waterfall. Kind of like a jacuzzi. We all slipped on moss-covered stones. I nearly died on the first 750 metres which was steeply uphill, scrambling up slick stones, slipping and sliding and breathing heavily. When you're 20 kgs overweight and severely unfit, that's what you do.

And then it got easier. The ground sort of levelled out. I thought every tree root was a snake. And because of the continuous rain before we came, we squished through kilometres of waterlogged terraces. Mud, by any other name, is still mud. New trainers soaked through. (If you can't tell, I'm too sedentary for the adventurous life...give me a nice book, a notebook, a cup of tea and my iPod, and leave me alone, I will create new worlds. Drag me along on adventurous expeditions, and you'll soon be wishing you hadn't...puff, puff, puff, ache, ache, ache, complain, complain, complain)

We saw some nice proboscis monkeys and Jackie nearly stepped on a snake. More adventures. I preferred the monkeys. Cute buggers with large honkers. We saw them up close munching on leaves in the mangrove swamps. Why are swamps always so wet?

In fact, why is everything so wet?

Water, water, everywhere...I come from Johor...have you seen what they're saying about us in the news these days?

We're drowning.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenn, glad you are back. I've missed your stories. (I like to keep up with what Mom's doing! Now I see she's favoring Jackie! :-)

I know what you mean about the 'angry sea'. We lived on the Oregon coast for 17 years - and I developed a healthy respect for the sea. As for Jackie's 'sit-upon' and your upper thigh bruises, I think I'll just take your word for it! :-)

Your adventure sounds wonderful. I've only been close to one waterfall, and it was so big, we wouldn't have been sitting under it.

Your weather forecasts don't show any reprieve in sight from all that rain - better stay in with a good book - or get some rain gear!

P.S. that's the ugliest monkey I've ever seen, and I wouldn't want to see him in person!

Anonymous said...

Facile credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate.

I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe.

Adventure? Excitement? A blogger craves not these things. At least, not if he reads your blog.

Your words make you easily the most visible invisible person I've ever not seen.

Glad you've come back to the fold to throw us all the occasional line.

Susanna said...

Hey, you're back! Good to see you again!

Jenn said...

Jackie: Awwwww, poor Proboscis monkey. You dowanna see him? Never mind. Usually, they're quite shy. And they don't like loud noises. Adventures are always wonderful (in the recounting if not the reality). I prefer the Mummy-stories too.

PTB: Thanks. (very impressed with your Latin) Mens sana in corpore sano. I occupy a powerful amount of space so as to be twice as visible as the next person. Mom's first remark on seeing me when I got back from Sarawak was "Jenny! Have you been stuffing yourself????"

We call it tact.

A thinker: Thanks. Good to be back.

A thinker: Hello!

Anonymous said...

Well, Jenn, if your monkey doesn't like loud noises, there isn't much chance I'd ever see him anyway! I've never been known to be very quiet. :-)

Jenn said...

Jackie: I hear you tip-toeing through the tulips.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jenn
Wonderful to have you back! The adventures sound wonderful. Reading this, it feels like I was almost there!
The monkey, I'll stay away from...that's for sure...
catch up soon.

Jenn said...

Praby, I thought you were sporting. Come on, pucker up and kiss the dude!

Anonymous said...

It's not my Latin. Its the epigram to Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I'm not that kind of smart.

For some reason I remember epigrams better than poems sometimes, though in this case it seemed fitting.

Nessa said...

I'm glad you survived the rocks and the water. I can feel the squishy between my toes.

Jenn said...

Well it's pretty brilliant to remember epigrams. My Latin is severely limited. As Jennings said, hic haec hoc.

Jenn said...

Nessa: You wish you were there? :)