48 Hour Film Project! Shooting and Death Scenes!

It’s always hard to wake up in the wee hours of the morning on a Saturday. The time is 6:30am and I am finding it hard to establish motor control over my body despite my alarm already hollering for the last 15 minutes :p. After doing the necessary morning rituals, I was back on the NKVE, hurtling towards TTDI to gather with the others at Linus's place. We had breakfast at our common haunt, Devi's Corner, before heading out to the 1st shooting stop, the bus stop along Jalan Dato' Sulaiman, TTDI.

On the set with the team...

For this shoot, most of the dialogue will be in good old, Bahasa Malaysia. ;) Therefore the expertise of our thespian, Mr. Faisal is needed for this task. While we filled our bellies, Faisal and Kay Lee were busy working and 'feeling' out the translated script. ;) The shoot started at about 9am, with Kay Lee and Nurafidah starring after their faces were generously doused with makeup by our artist, Lyana Dee ;).

Lyana Dee (Daffy's makeup artiste) working her magic...

The weather was generally cooperative, the sun was up with little cloud cover, although the sound of passing traffic was quite a nuisance. Apparently, the people of TTDI with their better access to bigger and more powerful cars tend to create a larger amount of noise when they drive by, VROOOOMMMMM!!! ;) As we are filming at the bus stop, our activities also managed to attract a few people within passing buses (it is a bus stop after all ;)) although fortunately no crowds formed around the shooting area (I wonder if it was done in my hometown, Klang, what would happen?) ;).

Filming at the bus stop. Surprisingly this outwardly 'mundane' looking public amenity is quite popular as a film set! :)

Prior to the shoot, my director gave me an active chance to contribute to the 'wellbeing' of the shoot. Calling out my name initially illicited a confused response because on this very fine day, there were two 'Eddie's' on the set, the other one being our Director of Photography (who also seems to have an affinity for red Mazdas :D). The 'task' our director reserved for 'Eddie' leaves no doubt as to which 'Eddie' he was calling out. It was to pick up rubbish around the bus stop so that the set don't look so dirty, something which I guess would have made the other 'Eddie' go bonkers. :p *Sigh* The things I do for my 15 secs of fame... :p ;).

The DIRECTOR! :D

After 3 hours of golf ball swirling in a glass jar and bizarre explanations of how someone could keep a love one forever at one's side, we finally took a break at about 1:00pm for lunch, a little bit behind schedule.

Kay Lee must be thinking, "Little ball, little ball in a jar, who is the fairest of them all?" ;)

By now, I had a second task from our esteemed director and that is to ensure everyone gets fed their share of chicken rice. For 'halal' fare, Sum assisted me by getting the required foodstuff from Devi's. Meal time over, we went over to the next set, a motorcycle shop in Kayu Ara. There was a brief spell of rain which fortunately petered out rather quickly. No matter, we were 'safe' as the next shoot is held indoors.

At the recently 'commandeered' motorcycle shop in Kayu Ara

Located close to where we shot House about a year ago, the motorcycle shop was 'commandeered' by our ever resourceful Mr. Dennis, for a small fee to the owner of course. Thankfully there were also no muscular thugs to harrass us like the last time. Guess now is the time I get to fulfill my '15 seconds of fame', posing as the protagonist's father's motorcycle riding friend ;).

Ah... Director Linus giving pointers to a noob... :p ;)

Greeting Mr. Danial Mamat (Faisal), I was to exclaim about his new name tag, his mispelt name and then comment about his daughter as she passed by. The longest line I had was, 'Wah, tiap kali saya datang, anak you semakin membesar. Dahlah macam mak dia, Cantik pun macam mak dia'. That was however, reduced to 'Wah, anak you semakin membesar ya?". Why? Well, because we are shooting on celluloid, so if you mess up that's one length of unretrievable useless tape, oh as well as oh... one minor detail? I kept forgetting the extended line! :D

"Fuyoh! Ada name tag baruuuuuu!!!" ;)

Admittedly, I was rather pleased that the remark on my little star protagonist was mostly removed, the line did sound a little bit 'not right'. ;) At length, it was Faisal, who acted opposite me that had to babble a long string of stuff after my line. No sweat for our veteran thespian! :D

I had to leave quickly after the motorcycle shop scene as I had appointments galore this day. Pretty unusual really, because my Saturdays are usually quite vacant for this 'quantum singularity' ;). After redoing the scene from different angles and almost being made to a 'tango' with Faisal, I had to reluctantly bid the crew goodbye. :( My phone was already buzzing with people waiting for me at the next destination. ;)

At this point, I do have to mention one rather strange event that happened during the shoot though. It sort of happened while Carol was holding the clapper board in front of me and Faisal as we were made to do the near tango for the camera. She apparently saw 'someone' passed behind the both of us on the monitor that was hooked up with the camera. Eddie (the other one), who was behind the camera saw that 'someone' passing behind as well. Now this is where the 'strange' and a little 'bone chilling' part comes in.

Creepy... Brrr... :S

EVERYONE knew where they were and NOONE on the set saw ANYONE passing behind us at that point of time!!! :p We can't confirm anything at that time because the camera that we had cannot have the film rewound and replayed to show that scene on the display monitor. I'm told that length of film can only be replayed when it is being editted in the studio later on. Kinda ironic isn't it that our genre is er... 'HORROR'? :p

The team! :D

In any case, the whole experience was definately FUN! :D A lot different from what I would usually do as a mundane engineer, preparing datasheets and material handling studies, staring at numbers and tinkering with formulae all day :p. A breath of fresh air indeed! :D

Experiences like this also provides me with a unique opportunity to get to know new people from professions on the very opposite side of the spectrum (science vs fine arts) like Kay Lee, Faisal, Lyana and Eddie (the other one ;)).

My early departure did rob me of one very interesting experience though. Faisal's Death SCENE!

Hmm... Forensics team member or 'makeup artiste in her element? ;)

Ah... but then again, maybe we should wait patiently for the release of Linus's film and marvel at the movie magic, eh?

Death by Power Tool anyone? ;)

48 Hour Film Project! Between Hollywood and Deng Xiao Ping

Friday, 29th October 2010. I groaned as my eyes sweep in the sight of a sea of rear red hazard lamps lighted up like a Christmas tree over a snake like form that stretches from where I was just after the Subang Jaya toll down to the main artery of the NKVE. The usual Friday madness once more and I was going to be late (again)… ;)

I was headed towards TTDI, towards Linus’s house exactly, for an 8:00pm meeting to discuss on a script for his latest foray into the limelight. Sponsored by FINAS, the Kuala Lumpur 48 hour film challenge as its name suggests, requires that we cover the entire film production process, from writing the script, to shooting, dubbing, all the way down to the submission of the finished product at FINAS on Sunday 7:30pm, 31st October 2010 in a mere 48 hours!

I arrived just as the familiar figure of a pizza delivery guy was passing over boxes of goodies to yet another familiar looking long haired person over the gate. “I’ve arrived just in time, it seems!” I exclaimed as I greeted Linus. It was 8:30pm.

Mouth Watering Pizza! Courtesy of our Director, Linus... :)

Entering his home, I was introduced to the other members of the ‘board’, consisting of 6 ‘artsy -(fartsy)’ members. First up was Chris, whom I was told is a sound effects master, followed by Faisal and Kay Lee, both of whom are theatre actors. The rest are the usual suspects, Carol whom aside from fulfilling her full time role as Linus’s girlfriend and sidekick, is functioning as the project manager for this outfit. Dennis; Linus’s Art Director, Tarantulla Tamer and Survival Man Extraordinaire; and last but definitely not the least, ‘Maestro’ Linus of course, movie director with a suicidal streak and a penchant of feeding nonconventional choices of food to his pet phyton. ;)

The MAESTRO himself!

Most of the pizza had gone down the hatch when I was told of our genre we’ve got from a lucky draw held at FINAS earlier on. It was… HORROR! :D (something which our Director admitted he has little experience in doing). There were other choices, the least appealing of all was ‘MUSICAL’ which generated a round of applause to the lady that picked it off the ‘hat’ from the other participants at FINAS.

Aside from adhering to the genre, all participants also had to insert in a few specified plot elements. Ours was notably a golf ball as well as the name and profession of a character (Danial Mamat, salesman) including a specific line to be mentioned in the short film (“Okay, so what’s the problem now?”).

The plot thickens...

At the end of a 2 hour brainstorming session, two ideas for the storyline has been hashed out. Initially, the top contender was Chris’s idea developed from the Malay belief of ‘Susuk’, which was proposed as a plot basis by Faisal. ‘Susuk’ was basically a practice of inserting an object beneath the skin into some part of the body, the object supposedly bestowing the wearer with certain desired characteristics albeit at a price.

Certain taboos had to be maintained, the breaking of one might result in the wearer being cursed. Removing the curse, which was going to be the main basis of Chris’s story, would require the wearer to do ‘terrible, horrible’ things. ;)

Most of us were receptive to Chris’s idea which promised visually stunning scenes and effects.

Our Director had other ideas. ;)

“Of course I wanted this to be fun for everyone and don’t want to be some dictator imposing my ideas on everyone,” said Linus in his monotone even as he coolly scribbled images on his storyboard while Chris continued to explain his idea to the others. Democracy, HOLLYWOOD style. ;)

When his turn came, Linus proposed a more ‘practical’ plot, more on dialogue and less on effects and settings. It also involves children, which immediately sort of strikes me as a rather common plot device in Linus’s productions (House, Democracy, Prayer, all involved children). Hmmm… ;) To be fair of course, a lot of directors (including Linus’s mentor, the late Yasmine Ahmad, M. Night Shmalayan) ‘use’ children as a way to project ‘innocence and purity’. But then again, perhaps there might be OTHER ways to do the same WITHOUT using children? :p


I have to admit though, that given the amount of time allocated for the project (48 hours!), Linus’s plan seems again to be more practical. For one, the inclusion of more mundane and easy to find settings saves us a lot of time that could have been spent shuttling from one set to another. Also, the minimizing of outdoor and the elimination of night time scenes removes the unpredictable element of weather (fog and rain) from our shoot.

Oh, and did I mention that Linus is planning to shoot everything on celluloid? ;) Rather ambitious actually, considering that once you shoot with film it’s gone forever and any retakes would just take additional lengths of celluloid. Loading the film into the camera itself also is quite a science actually, requiring the whole task to be done inside a bag in complete darkness. The slightest twinkle of light can likely ruin the whole rim of film which for 20 minutes costs about RM400.00. Needless to say this thing should be left to the professionals. ;)

A professional has to also master the 'dodge' from those ever threatening nipple pinching fingers! :p

Doing what he does best, Linus eventually ‘lured’ the entire ‘board’ towards his idea. Well, he is the director after all and everyone knows that the director is always ‘right’! (even a square head engineer like me knows this hard and fast rule… ;))

He did put in a ‘veneer’ of ‘democracy’ by asking each one of us, ‘what did we think about his story and whether we agreed to it’… well, we know Linus (and Deng Xiao Ping, shortly before he sent in the tanks) of course. :p

Linus turning the tables around... ;)

Seriously though, he does have ONE big advantage over Chris. HE IS THE DIRECTOR (did I say it again?) after all and everything that will be coming up is already playing in his mind’s eye (camera angles, atmosphere, desired lighting, etc). I would venture that imagining someone else’s idea would be a little bit more difficult perhaps if that vision wasn’t absorbed and captured fully enough.

Visions of HORROR!

And so we got ourselves a plot and a storyline. All that is left is the scheduling for tommorow’s shoot. That took a few minutes and once it was agreed, it was time for most of us to head home to get some rest (our director spent the night with Carol to develop the story further by inserting dialogue and such).

At this point, I have to be thankful to our kind Director for giving me yet another opportunity to be a ‘keh leh feh’ (‘extra’ in the English parlance ;)). The last time I was a ‘keh leh feh’, it was in ‘House’, waving the tractor (handled by Dennis) that was about to smash poor Varma’s house to smithereens. You’d probably (definitely) missed me because I was there for 5 second fraction. Hahahah… This time however, I had LINES! Yipppeeee! ;) (Whether you’ll hear it or not, depends on the Director’s final cut! ;))

Belum (Or Sudah?): Day 3: Kelah Pond and Home

Day 3, Belum. The last day's attraction was perhaps the best out of all we have visited so far. The previous day's excursion (the trek to nowhere) was a disappointment (especially when I don't get to swing around my ferocious parang at stray branches, vines (and maybe a leech or two) ;)) and I wasn't really having high hopes that today's destination would be getting any better. Fortunately I was wrong, because we were brought to this very nice waterfall whose flowing waters filled a pond swarming with Kelah fish! ;) This was after we have packed up our stuff and left Sungai Papan campsite one last time. From there, it took another 45 minute boat ride to reach the landing point with a large signboard proclaiming the place as 'Lata Kelah' and a 15 minute hike to arrive at the pond.

The landing point outside the Kelah filled lake...

Fishing is allowed in the park for a fee (no fish bombing or trawling allowed though), but it is definately not allowed in this Kelah Sanctuary. We took to the water, swimming in it's cool waters.

Fish spa anyone? ;) Swimming with the fishies...

The guide insisted that we wear our life jackets while we swam, although later on, one of us decided to roll the dice and swim without it (guess who?) ;). With nothing else to do, we spend almost an hour here, taking photos and generally having fun.

Frolicking around the Kelah Pond...

A few of us swam to the bottom of the falls at the far end of the pond, although midway the water could get a little deep. At lenght I got back onshore, only to discover that my shoes had become a haven to some insects, including a very large spider! :p Shooing them away, I got my foot wear back on, joining the rest of the group heading back to our boat.

Racing home! :)

We returned to the army checkpoint to de-register ourselves. The sight of guns pointing at us no longer inspired much dread, especially after we passed a number of boats packed with soldiers heading into the reserve for which we waved and were waved back ;). We reached the jetty at close to noon, the sun beating the top of our boat's canopy, our stomachs grumbling for good and proper food! :D

Land Ho! The end of our Belum adventure?

Bidding our guides goodbye, we moved on to Grik town, stopping at the Belum resort on Pulau Banding to take a look see on more luxurious accomodations. ;) Tarrying there for not more than our hungry stomachs can allow, we moved on, finding ourselves in a Chinese restaurant along the road having our typical post trip lunch! :D

Well not before our customary post trip meal! :D

An order of fish, some meats and vegetables satisfied our hunger and soon we were joining the multitude of post holiday makers crowding the North South highway, all with one destination in mind... HOME! :D The verdict for this entire excursion?

Overall, the trip was a little bit 'too easy' for me. Touted as a 'pristine virgin jungle', it was perhaps a little too 'civilized' for my liking. Maybe another round of hard hiking and camping ala Kenong Rimba or Teluk Batik might soothe the adventurer in me... but then, that's for another time. ;)

Till the next adventure, over and out! ;)

Belum (Or Sudah?): Day 2: Walking along the banks of Perak River

Day 2 of Belum begins slowly, the coolness of the night lingering into mid-morning. Some of us had already woken by the time I stepped out of the tent, preparing their morning breakfast which was NOT included in our package. :p I've brought my simple meal of Indo Mee and some satchets of milo. Linus, Carol and Sum did not. ;) Of course seeing our fellow adventurers 'without food', some of us with excess generously donated ours to them ;). Wei Han and Jiun Hoe had another round of 'oriental' meal, while Kam Keong and Cheah also had their share of instant noodles.

Breakfast at Sungai Papan campsite

At close to 9:30am, we moved out of camp, prepared and ready for our next 'adventure'. That 'adventure' was a conveniently short boat ride ACROSS the river. We landed by a large rock, a small trail leading out along the riverside. Apparently, this appears also to be a frequent camping site for the Malaysian Army, courtesy of the many discarded satchets of sugar, creamer and sorts strewn about the rocky outcrop, all marked with 'Kementerian Pertahanan Malaysia'. We continued along the track, single file, hugging the side of the river pass tall grasses filled with those thorny seed pollens that sticks to your socks.

Riverside flora...

Again there was little use of my 'parang', although I did take a few swings just for show. ;) I wondered where were we heading, hoping that we would make a turn soon into the cool comfort of the jungle canopy, away from the heat of the rising sun. More discarded satchets led the way to another camping site, this time a shaded clearing with evidence of wooden makeshift shelters and camp fire pits. We paused here for a while, dipping our feet in the cool waters of a nearby stream that crossed our trail.

We moved on, following a pause of 15 minutes, still hugging the side of the river. After an hour of walking the guide motioned for us to stop and unceremoniously declared that 'this is the furthest' we can go! I looked around taking in our 'destination' and was disappointed. :p Aside from a shallow riverbed sprinkled with water logged tree trunks here and there, there was nothing else!

The end of the road?! @_@

I guess, if it was to just swim in the river waters, we could have just as well done the same at the campsite. The 1 hour plus walk was really for nothing except to burn our exposed flesh in the hot sun! :p Unconvinced, some of us asked the guide whether this is truly the end of the trail and whether this is 'all' that there is offered for the trail.

The guide's answer was unsurprising, we couldn't venture anywhere from the trail because the whole area is in an army zone and we cannot wander anywhere else :p. GREAT! Therefore, we put down our small packs and made the best out of what we have, taking a dip in the river waters and frolick among the fallen tree branches.

Making the best out of what we have... 'mandi lor'... :p

We spent about 30 minutes there before we turned around. We paused at the stream close to the army camp site for another dip, seeing that there is really nothing else to do except to 'wash' ourselves.

A nice shallow stream with fast running water for a welcomed dip!

The stream here was a better 'wash' point compared to the end of the trail, with a small cascade located not far from where it connected to the river. Lured by the cool, clean, running waters as well as the cool tree shaded surroundings, we spent about an hour here to soak ourselves.

Cool jungle shade, running water... what else does Tarzan and Jane need? ;)

We took a number of photos while some (Sum (pun intended) and Jiun Hoe) delved in more 'imaginative' activities...

Jiun Hoe bravely (or more likely unknowingly) putting the 'acorns' over his eyes after Sum placed it somewhere over his 'nether' regions... :p Hahahahah!

It was a little pass noon when we got to our boat, the guide ready to take us back to the our camp site across the river. I guess we had still plenty of time to kill because we were back in the waters again floating down the gentle river current. Linus had the wonderful idea of giving Sum a chance to get on an Orang Asli river raft to take photos to which we asked our guide to enquire the community down river whether we can borrow it for the shoot.

Not surprisingly (again :p), such 'facilities' weren't free. As we were still floating in the water, the guide returned to tell us that the use of their simple bamboo raft would make us poorer by RM100.00. Wow! Even a ride in Sunway Lagoon won't cost us that much! :p Most of us were immediately cool to the thought but Linus asked for the guide to negotiate. They went off and returned, this time the price dropped to RM75.00. ;)

At this point, some of us had made up their minds that the price for Sum's photo op isn't really worth it and the answer we gave back to the guide was a firm 'NO'. We were still floating in the water when the guide came back one more time, with an offer of RM28.00 for the raft! A 400% discount (from the initial RM100.00)! Gosh, I guess even in the depths of the jungle, there are still people trying to pull the wool out of our eyes! :p Thank goodness no one took up the offer.

An Orang Asli. Despite living in the jungle, they can be pretty entrepeneurial!

After floating about for perhaps an hour, we moved onto that boulder sticking out close to the middle of the river, for a moment to sit around as the river water dripped off our bodies. We made some idle chatter before attempting to explore the depth of the sand bed around the boulder. Yeah, we were THAT BORED. ;)

Finally, I decided that I've had enough of soaking and swam back to the river bank. Some followed while some others lingered on. We prepared our lunch soon after. For the rest of the evening, we loitered around the camp site, the overcast sky threatening another bout of drenching rain.

Loitering the afternoon away...

A few boats packed with soldiers passed by and we waved at them. Most probably they were headed to the trail we hiked earlier, to conduct their patrols. Soupy Ginseng Noodles was on the menu tonight, which was another of Wei Han's discoveries from his Tahan trip. Yummy... ;)(Ok, I am being sarcastic :p Sorry ;)). Thank goodness we had some freshly fried eggs to supplement!

As night fell, we took refuge beneath our 'pavillion', Linus challenging me to a game of Chinese Chess while Kam Keong, Wei Han, Cheah and Jiun Hoe tried to outsmart one another with 'Chor Tai Tee'. Looks can be deceiving though as our very 'banana' Mr. Linus is a secret 'expert' in the Art of War. ;) After being defeated the first round by yours truly, he won the 2nd round (although not after he was checkmated, the game brought back a step or two before continuing again to its unexpected conclusion) and the third which he decisively won over me. :p Admittedly I do not declare myself an expert strategist when it comes to Chinese Chess, but I had thought I would have easily beaten the long haired fellow. I was wrong. :p ;) I retired for the night shortly after, giving in to the demands of my tired and sun burnt body over more challenges from Linus in his unexpected role of Sun Tzu(?). ;)

Belum (Or Sudah?): Day 1: A 'Civilized' Excursion into the Jungle

I have to admit that I have been rather 'absent' from the blogging scene for quite some time now. Getting lazier and lotsa 'changes' going on in the interim. ;) But I do love blogging, it's sort of my way of recording interesting events for posterity and future reference. Also, I am equally happy that there are readers that benefit from my recommendations and comments on the places I have travelled. ;) I try my best. ;) This time's blog is focused on my recent trip to that supposedly unexplored, uncharted and pristine patch of Malaysian jungle situated in the northern portion of the peninsular, the place aptedly called but not exactly 'BELUM' ('Belum' in Malay means 'Before' for those uninitiated in the Malay language).

Suggested and organized by Mr. Wei Han, my initial impression of the place based on what I have seen in the advertisments and travelling brochures is that the place is somewhat undeveloped, more likely any adventures or trips in this area would be something that might require a little bit of 'hacking and slashing' of jungle undergrowth with a trusty parang (aka machete) ;) not akin to what I heard from Danum Valley in Sabah.

Settling to go during the long Hari Raya Holidays, we left Klang Valley for our 5 hour drive up to Grik, Perak in two cars, our initial complement of 9 hikers short of 1. ;) That '1' enjoyed himself a little too much the night before and when we discovered him slumped over his car's steering wheel (battery dead, I meant the car. Yeah, his batteries were sort of dead too :p) in front of his house at 5:00am in the morning, we knew we had no choice but to let him continue in his 'alcoholic' dreams... :p

Our 'lost' member of the team, deep in alcoholic dreams... :p

Looks like the village is out to celebrate? ;)

And so for the trip, we had 7 gentlemen and 1 brave lady to join us (the enigmatic Wei Han, his hometown friend and solar topee wearing 'botanist' Jiun Hoe, straight as an arrow Kam Keong, silent and steady Cheah, ever entertaining and possibly clinically 'mad' Linus, his 'exotic' girlfriend Carol, his spade carrying sidekick and new convert to the church of 'anti-leech' Sum and of course, yours truly ;) I shall keep the identity of the 'ONE' secret ;)).

Signboard on the way to Grik (a long way more to go) :p

The morning Raya dawn traffic on the North South Expressway wasn't really as bad as I had initially thought and we made good progress, getting on the Kuala Kangsar exit at close to 730am. We had initially thought of stopping by at Ipoh for their (over-rated) dim sum but due to the earlier 'drama' that consumed a little bit of our travelling time, we decided to continue up the byroads to Grik for breakfast instead. Reaching Grik at about 8:45am, we found most of the shops closed. Whether this is symptomic of a 'sleepy' Malaysian backwater town or the fact that the day we arrived was a public holiday, I am not really sure.

Regardless, a few quick questions to some locals directed our attentions to this food court where a number of Chinese stalls were open. Apparently, most of the visitors and passerbys have been given the same location as the place was packed! We sat down and ordered our share of dim sum, wan tan mee, chicken rice, served with freshly brewed coffee. There were other fares as well, among which are some 'chang' (glutinious rice wrapped in pandan leave), porridge and yong tau foo. We left to continue our journey north towards the Malaysian-Thai border ending our journey at the parking lot with a long bridge overlooking Temenggor lake.

A stopover for many an adventurer, the famous bridge spanning Temenggor Lake

Our guide hasn't arrived yet, so we wandered about the lakeside taking pictures and helping ourselves at the toilet located at a store nearby. This being Hari Raya, the store itself was closed, thankfully the toilet wasn't. ;)

Rules and Regulations... the place is highly guarded area ;)

About half an hour after we arrived, the guide came, whisking our organizer over to the army camp with him to obtain our permits. Security seemed tight along the Malaysian-Thai border, permits need to be obtain to enter certain areas, not all areas are accessible. :p After about 45 minutes, Wei Han returned, permit in hand. With this, we boarded our speedboat, taking us to the first army checkpoint. The sun was bright and the overhead roof our boat offered much needed shelter from the heat.

Pirates of Temenggor Lake! :p Luckily the army didn't see us otherwise we might be misidentified as a splinter group of Abu Sayaff! :p

We arrived at the army checkpoint along the riverside under the muzzle of a machine gun. No photographs are allowed here and with live ammunition potentially pointed at us, we all remained gravely quiet as Wei Han and the guide went up to the guardhouse to present our papers to the officer in charge. Tense moments pass before they reemerged and we are to continue our journey into the park. The 1st destination was to an island to watch the Rafflesia flower, one of the biggest flower in the world with a reputable 'smell'. ;) Mostly renown for growing in the jungles of Borneo, it is surprisingly found also on the Peninsular as well. The boat ride took about close to 45 minutes before we arrived at the island. We hopped ashore and hiked up a small gulley for 15 minutes.

Disembark! Our group of landlubbers starting our very short hike to the Rafflesia flower...

Lo and behold the Rafflesia! :p Not really the hack and slash expedition I was expecting though. This particular specimen we are to behold now was rather 'smallish' with a piece of broken petal.

The not so very elusive Rafflesia!

We took a few photos around it, observing the insides and out and was told by our guide that that was the end of this particular journey! :p Apparently, we cannot venture further into the island. Our permit did not allow it and we have to move on to our campsite from here. Well, scratch one item in the itenary I guess. We got on the boat and zoomed across the lake for another 30 minutes.

Boating in the sun...

At this point, I was beginning to think that really, our trip is going to be more of a boat ride than anything else. We arrived at the Sungai Papan jetty with a nicely set wooden pavillion in the background.

Brandishing Dennis's parang. Too bad there ain't nothing to do with it except cut some stray grass on this trip! :p Wei Han?

The grass around was cut and the place looked overall well maintained. A row of decent looking shetlered toilets were located behind the pavillion. In a distance was a large suspension bridge. We got down, took photos and proceeded across the bridge for another 15 minute trek.

Linus doing a dance with the guide on the suspension bridge...

We were headed towards an animal 'salt lick' and when we arrived, we were told that we 'just missed' a herd of deer at the same spot by a few minutes. As we examined the vague hooveprints in the sand, we heard a gasp from the guide. Putting as pale a face over his darkened features, the guide told us that there was a 'tiger' about :p. Wow! I instantly grabbed the hilt of Dennis's parang. ;)

Shh... them there 'Maybank' tracks! :p

Of course, the chances of a tiger attacking us humans is rather remote, since us being such 'ferocious' creatures, they'd prefer more regular 'prey' than us. Still, if a tiger were to be injured, we would sometimes end up on the menu. :p The guide told us that the tiger was most likely trailing the herd of deer and there was nothing much to worry about. He showed us the observation hut located a distance from the salt lick, dangling the prospect that the tiger might return here later in the night. That tweaked Linus's curiosity but not enough to convince the majority of us to spend our first night without mosquito coils, light and minimum heat in the hut. :p

The observation hut in the jungle...

The hut itself was rather luxuriously equipped with a toilet inside, again a hint of how relatively 'developed' this park was compared to the other places I have been. All of us could fit into the hut comfortably if we didn't mind the hard wooden bunks for beds. :p We returned to the wooden pavillion, satisfying our hunger with the chicken rice we bought in Grik. We contemplated setting up camp in this deserted but very well maintained spot but ended up opting for the alternative campsite close to the orang asli village in the next destination. Getting on board our boat, we headed into the blue yonder again, surprisingly bumping into a group of very familiar and long lost faces on another boat heading into the site we just left!

In a typical 'tak jemput pun' scenario, it seems like our old hiking 'buddy', Patrick, is on the loose and together with his OTHER friends were also on the area doing their own tour. ;) Another 30 minutes boat ride and we found ourselves standing on the banks of Sungai Kejar at yet another well developed campsite.

Arrival at the Sungai Kejar campsite...

Aside from a very well built wooden pavillion for 'group' activities and very nice toilets with running water, the 'tent sites' also had roofs with a solid elevated concrete platform as well! Talk about luxury! ;) After a brief discussion, we decided to pitch camp in the pavillion itself. There was no one else around anyway in the vast campsite.

At Sungai Kejar...

Once we have finished, we moved on to the nearby Orang Asli village to visit 'their' waterfall. It was a sweatless hike of 10 minutes before we reached it's cold running waters. We bathe there for close to an hour before returning to our site, dodging a few dogs owned by the Orang Aslis. Our guide paused amidst their village to confer with one of them, we surmise to pay them for our 'passage' thru and the use of their 'facilities'. ;)

Bathing in the compulsory waterfall! :D

As dusk approached, we took the little time left of daylight to cook our dinner, recipes our Mr. Wei Han had learnt from his recent trip to Gunung Tahan. Admittedly very oriental from our regular fare, we were presented with rice, chinese sausage, luncheon meat and fried egg for dinner. Rain fell as we settled in for the night giving us a cool and refreshing environment for a nice nap. ;) We played some 'chor tai tee' with some Chinese Chess on the side, eschewing our regular session of 'Werewolves'. :p Well, apparently, the game was starting to get a little 'tired' for a few of our members :p. Lights were out shortly after midnight as we all drifted into blissful sleep lulled by the soft pattering of rain over the rooftops. ;)