A Close Death

第一次统一考期间的礼拜日 (3/1/2009)，我和我二哥到靠近 Bukit Kiara 的一座山走森林，也可说是 hiking.

We reached to the forest there at about 3.30PM and... we walked along the road, up the hill about 1~1.5 clicks until we reached a narrow path at the side of the road. It was the third time my brother hiked that mountain he took different entrances into the deep jungle each time he went there except this time. He took the second one as he said that path was a pretty shorter one up to the peak compared to the first path. I then followed my brother, into the jungle mountains.

That was the first time I got there, the second time I went for a mountain hiking, I was aware of the plants are much bigger than the plants anywhere in KL, and the environment was a lot cooler there. Most of the Sun's rays are blocked by the big, thick leaves. Oh, did I mentioned about sawing a monitor (四脚蛇） crossing the road? Man, it was huge.

The shortcut we took was a little bit off track. We can hardly see the tracks connecting it. But my brother managed to recall some of the paths he took last time. The track was not easy to walk onto, its steep, and slippery. One wrong step and we might ended up falling down straight to the bottom ridge or likely dead if we were 'lucky' enough. I remember the most difficult part is getting pass a big stone. We had to climb across, not other ways, but to climb it. It was very slippery hence it was hard to hang on to. I have to use all my force grabbing onto holes on the rock and dash across.

We nearly got lost at start. My brother had forgot which path he had to take to get to the peak. I asked him wether he wanted to go back but he refused and kept looking for the track, all he knew was just keep climbing up. After 20 minutes of searching, we finally took the right path up the mountain, straight forward to the peak. It was a open area there and lots of bees flying around. We didn't want to mess with them bees so we rushed forward. It was 4 PM.

About 10 minutes later, we got to our 'checkpoint' called SIMPANG LIMA (5 条分叉路), we took rest for a few minutes there, we were full of sweat. My brother took two of five paths before and he let me choose the other three paths. I chose the one which was blocked by 'police, no crossing line' last time my brother came and now the line had been taken off. I thought it might be safe to walk into now. I was right, the path was rather boring. It led us to 'nothing forest' but at least we got to a cliff where we had a nice view of the city. I could see a construction site just below us people are working at that time. It was 4.20~4.30 PM.

We returned back to the checkpoint and we found out that the path beside the one that we took was actually connected (they both lead to the cliff). So... four out of five, down, there's only one path left to choose. The path was extremely dangerous, the rocks are slippery and sharp. I remember seeing a rock that was pointing its sharpened point towards us, so... if we fell onto that rock, you know, dead. (It was 5PM). We walked for 10~12 more minutes and the clouds are turning gray. We reached to a dead end, as it was not more be able to travel on, we turned back. Oh yeah, we saw a large, long, fat snake went into the deeper jungle. We were lucky that it didn't sense our presence. I can't imagine what might happen if it chased us with its incredible speed (it was really fast).

Let's cut it short. We went back to the checkpoint, blablabla, up to the peak, blablabla. We was planning about what to eat for dinner. (It was 6 PM). Suddenly, it began to rain. We increased our speed, we were not afraid about getting wet (we were already wet) but the sky was turning darker and darker. We have to get out of the jungle when we can still see.

We tried to find the shortcut but as it was kind of 'off- track', we were having difficulties finding it. We tried to recall some of the markings we saw earlier but they were just.... gone. At that time I panicked, but still I tried to stay calm, following my brother. We went zig- zag around the jungle and it turned out to be quite successful -------- to get us lost. We were way off- tracked. We don't know what to do, but to shout for help. You know what trees do, right? They work as a sound barrier, plus the heavy rains. I can hardly hear my brother shout even he was just a few meters away. "It's useless!" I said. "I can't even hear what you are shouting even at this short distance! We should save our energy and keep climbing!" (I'm sorry, my keyboard has gone crazy. I can't input Chinese words now) I was pretty disappointed about going in circles. It's not like walking in circle on a flat ground, but a steep one. We had to climb up and down!

The rain, it was so cold, damn cold. At that time, it was already 6.25PM. It was getting darker. We panicked. Out of nowhere, my brother had a solution - 'climb or die' plan. I had no other choices but to follow. Finally, we managed to get to the main track we took to the checkpoint. I told my brother that even if we were to stay at the mountain for a night, we stay at the cliff (remember the cliff which I had a good view about the city?) we might get a chance of getting phone signal there.

It was about 6.20 PM and we were making our way to the checkpoint. Though exhausted, we weren't aware of it with our boosted adrenaline and our strong will of survival. Of course we were freezing in the tropical rains, the rains were extremely cold and we might chance of getting hypothermia if we were to give up, staying in the inner part of the deep dark, wet, cool forest. We shout for help as we walk, even we knew we would be saved. But who knows? Maybe a rubber tapper might hear us and give us a ride straight to the forest exit.

5 minutes later, when we were about to walk down the slope, we saw a man walking towards us. Fortunately, he was a jogger who got caught in the heavy and freezing rain and was going back home. We asked if he could take us to the exit, he agreed. We headed to the mountain peak which had a track that leads to the exit, as we were about to reach there, that man called us to wait as the mountain peak is an open area. At first, I didn't get what he meant and I just kept quiet. Out of nowhere a thunder struck just a few meters away from us! We all were stunned and I think my heartbeat had stopped for a few microseconds. Good thing we didn't continue walking on the mountain peak.

WE FINALLY GOT OUT AT ABOUT 7.20 PM! We were so happy about being able to stay alive! It sure was the best and the worst experience in my whole life........................yet.