Three Unique Women

After my river tour, I decided to take a towel and book down to the beach and read while enjoying the sounds of the water and the breeze off the sea. On my way, I passed a girl who stopped me and mentioned she had seen me come off of the river trip. She asked me, in a British accent, how it was. I think her name was Tor, short for Victoria. She was a young woman, early 20's I would guess, with spiked hair, and an obvious proud independence. I was surprised by her forwardness in stopping me and shocked when she asked if I wanted to grab some dinner. I'm just not used to strangers being so open and friendly. I don't know if it's a countrywide cultural thing or just a result of my own sphere of influence, but that's not what I know. It was interesting to me, and I was fascinated by it. I would never walk up to a stranger, ask them a question about something I saw them doing an hour before, and then ask if they wanted to get dinner. I was a bit flabbergasted. I told her I was going to the beach at that time to read, but I would be happy to meet her later for dinner. We agreed to meet outside where she was staying at 7:30.

Sometime between the river trip and dinner, I had fallen into Cherating time, which is to say I stopped paying attention to time. Therefore, I really had no idea what time it actually was when I reached Tor's guesthouse. I waited a few minutes, but when she didn't come out, I decided to walk down the street and come back. Still no Tor. So I walked down the street back towards my guesthouse. As I passed The Bistro, I heard someone call my name. I turned and saw Tor at a table with two young Malaysian women. Apparently, I had been late so Jo had joined these women, PeiLee & Yo, for dinner. I joined the threesome. They were beginning to know me at this restaurant.

PeiLee & Yo were students from Kuala Lumpur. The four of us had a delightful conversation and all three girls were fascinating in their own right. Tor was a brave, adventurous girl in her 20's. She had driven on her own from England to Katmandu. I thought Katmandu was just a restaurant in Linthicum! She had been throug Turkey and raved about the interior of the country, commenting that the coast is just a bunch of embarrassingly drunk Brits on holiday. She had travelled through Pakistan in 115 degree heat in a bus with no air conditioning. She had had her tennis shoes stolen in India. After Malaysia, she was going to Australia where her car had been shipped. Truely amazing.

PeiLee had been to New Zealand and Switzerland. Yo had finished school for optometry in Kuala Lumpur. PeiLee was still in school in Kuala Lumpur for psychology. She pointed out that Malaysians do not seek out psychologists and therapists for help like Americans and Europeans do. Only people considered "crazy" see psychologists in Malaysia. Tor was interesting becasue she was a young, British woman who was thriving on travelling the world on her own. She, like me, thoroughly enjoyed travelling alone, not worrying about an agenda, timetable, or what anyone else wanted to do. I am so happy I had the opportunity to meet PeiLee and Yo. They were really the first Malaysian women with whom I was able to have a good conversation. While I saw that Malaysia was a diverse and culturally accepting country, I had wondered about women's roles. I had seen plenty of working women in KL, but I had seen few local women in Cherating. While I didn't get into the gender roles in Malaysia with PeiLee and Yom, the fact that they were two educated, young, single women travelling on their own demonstrated an independence and self confidence. It was enlightening and satisfying to see. They also spoke perfect English which make me feel very stupid for only be able to say, "I like dogs" in Malay. Seriously though, those three young women were inspirational, and they were all on a path for greatness. I felt richer for having met them.

We finished our delicious dinner and prepared to part ways. They asked me if I had a "facebook or facepage" or something. I suddenly felt like my mother. I had no idea what they were talking about. It was apparently the new "myspace". Of course I didn't have a facebook page (I do now, thank you very much. And I even visit it once a month!). I did give them my blog address. I got a comment on a previous post from PeiLee! I was so excited. I have a friend in Malaysia! At least I did a year and a half ago when I was blogging in a timely matter. Like all of my friends who have come and gone from my life, I still consider her my friend in my heart. Even if we only met for an hour or so. She, along with Yo and Tor, taught me about myself and about the world. I think that makes them my friends. Thank you, my friends.

Cherating River Tour

As I mentioned in the last post, my snorkeling party had generously agreed to let me tag along on their river tour at the request of my new Malaysian friend and local "used car salesman", Nazri. I was told to meet down at the river at 4:00 so I left my chalet promptly at 4 since it was only a few buildings down from the walkway to the river dock. As I waited, I entertained myself by watching the all of the monkies. At 4:15, there was no sign of anyone else which reminded me yet again that Cherating did not run on time. I walked across the street to the little market and bought a Coke. As I was walking back, the rest of the party pulled up. We all piled into the little boat. It was a little bit bigger than the boat we used to go to Snake Island. We were joined by a German family of four who looked like they were on a mission rather than a vacation.

The tour started with Nazri telling us what kind of animals we would see. There were black and yellow snakes he called a Mamba or something like that. There were iguanas, red-faced monkeys, king-fisher birds which were apparently rare to see, and there was a monster. Yes, a monster. Nazri told us they have a snake that is 20 feet long with a head "this big" as his hand show a basketball sized head, and it is called an Anaconda. Well, I am quite familiar with the word "Anaconda" so I almost jumped off the boat and swam for shore (which was way to swampy for my taste). I decided that I was brave enough to continue on since the alternative was swimming through murky, slimy water. So onward we went. During the tour, I asked Nazri what the anaconda ate. The man from KL told me they ate wild boar. Nazri told me they ate people. The look on my face and my response of "saya tidak sukah" made this a popular joke between Nazri and the man from KL throughout the tour. I was so glad I could entertain them.

The river was lined with beautiful mangrove trees. Apparently, the oil from mangrove trees is used for charcoal. We saw some of the red-faced monkeys but they stayed high up in the trees so I couldn't get a good picture. We saw several of the poisonous black and yellow Mamba snakes. They were all curled up in the trees, sleeping. Nazri would slowly guide the boat directly under the sleeping snake so we could get pictures. I really did not need a picture that close up and did not relish the experience of being directly underneath a sleeping poisonous snake. It didn't help the Nazri would say "You touch tree. Snake fall in boat. We jump in water."

We turned down a small river where Nazri said the anaconda lived. All ten of us were eagerly searching for the monster. Some for the excitement, others for self-preservation. I, of course, fell into the latter category. Alas, we left the small river tributary without seeing any creatures larger than the 1 inch river crabs. No anaconda. I was able to breathe again. I could tell that the intense German father and mother were disappointed. I was able to convert their disappointment to annoyance though so I felt pretty good about my philanthropic contribution to their vacation. As we were trolling back to the dock, Nazri thought he saw something and slowed down, pointing to the edge of the river where he said there was an "iguana". His definition of an iguana is quite different from mine. An iguana in my mind is dry looking, sort of scaley, sometimes are pets, don't live in the water, and kind of spikey. His definition is the very long, slimy thing that I had followed down the road on my first day in Cherating. I was the first to see it in the river and just it's snake-like head was above the water and its giant tongue was flicking out of its creepy head. Although it was creepy looking, I wasn't scared. I was excited that I saw it, but I'm a bit of a spaz so when I saw it, I kind-of yelled or screamed involuntarily. Well, the "iguana" quickly went underwater and nobody else got to see it. Hence, the disappointment to annoyance. You are welcome, German family.

In total, the river trip was about 2 hours. It was fun and interesting, but it could have been one hour. The air in the river area was so thick that I was having alot of problems with my asthma by the time we docked. It continued to amaze me how different the two sides of the village were. We docked. I bid farewell to my fellow snorkellers and river trippers, and I went back to the chalet and took yet another refreshingly cold shower.