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.