I still remember that I’d purposely brought 4 rolls of professional fujifilm negative and expecting to capture every moments in this very oldest rain forest of the world. However, after I returned and had the films developed and printed out, all the pictures I took disappointed me with smoggy haze, the compositions quite weak either. When I shown them to my peers (members of the Batu Pahat photography society), all I received were advices on what might have went wrong and tips to avoid the problem. Well, it’s really disappointing to have traveled so far and bring back crap! So I made a promise: “Tmn Negara, I’ll be back!”
Ten years after, I was back, with new companies, new camera and a ten-year-old tripod. For this second trip, whenever I reached a destination, e.g. Teresek hill, Gua telingar, etc., I’ll say: “Wow! It’s still the same like ten years back!” Well, after several times, my friends started to feel it “annoying” and complained that they’d heard that line too many times. But, well… what to do, the scenery really still the same like ten years back : )
It was a holiday season when we went there, so it’s really crowded. For whatever activity we were to take part, we’d to queue! There was a night event they called “observation hides” that people will hide in a two-storey hut and stay quietly for hours or two and wait for wild animals to show up. Ten years back when I was there with my photography club members, we’d been seriously advised by our tour guide to make no sound at all in the hut and not to use the torchlight so that we didn’t scare the animals in order to have a better chance that they’ll show up. I still remember that we’d waited for more than an hour before we finally saw two light spots which was suspected to be the eyes of deer (according to the tour guide), but we really have no idea what it was as we can’t see anything else beside that shiny spots in the dark. Frankly, it’s really boring to have waited for so long without chit-chatting and then what showed up were nothing more then a pair of light spots.
However, my recent trip was a totally different experience at the observation hut. We had to queue to walk up to the hut and squeezed through the crowd to get to the position where we can see through the hut window in order to view the animal. Practically, do you think you can expect such large group of people be in total silence? In fact, besides talking, they’ll point their torchlight to whatever appears moving in the distance in order to see whether it’s an animal. So do you still expect animal to show up under such circumstances? But ironically, deer did show up! And guess what, the crowd become so excited that this auntie yelled “Hey! See! There is deer!” and that auntie joined in “Oh where? Ah ha! Yeah! It’s the deer!” Some who had brought powerful torchlight had pointed it to the deer so that everyone could see it. Now the deer was like artist on a stage under the spotlights, and yet, it seems pretty comfortable with the shouting and lighting. Then another deer showed up despite of all the “DON’T” the crowd have done. At that moment I smile in my heart and think in my mind that: “If I’ll see my last tour guide again I certainly like to kick his ass – who says that our noise will scare the animals away!”
Overall, the experience really enjoying and when I show my pictures to my friends, I heard some compliments. So… I’ve kept my promise back for the pictures ; )
p/s: I will go there again next week, unbelievable isn’t it! However this time not as visitor, but as guide, and eventually it’s a “free trip”. Again, don’t envy : )
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