Heaven on Earth

As much as I love the city and its toxic fumes and never sleeping technicolored lights, the jungle does something funny to me.

Some people ask me, how do you do it? Well they mean, you look like a pampered city girl, why would you go into the jungle, get muddy,trek, sweat n suffer. And some friends I quote, say that, "Holidays are only holidays when it comes with a big comfy bed".

I was always a nature person. I remembered my father teaching me how to climb coconut trees and rambutan trees whenever we went back to Mersing, my grandfather's place, which was considered "jungle" enough for me. I used to pick up tiny flowers, watch the trail of ants with enthusiasm, and wow over new discoveries that I found lying in the scrubs. While my cousins would pluck the flowers for Masak-masak adventures, I was out there smelling the roses, and advocating that roses belongs on their stems, not in out make believe kuali.

 But I must admit, that walking inside a 130 million years old virgin rainforest, is a whole different feeling. It brings serenity, tranquility and yet exhilaration of what you might discover next. Your heart breaks along with the thousands of species living in the jungle as you watch logging tracks being formed and homes being taken up by trucks and tractors. Your heart skips a beat when you witness the priceless phenomenon of more than 150 Hornbills soaring in the sky together. You trek in the depths and ignore your irrational fear and mental protests of leeches just to see a blooming rare flower. You take every step with caution, noting that this land you are stepping on, is someone else's home. You squeal with delight just by coming across prints of animals living in the jungle, both prey and predators co-existing together in harmony, sharing the same source of hot springs. You wonder how a home which houses thousands of species, which is equivalent to human "races" can co-exist in an area for millions of years, and we, a country of less than 10 races, is constantly fighting to gain racial supremity, and can't learn to give and take. You wonder why humans would choose to destroy an area which is so close to our idea of what "heaven" is.

The rainforest is a place where miracles are alive. So if you think you need some miracle in your life, you might want to take a few days, breathe the freshest air in our region's largest carbon sink, and you could just amaze yourself with how much you could fall in love with it after all.