One weekend, five
girlfriends decided to “be one” with nature. The aim: jungle trek to Monkey
Beach and then hike up to the Muka Head Lighthouse located 242 metres
(794 ft) above sea level.
These girls were
quite an “active” bunch: one could and WOULD sleep at anytime of the day, at
ANY place; the other, is a self-confessed couch potato whose idea of exercising
includes watching E-News and Keeping Up with the Kardashians; one is a bookworm
whose friends are mostly characters from books; another is called
Miss-I-Like-All-Things-Weird; while the other spends her free time chauffeuring
her mum.
So on one Sunday morning,
with all of us appropriately attired and adequately protected from the sun
(i.e. sun-block: checked, hat: checked, water: checked) we stood at the
entrance of the Penang National Park, all gung-ho ready for our adventure!
Having set 60
minutes as our time limit to reach Monkey Beach (the estimated time proposed by
the park is roughly 105 minutes), we were ecstatic when we “reached” Monkey
Beach in under 60 minutes! We all commented on how easy the trek was and that
we must be in really good shape to have trekked that fast. Imagine our horror
and embarrassment when we found out that we had only reached the Teluk Ailing
Beach which was where the USM Research Station is located. We were not yet on
Monkey Beach! Suppressing our glee, we marched on, this time at a slower pace
as the trail was a fairly narrow path through the jungle with a number of
headlands that went up and down. When we first started, it felt like were we on
an Indiana Jones’ adventure. But as
time passed, we began to feel as though we were in the series Lost. Needless to say, the chatter and
laughter that accompanied us from the beginning soon deserted us as the true
colours of our stamina began to show. Other people soon began to overtake us as
we slowed down. There were of course some “accidents” where two of us slipped
down a slope but no harm was done. In fact, it brought back some laughter and
“excitement”.
Finally, as we
were about to give up (not that we would have turned back), we reached Monkey
Beach! We quickly spread our beach cloth down and proceeded to rest our legs
and quench our thirst with fresh coconut juice. Needless to say, selfies (or
wefies) were next on the agenda. Once that was done, we asked a stall operator
how far and how long it would take us to get to the light house. The lady whom
we asked generously told us that it would take us at least 40 minutes to get to
the light house (this was after she looked at all of us from head to toe. I
have to admit that we all looked like typical city girls who were dumped into
the “jungle” to fend for ourselves). She also emphasized that it was 40 minutes
ONE WAY.
After the resting,
we started our hike up to the light house. As soon as we began our journey up
the trail, we realized the mistake we made in resting our legs. As we hiked up
the hill which was mainly stairs (!!), our legs felt as though they were fitted
prosthetic legs made out of lead. Every step of the way up was simply
torturous. We made new friends on the way up and by the way we looked, I think
they felt like they had to encourage and cheer us on; embarrassingly, two of
them even stayed back to help us maneuver ourselves at certain parts of the
trail. There were numerous times when each of the five of us was on the verge
of giving up, but we persevered, psyching ourselves by humming the song “Eye of
the Tiger” despite us not knowing the full song!
Just as we really
thought that we could not go on, we turned a corner and there it was…the
LIGHTHOUSE! We made it! We were all smiles and laughter as we made our way up
to the viewing deck…only to be disappointed by what we saw. The beautiful view
that we all thought would greet us was missing! What we got was a clouded view
of the sea and its surrounding. We had been cheated by the haze! Swallowing our
disappointment, we maintained the positivity that enabled us to fulfill our
aim: Five island girls had jungle trekked and hiked their way up a hill. They
had indeed been “one with nature”. We
even made new friends! After the obligatory selfies/wefies, we headed back to
the beach for more photographs, and then we took a leisurely boat ride back to
reality.
