It was when Yew Loong and I was studying in Setapak High School (Setapak is famous for its hot spring in Kuala Lumpur) that during 6th Form Biology class that we were told to collect fauna specimens for class the next day (I have known Yew Loong since we were 13 yrs old at Maxwell school). I told Yew Loong that instead like others in class who will be getting specimens around their backyard we should be different and bring stuff from inside the jungle. And I know a place called Ulu Kanching Forest Reserve which was about 15km north of Yew Loong's old house and another 5 or 6 km trek into the jungle we would reach a water fall and collect all the unique fauna specimens that we want. We will be different.
After school I met up with Yew Loong at his home. When we commenced our hike to the water falls, it was already close to 4.00pm and about 45 min we reached the falls. Along the way, Yew Loong always being the cautious person he was, suggested that we each grab a piece of wood for protection. I brushed him off saying that I had camp in those woods numerous times and there weren’t any wild animals.
So we went around collecting our fauna samples and placed them in a plastic bag. By the time we finished collecting it was getting dark (it gets dark in the jungle fast) and we started hiking down the trail back to the main road. We then realized something was following behind us unseen in the bushes. We heard a loud grunt and the two of us bolted for dear life. When the jungle path met up with the stream, both of us just jumped into the water which was about 1.5m lower than the path. We just grab anything rotted wood, rocks and waited.
We waited for maybe 20 minutes making sure that whatever was out there was no more around that we decided to climb out of the stream back on to the jungle path. Then Yew Loong realized that he had lost his slippers (flip flops yeah those days we cant afford so many pair of shoes) in the panic. It was getting really dark by then and we hike out this time each carrying a big wooden club.
2 thoroughly drenched persons boarded the bus home one barefooted. Our fauna specimens? Lost with his slippers. School biology next day we had our common garden specimens just like everyone else.