Mud is fun, fun is mud.

Had a wonderful morning sliding haphazardly along muddy terrains of the Janda Baik region, with the lovely company of Chindiana and Han Solo. I was told to expect some mud, hence I should wear shoes that can be dirtied; "Need shoes with good grip kah?" - "No need lah"; and some stream crossing. After some deliberation I decided to wear my semi-new Kathmandu hiking shoes, just in case. Luckily I did, no need grip my foot. (Hmm. The last sentence came out weird, what I wanted to say was, "Yeah right. No need grip. Your head lah.")

We set off at the ungodly hour of 7:30am, about three hours earlier than when I usually wake up. By about 8:30am we were parked at the beginning of a trail, and started walking. Into a stream. In true spirit of Cooking Mentor Robert's wise words, i.e. "when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose", after I got my shoes totally soaked, there was no need to worry about getting wet and stuff, and I enjoyed the trekking so much more.

Lesson learnt: Before going trekking you should, by accident or on purpose, fall into a mud pool. Roll around in the good stuff if you have to.

We walked for like three hours, negotiating the muddy footpath paved by 4WDs and tractors. My favourite parts were when we had to cross streams. I loved it when the water seeped through the shoes (they're not waterproof when the water invades from upwards) and a cooling sensation surrounded my feet. I wouldn't have minded slipping and falling into the water, though that didn't happen. I wore shoes with good grip.

I saw a black grasshopper with yellow spots - a wondrous creature, red and green dragonflies, baby frogs, a rolled up centipede. There was a treacherous leech with one end attached to the ground and the other end flailing about, hungry for human blood. I positively hate leeches, they're repugnant. On a completely unrelated note, there were also BN flags draped around the pagar in the middle of nowhere. Back to the previous note, a leech attached itself to Han Solo's foot, and it was allowed to finish sucking the blood till it dropped off. It was a lucky leech.

Kena mosquito bites all over. Still, I feel happier than I've been a while, like I finally could breathe. Previously it was like some tubes stuck into my throat enabling me to live, albeit in a zombie-like fashion. Yesterday I tried shopping but for the first time, retail therapy failed! Gasp! I am jaded beyond repair!

But my spirits are revived somewhat after this morning, so I shall continue to live this life of debauchery and unemployment peppered with nature trips around Malaysia, until end of July when I go to Singapore for PhD. Sounds like a plan.