Myself with a Hunting Rifle 


Was digging through my archives and managed to pull this picture that we took when we went to Rizal's 'ladang', malay for ranch. Now, this was like in 2000 when Rizal decided to invite a few of us over to the ladang to have a relaxing day away from the city life.

The moment Rizal mentioned ladang, the first thing that went through our minds was that it would be away from civilization and it would be a typical village place that we'd imagine. The journey there was more of a stunt rather than a convoy. Rizal, who was leading the convoy had a trail of like 4 cars behind him on the way there. Everytime he changed lanes, our convoy snaked throughout the highway. It was hilarious!

After an hour's drive, we eventually got there. The first time we set eyes on this place, it was not your typical 'ladang'. This place had proper electricity, plumbing and even airconditioning! We were all thrown off balance when we saw this. Believe it or not, the place has a water heater for the shower. Where was the simple life?

Well, his parents had his maid tag along, bringing a whole supply of food enough to feed the army. We had different types of seasoned meat, sausages, buns, chicken and enough charcoal to keep burning for weeks. My gosh, we were really spoilt for choice, and not to mention comfort. Now, the first thing that we noticed when we got in was that there were three holy Qurans sealed in a glass casing on the three walls of the house. Chee Peng, had to go and ask loudly, "Hey, why are there three? And why are they sealed?" All of us just ignored him and treated as if we didn't hear anything he said. It was there for obvious reasons. When you are in a jungle clearing, there are obvious spirits roaming about, just that we don't disturb them, they will do the same and not disturb us.

Rizal's cousin Natasha had brought alone her Italian friend who was boasting that he has been to the Amazon jungles and brought along his hiking boots. One thing about this place was that the worst thing to get you are not the mosquitoes but the leeches. They went trekking with the caretaker, to check out the durian plantation. I was not going to venture there, I'm not much of an outdoor person. Plus, I was put in charge of getting the fire started for the BBQ. The Italian dude was pretty shocked that this was quite a thick jungle. When the guys told him that this was not a jungle, but a ranch, the dude got pretty shocked. Clearly, he has not seen the Malaysian rainforest. He took a parang, Malay for machete, and in they went. When the caretaker stopped for a smoke, those fellas just stood there and looked around. Now, Ducky a.k.a. Kelvin was smart and he did not stand in one place long, same went for Chee Peng. They were scouts before so, going into the plantation was nothing new for them. The Italian dude did as the caretaker did. He just stood there and did nothing. Just looking around the forest, just observing. They continued walking and when they came across a wasps' nest, they immediately ran. The Italian dude threw the parang to them and ran back to the house for cover. Next thing he noticed when he took off his boots was that his legs were all covered with leeches. Really took him a while to get all the leeches off. Ducky and Chee Peng were lucky to get back unscathed. When they asked the caretaker why he didn't get sucked by any leeches, he pointed to a can of mosquito repellant. Apparently he had sprayed his legs full of it before going trekking. Smart.

Oh well, there were a lot of stupid things that happened during the trip. There was a run in with a scare crow that Chee Peng still swears today that it exists in the ladang. Now, according to him he saw this scare crow, dressed in white with long hair and has a rope tied to it so that when someone pulled it, it would move. He was shocked when he saw it and then just dismissed it off as a scare crow. We verfied this with Rizal and according to him, there is no scare crow and there has never been. So, what did Chee Peng see? Until today, we still do not know what it was. Just that it was something that only he himself saw. Honestly, neither of us wanted to know anyway.