visit to orang asli settlement

Last month I got a call from the district office asking me to follow a mobile team into the interiors of Banding Island in Perak to investigate some outbreak of acute gastroenteritis there. I was like "huh? ur kidding me?". Cos seriously i never get this kind of request before. Well, apparently the officer in-charged has been transferred elsewhere and with no replacement whatever, they simply have to find some Tai Sei Guai （替死鬼） somewhere to Sek sei mau （吃死錨） (meaning to look for replacement to do something nobody wants to do). So im their next target in the rotation until the new replacement officer comes (which could be next year or next millenium).

It was supposed to be a 3 day 2 nights stay in some orang asli (aborigines) settlement so remote that we can ony reach there via speed boat and 4WD Pajero. And stupid me I thought this kind of place only exists in Sabah or Sarawak. But luckily the trip was cut short to 2 days 1 night. Reallly lucky cos i dun think i will come out as a normal human if it was prolonged any longer. I might have mutated into a zombie for all u know. Will explain why later LOL

So we reached the Banding jetty after about an hour drive. Here:

The overhead bridge connects to the eastern part of peninsular Malaysia.

The Royal Belum Forest of Perak lies just 1 km from here. No time for sight seeing though. Hmm....i wonder if there is anything worth visiting there. Should appeal to those botanist, geologist or biologists i guess. Maybe got some unexplored old civilization or dinosaur fossils, who knows?

There is even a small little Marine post located in a cosy corner. When there is no emergency around, probably the officers will have plenty of time fishing or simply cruising on the speedboat on government enpenses. So nice eh?

The boat ride lasted a glorious 1+ hour. The strong wind makes my hair indented to one side after the boat stopped. LOL. There were some waves in the water so whenever the boat goes through the waves, the boat will literally jump up and down, together with the 10 of us on the boat. Luckily no one fell into the open sea. Some say there are crocs in the water. Gosh! How come they never tell me before i take the boat ride?? I don't have insurance, u know?

Then when we were about to reach the shore, something happen. Our boat was stuck in the muddy water! And we were still about 100m away from the shoreline.In my mind i was actually laughing cos i thought since the boat cannot dock, then the trip would be cancelled. But unfortunately, the navigator managed to get us out from the mud. He was using the oar cucuk here cucuk there in the water. God knows how many unlucky fishes died in the process. Its too late.... My dream of patah balik was dashed...completely :(

Farewell to the civilised world...There was no mobile phone coverage. TO be continued.......