Pasir Panjang Trail

It was 30 minutes past 5 o'clock in the morning. The villagers were already in BLR-A17 border as scheduled. Bus departed from Bintan Lodge on time, and the moment they came down from the bus they started taking pictures of the dawn. The 6 wooden boats with their small blinking red lights reminded me of Normandy (well.., OK, I was exaggerating). The waves forced them to move to BLR area (with permission from BLR) for loading passengers. Most were a bit shocked. The boats were so small and so low to the water. They didn't seem to be stable at all.

It was a wet start for group B who departed by boat. They needed to go into the water knee-deep past the breaking waves and board the boats. But all were brave. Slowly the horrific faces turned into enjoyment as they moved calmly toward the east.

As for Catharine, Siswo and I, we just laughted our arses looking at them (after helping each of them boarding the boats, that is).

As soon as the boats came to shore, approximately 20 minutes later, all started the action. Snap-snap-snap, click-click-clik. The sound of their gorgeous digital DSLRs made Catharine, Felix, and myself had to slick back our saliva.

They were crazy. They looked at things differently through their lenses. All the trash along the way were objects of desire. They took pictures of almost everything. The fact that they didn't encounter any turtle nest didn't seem to bother them.

"Look! Reflection!", said uncle.

And everbody started to work on the reflection, including Catharine and myself. As the tide was low, we also had the chance to work on a ship wreck.

 

After more than 2 hours of walking, we reached a rock formation at the end of the small bay. Felix and group A has been waiting there, finishing all the otak-otak the villagers had prepared.

The villagers made a long table overlooking their bay specially for this occasion. Nasi kuning (not nasi lemak) was served. it was a big package, but most gone into the bellies of the starved. All were eating happily, chatting and smiling and joking and laughing. I heard someone commented that the tea had a nice fragrance. Others suggested that Seetoh from MakanSutra be invited to saviour the delicious food.



Then came the coconuts. All were surprised, "wow, look..., freshly picked ones!". Another snap-snap-snap. Whoa, is this the first time they see people cutting and opening coconuts with parangs? Almost all took coconuts. Then another comments on the different taste lah, comparison with Thai coconut lah, big furits lah. Then another group photo. All smiling faces. All were happy. Then exchange of emails. And before all realized, we have gotten ourselves new friends!

The end of the trail is near. Everybody packed their belongings, wrapping all cameras in plastic bags just "in case", and walk to the wooden boats that awaited us.

It was a long six happy and adventourous hours. Sandflies bites started to show their marks on our skin. But nobody regretted it. Personally I would come again and explore more.