Jeremy's.

This is one of the weekends that i finally decided not to be lazy instead of staying in the house and doing nothing for the whole day. we decided to visit some waterfalls that we heard about.

We should have started off early in the morning but being the sleepy heads that we are. we slept in all the way till 11, missed breakfast and went straight for lunch. By the time we were ready to leave it was already about 1pm. ha.

Ok the thing about the waterfall is that it takes about an hour by bus and auto to reach the starting point. and from the starting point it takes about 2 to 3 hours to reach the waterfall.

This trip was seriously a trip about gut feeling because we really did not know what we were doing.

When we got on an auto from our apartments, the auto driver stopped to let another passenger alight. (sort of a shared auto) so from there the guy who could hardly speak any English brought us to a public bus and we just got up not really knowing where we were going. and it was quite hard to communicate so in the end we called up one of our collegues and asked him to talk to the bus conductor.

After a journey of about close to an hour, we reached this bus terminal at the outskirts of the city. i've forgotten what's the name of the place. i think i must make it a point to note down the names of all the places or i might just end up not know where i went again.

From the bus terminal we took an auto rickshaw to the starting point of the hike.. and from the starting point its supposed to be a 2 hour hike to the waterfall. In the end we took about 1 hour before we reached this top area where the waterfall could be seen from a far. We weren't really satisfied by that because after coming so far and walking all the way in, we didnt just want to stand from a far and snap a few shots so we asked around how we could make our way down to the bottom of the hill. At that time it was already 5pm. (this was our mistake coming back to us, we should have left much earlier in the morning so that we had more time to spend there) but anyway.. it was around 5pm and the locals advised us not to go down already because it would take nearly an hour more to go down and by the time we reach down there it would start to get dark so we would not be able to make it back up on time. Without even contemplating, the both of us decided to just go down, we were pretty confident we can make it down in a much shorter time then that. In the end we took about 15 mins to get down. (sounded easy but it wasnt really its just that we had quite abit of experience in such hikes.

When we reached down, we saw a river/stream that we had to cross. Both of us decided that we did not want our shoes to get wet so we did something that was really very silly. we decided to take off our shoes and throw them across before entering the water. However, we found out something.. we were really bad throwers. haha. each of us had one pair not reaching the other end and ending in the water. That was when we panicked because the river was washing away our shoes so immediately we jumped in and tried to chase our shoes. however it was not as easy as that as we were bare footed and the riverbed was uneven and filled with alot of rocks. Luckily our shoes got caught on some rock and we managed to retrieve them. I cant imagine what it would be like if we both lost one side of our shoes there.

We spend about a good 10 to 15 minutes at the waterfall before we decided to head back up because it was really getting late. It was really nice there. I'm kinda lazy to describe so the pictures will just explain everything. =)

Going back up was much faster.. we took about half an hour and we were back at the starting point.. but now we were kinda stranded in this farm area with huge padi fields and there was no way for us to make our way back to the bus terminal because we went there by auto rickshaw and we told the fella not to wait for us because we felt that he was going to over charge us. so anw. we told ourselves its alright.. we can just walk back.. but we have to get back by 7.30 (at that time it was around 7) because after that it would get really dark and there we no main roads there just this road that leads right thru the farm so if it get dark that would be problematic.. so we started walking. when suddenly this taxi appeared out of no where.. it was stopping to pick up any one who was walking along the road. You cannot believe how lucky we were to have gotten on to that cab. because on the cab.. we reached the terminal at about 7.45. imagine if we had continued to walk.. i think we'll only reach back by 9.30 this time we really over estimated ourselves. =)

Ok anw the other cool experience is the bus terminal. At this bus terminal, there is no signs to where each bus is going, so as the bus arrives, you have to hurry up to the driver and ask him where was the bus going. And then the language problem came in again. so what we did, we just followed the crowd of ppl. we assumed that since where we're going would be sort of like the city area.. the bus which attracts the biggest crowd would be the correct bus. So we followed the indians standing in the middle of the bus terminal, and when ever a new bus comes everyone will swarm over to the bus. even as the bus is moving you can see people sticking their hands on the exterior handles of the bus as if they can use their strength to stop the bus. The people will swarm to the door and ask the driver where the bus is going and if its not going to the correct place they will all disperse and then later swarm to the next bus. So well this happened for quite a few times when finally it was the correct bus. When the whole crowd; (im sure there were about 60 to 80 people there and the bus looks like it can only fit 40) found of that it was the correct bus thats where the big fight started.. everyone started squeezing for the front door.. didnt matter to them whether there were children or ladies around everyone had to fight for their place on the bus. We were both left behind because we werent really prepared for that massive rush. we were at the back of the bus and then we saw this guy tossing his baggage into the bus thru the rear window and suddenly we had an idea.... we could cut the queue by climbing in through the windows. and so that was what we did. it wasnt very easy because there was a bar across the window making the opening rather high and small but we managed to squeeze in and it was still empty then because the passengers in the bus havent even alighted.. (its so hard to alight when there is a crowd blocking the door. i guess giving way to the passengers coming out would mean losing a chance to get up on the bus so they werent taking any chances..) Me and taufiq got up the bus and found a nice clean seat at the back.. put our bags down and started laughing loudly to ourselves. =) and then we just sat and watch the show. Took about a good 15 mins before people started boarding the bus. haha. and it was so crowded but.. we werent at all affected. =))