Buayan Hike

Yeah.. went on a second trip to Buayan with Mona last Saturday. It was 10.30 something and Mona texted me saying that they weren't moving just yet from Donggongon and asked me to sabar dulu aa... I didn't mind. There was a power outtage but I napped easily on the couch downstairs.
Sometime around 11.20am Mona called me telling me that I would have to wait for the transport at the kedai runcit at Goli since it would be a bit out of the way for the 4wheel to ride up the short hill to my residence.. Hmm... I thought..how packed could the 4wheel be? 10 minutes later I found out. The Nissan 4wheel was quite overflowing with passengers. When the 4wheeler stopped, the back passenger door on the left opened and ejected 3 children who scampered up into the packed rear open cabin. As I sat inside, I saw that there were already 3 ladies and a little boy within. Since there was still room, it was decided that another little passenger could benefit the space within the passenger seating. So, little Kevin was called in. Let's see, there was the driver, Mona sat in front with a little girl on her lap. There was me, little Kevin, the other two ladies, and a mother with her little boy. 8 front passengers, plus the horde of standing passengers at the back - 6 or 7 of them. Wow.
Seating settled, the vehicle roared on. Pass Kg. Sugud, on to Timpangoh Laut, pass the small rocky stream, up and up the bumpy orange colored earthen road (road?), going down similar trails until we reached Kuala Terian. I thought to myself, if there were any reasons to buy an offroad vehicle, traversing these kinds of road conditions would be IT. Bumped my head a few times, and having a super slim neighbour who was all muscle and sharp bones was an experience. I could feel her shoulder poking under my ribs.. was she that thin?
Anyway..the buck stopped there. That road trip took about an hour or so. On to hiking.
We had to cross this river. It wasn't as deep as I thought it would be. At shallowest point the water only reached my thigh so it was a revelation when Mona said on a normal non-dry season, the water can reach as high chest level. In which case, Mona would take another route- albeit longer - to pass through this river since crossing this river at that depth would be quite dangerous for her.
Which reminds me to wear a different outdoor sandals next time I need to cross rocky rivers. The Eiger sandals I wore didn't grip well. There was one point where I lost my balance and toppled forward! I quickly recovered and took out my camera and mobile phone (not that there was any phone line there) from the front pocket of the backpack. They were ok. One lesson for me. Much as I was confident that I was not going to slip on a shallow water, I should've put them in a waterproof bag. One of the Year 6 girls, Jeslinda, who was already nearing the bank on the opposite side, waded back and shyly offered to carry my backpack. Wah! How thoughtful! I handed it to her, along with the plastic bag containing my phone and camera. I didn't want to risk another embarrasing dip in the water. ;)