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Saturday, June 11, 2005

Creepy but true...

The four boys who were lost in the jungle at Fraser's Hill were found yesterday morning. They reportedly told a member of the rescue team that they had followed a clearly marked trail and followed it till they came upon a "Dead End" sign. When they turned around to retrace their path, the trail was gone and try as they might, they couldn't find it. It was all just dense jungle.
You'd be an "abnormal" Malaysian to not have questions about the supernatural-ness of this incident.
After reading the newspaper article, my mom and my brother had their own stories to tell.
My mom lived in the "sua teng" when she was a kid, and her elders would tell her and her siblings to be extra careful when they were out at night, even in the yard. There was one piece of advice that her naughty brothers didn't follow, which was not to pee anywhere they wished after running around the compound (remember, they were "sua teng" kids :) ). They were told to ask for permission nicely before going about their business, if you know what I mean. But of course, they didn't, until one night they came back into the house real quiet and when my mom asked, they wouldn't tell, but they heeded their elders' advice after that.
My brother had a more sensational story: he had a school friend who was extra sensitive about these things and saw otherworldly entities all the time. My brother asked him whether they looked like they did in the movies, all transparent and hazy, but the friend said they looked like real people except that they would be missing limbs or something. Scary.
I for one, sense, see and hear nothing. I am grateful for this blurness because I can't even watch horror movies, much less experience one.
My friend Tracy told me once that she thought I was quite brave during my first year in university. Why? Because her friend had told her ghost stories that allegedly happened in the college hostel where I was staying and not only that, but that the room that I was staying in (and the other rooms near the toilet) was a hotspot of activity! Well, I can truthfully say that my one-year stay there was uneventful. I can laugh about it now, but it's a good thing she had the good sense not to tell me the stories when I was dorming there. I wouldn't have been able to get a good night's sleep!

* * *
Was watching a documentary that featured the Shaolin monks on Discovery. There are 7 year old Shaolin apprentices who could kick my butt and make me beg for meercy in less 2 minutes flat...maybe less even. I can't even bend over and touch my toes without pulling a hamstring.
Ouch.

P.S. "Sua teng" translated loosely: jungle, rural.

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