First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, May 22, 2017
Pain is so close to
pleasure, terror a heartbeat away from sublime beauty
SB felt a draught on the back of his neck and turned
around. The back door of the van had
worked itself loose. It was now flapping
freely, exposing the luggage compartment where our luggage was stored, and some
of the luggage was missing, having tumbled out of the back. And we hadn’t even
started our hike.
Our journey had begun some 8 hours earlier at Padang, the
hot, bustling capital of West Sumatra province, best known for nasi padang, rice with often fiery
condiments. The journey had taken us to
the highlands, dense with shaggy forests and extensive tea plantations, past
the tranquil lake of Danau Atas, into the lowlands with quiet villages and through
a heavy rainstorm that flooded the already rutted road in parts, and finally to
the village of Kersik Tuo. 