A Hand on Path?!

As usual in the mornings, walking alone in the forest, all our human's senses are heightened; hearing, smelling, looking, feeling, including the sixth.

Suddenly from the corner of the eye, there was something looking strangely familiar that should not be there.

Our human stopped immediately, turned and looked.

A hand! A child-sized hand on the path.

The early morning sun filtering through the thick canopy aided shadow play on it.

Imagine a superstitious, weak-hearted hiker walking alone during dusk, the scene would certainly scare the wits out of him or her.

Fruits on Path

Our human saw and recognised these fruits on the path. These were still young, not matured or fully grown yet.

It is possible that either the bad weather or some animals may be the cause of the falling. Due to the thick foliage above, our human could not determine which tree these fruits belonged to.

These are either nangka (jackfruit in English) or cempedak (honey jackfruit in English).

Nangka is usually huge and oval in shape while cempedak is smaller and tubular. Nangka tastes sweet and fruity when ripe, like a mix of banana, pineapple, and mango, with a fragrant, sometimes durian-like smell, while unripe nangka is mild, chewy, and absorbs spices, often used as a meat substitute in savory dishes.

Our human loves unripe nangka cooked in coconut milk with a bit of chilli, 'Nangka muda masak lemak' or 'Young Jackfruit Curry with Coconut Milk' and could seldom enjoy it as unripe nangka is so difficult to get.

Happiness is Meeting Friends

Our human turned a corner, something moved in front, immediately stopped and looked.

Monkeys were in front on the path a few feet away. They, too, stopped and looked.

Then someone approaching from behind said, "Good Morning!" Our human turned and saw a hiker acquaintance. He asked, "What are you doing?" I replied,"Snapping photos".

Those monkeys scampered!

Isn't that rear end view cute?

That hiker walked on.

Perhaps the monkeys recognised our human and then came down from the upper branches.

Our human was delighted to be able to capture this wonderful moment and had to refrain from hugging it. It looked at our human in such a cute coquettish position with seemingly cross-eyes.

Actually they are not cross-eyed but the markings made it look such.

They are so cute and friendly.

These are dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus), also dknown as the spectacled langur or the spectacled leaf monkey, a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae.

When It Rains

Our country's monsoon is not over yet and forecasters say it will continue.

There were days when our human, eager looking forward to the walk, changed to walking gear with a packed haversack, stepped outside, and it started raining!

Outside, our human stood looking at the falling rain for at least half an hour hoping that it was just a passing shower. When it did not stop for over an hour, our human gave up and went inside like a 'tortoise retracting into its shell'!

The very next fine weather morning, the walk was different. It was slower and cautious.

The fallen tree trunk fell on the path and broke on impact.

Muddy slopes and rain-filled holes.