During one of the visa runs to Malaysia, together with Anton and Iza we ended up on the Langkawi island. Beautiful nature, no crowds of tourists, a few days of sleeping in tents on the beach. One day we went on a hike to a waterfall, which turned out to be more of a stream. When we found a trail to a lookout point, we decided that this was the way to make up for the small disappointment. After just 30 minutes there were the first signs that this was not a good idea.
It started with a warning sign, stating that the further route was at your own risk. The farther you go, the more “wild” the atmosphere, the damaged stairs, the domination of nature.
They do not yet know what awaits them….
After an hour we were exhausted. Sweaty as rats, the humidity soaked all our clothes dry. The worst part was that we didn’t know how far we were from the viewpoint, but it was a shame to turn back. I rather not give up, but honestly from fatigue inside I cried. In the group strength, so no one even dared to suggest that we go back. We met a couple who were returning from the mountain and gave us encouragement, saying that we still had about 45 min. 45 minutes left. I didn’t even have the strength for another 5, but knowing that we weren’t going indefinitely improved our mood. In addition, they advertised the destination well by mentioning the beautiful birds that live on their summit. They also warned us about something I was totally not expecting… land leeches!
From then on, I checked my arms and legs practically every minute. After about an hour, I noticed that we were practically there, so I sped up, only to lie down on something flat and die. battered by life, we didn’t even speak to each other. We were soaked from the humidity down to our underwear, so we had to hang our clothes out to dry.
Silent bloodsuckers
At one point I noticed that from between my toes in my sandals I was bleeding heavily. I was surprised because I didn’t feel anything, nor did I hit anything. When I took off my shoes, it turned out that under the material of the shoe were three silent bloodsuckers… Terrified? Hardly, I panicked. Anton, although he also found two at his place, helped me, dropping the monsters with a stick. These creatures, a second after being torn off, “stood” at one end and took to the air to look for the next victim (or the existing one). It was such a horrible and frightening sight that everyone grabbed a shoe to annihilate them. In conclusion, it came out that Anton had 2 leeches on the counter, in my case it was 5, because I found two more under the other sandal….
Ok, we are saved. Are we…? I had my whole feet in blood, and as it turns out, these creatures inject an anesthetic and blood-thinning agent so that the victim is not aware of the problem, and the meal itself goes off without a hitch….
Despite taming the “bleeding” with tissues, the next hour I was bleeding heavily all the time. We had long since run out of water or anything with which to protect my feet. And now the worst part of the adventure – how am I, bleeding all over, supposed to get back down through the jungle, where earlier, without bleeding, 5 leeches quietly got me. Now I will be like a walking Christmas Eve feast, to which, on the occasion of the first visible star in the sky, they invite from the closest church with the ringing of bells.
In search of rescue
Next to the viewpoint, which, by the way, did not have the final birds advertised to us… We were dying a good hour. Chinese tourists who arrived by car helped me by sharing water and tissues. However, nothing helped to stop the bleeding.
Cabs were not getting to the top, so we started asking if we could be driven down, or at least 1 person to return with our scooter, which we parked at the bottom.
Eventually a local teenage girl and her two brothers helped us, where they each took us to the back of their vehicles. We were mega grateful, especially since the girl was Muslim. In her religion, it is forbidden to even touch a foreign man. However, as she mentioned to us, this was an exception treated as a “good deed.”
The moral of the adventure? Even though we walked down the stairs and not on the ground – into the jungle only with covered footwear! And read more about the creatures lurking in the bushes HERE
