Today was 110% better than yesterday. It was a "free day" so we got to do whatever we wanted until 2:30 p.m. So I started the day with a couple of phone calls to Dan and mom and dad. That was really nice. Then I went to breakfast and made my way into town. This "town" is really small and not very developed at all. It was fun though just to walk around by myself and not feel like I have to be part of the group. I walked forever! I saw some cool things and a ton of roosters and chickens. I saw a couple of the girls a couple hours later and went to get an ice Milo with them. After cooling off, I wen tout again to explore. This time I stumbled upon a primary school and asked the teacher if I could sit and watch. He said yes so I watched him teach mass (weights) to third graders. This was a really cool experience. I talked with the teacher a bit while the kids were doing work and he had some really interesting things to say about how he has to assign in-class work because the parents don't/can't help with the homework. Anyway, I did a bit more exploring after that and then made my way to lunch. We had to meet Prof. Heng at 2:30 for a discussion about Orang Asli (the indigenous people). Then we actually got to go to an Orang Asli village that was just up the river! This was incredible! these are jungle people who mostly live off the land. They hunt monkeys and birds with these giant blow darts. I took a ton of pictures of the little village children. Many of them were undressed and dirty, but they looked like happy kids. They were just having fun.
We got a demonstration on how to use the blow dart and everyone tried and I was the only one who hit the target! Yay me! Looks like I could survive in the jungle (yeah right!). I really enjoyed this tour.
After that we ate dinner and went back to the resort to watch a movie on Taman Negara. It was only a 1/2 hour, but it was pretty interesting. Then, afterwords, Kuljit went to get reflexology from a guy at the lobby of the resort. I went along with her to watch. It was hilarious! She was so ticklish so she was writing and kicking. Everyone was laughing. It was great. The reflexology is pretty cool though. They knew a lot of stuff just from feeling her feet.
Overall, today was a fantastic day and I hope that I have many more just like this.
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