I Did It Scared in Malaysia and Life Will Never be the Same

In Puerto Rico it was zip lining and rappelling through a rain forest. In Paris, it was experiencing the marks that African American artists and entertainers had left on the city during the Walking Spirit Black Paris Tour. Oh, and let’s not forget about the escargot! In London, it was dining on afternoon tea in Harrod’s then dashing off to West End to see a play. In Tuscany, it was a beautiful bike ride through the country side and around the vineyards.

I’m an experience junkie who craves new experiences, and travel is my way of satisfying that need to see the world around me differently and with new eyes.

But nothing could have prepared me for the physical and mental challenge that awaited me in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur to be exact.

It was my birthday, and I was jumping at the opportunity to leave the country — what would become my first time in way too many years. Much different from my past endeavors, I had simply looked at a map and pretty much pointed when I selected KL, as the locals call it. To my credit, it was one of the closest, least expensive, warmest, and safest – health wise – to Bangkok, our initial destination and the destination where most of my interest was focused. That decision would be the first step in what would lead to my new self-designation: Challenge Junkie.

 

While researching fun, exciting, and new things to do while in KL, I came across a Waterfall Jungle Trek. This drew my attention for one main reason: at the end of a crap long trip (4 hours to be exact), climbing and fighting our way through the rainforest with God-knows-what type of animals, our trek would end at an amazing waterfall where we would bask in the beautiful, blue waters. I was ready and totally excited.

After meeting our tour guide, Amos, at our hotel we began on a 1.5 hour drive out of KL City and onto the rainforest. My excitement continued as we drove through and out of the city. Then, the huge mountainous landscape came. Although quite beautiful, knowing that we were going deep into a jungle where there were steep plunges down to what seemed to be nowhere and all of the animals that, now that I’m thinking about it, I failed to Google beforehand — my heart started to beat a little faster. My mind started to rethink things: Was this a good idea? We could get hurt badly. I wanted the view of mountains that were now surrounding us to be and stay just that – views not the things that we would, in just minutes, begin to climb. But, it was too late to turn around.

When we arrived at the starting point for our hike, Amos armed us with walking sticks and sprayed us down with bug spray paying special attention to our ankles. Thankfully, the only creatures that we had to “worry” about were leeches. They were out for our ankles. Spoiler alert: All of us left having been sucked. With a pack of straight-from-the-movies wild dogs surrounding us, we began our journey. After a walk through a small stream here, a muddy steep climb up here, here, and here, at least 3 steep cliffs to the left and sometimes to the right, which were way too many for comfort, a few boar tracks that thankfully never turned up any IRL boar moments, and lots of beautiful views — we arrived at the star of the show: the waterfall.

The waterfall was everything you’d expect a waterfall to be. It was huge, loud, crashing, soothing, intimidating, and absolutely beautiful. I was prepared to wade in the calm waters that flowed from it and just contemplate life for the 45 minutes we had there. But apparently, I either forgot or misread one important tidbit about the Waterfall Jungle Trek. The point of getting to the waterfall was not to look at it or have a serene moment. Nope. Amos brought us to the waterfall to walk, first behind it, then beneath it.

No.

This was my precise response when Amos broke the news to us. Not doing it. I am an experience junkie, not a thrill junkie. The experience junkie in me had been filled to the brim by then: I had journeyed through a rainforest for 2 hours AND I saw a beautiful waterfall. What more could Amos want from me when I wanted nothing more for or from myself?!

I stood my ground for as long as I could until my mother grabbed my hand. I was shaking. Yes, the water was cold. But, the water could’ve been boiling and my body would have still been shaking along with my pounding heart. I was scared. I just knew that my small body would be swept away by the crushing water and over the cliff that was only feet in front of us. Sure, Amos stood in front but there was no way he could stop the water from taking me over. This, I was quite sure of.

I could barely breath as we made our way behind the waterfall, both from my fear and from the continuous pounding of the water. Even breathing through my mouth, as Amos had instructed, wasn’t helping. I was still scared and was still wondering why I had made the decision to “be brave.” Experience junkies aren’t called to be brave! If that wasn’t scary enough, Amos then called each of us to wade out beneath the waterfall where he would take an awesome picture of us being pounded by the water. I had my second “no” ready. In addition to that no, I said something that is unusual for me: I can’t do it. I was beyond scared and was ready to leave having not experienced standing beneath that waterfall. Then, my mother who was standing beside me simply said, “yes, you can.”

That “yes, you can” was all I needed. Body shaking, heart pounding, I went beneath the waterfall, lifted my arms and smiled as best I could. It came to be the best and one of the most memorable moments of my trip. I experienced so many great things on my 2-week adventure. But the waterfall challenge, which challenged me both mentally and physically, is one that I will never forget.

Most importantly, that picture of me beneath the waterfall will come to by my personal rallying cry:

whatever it is, Nicole, do it body shaking, heart pounding, do it scared.

Nicole says, ” I am a self-proclaimed experience junkie. Not jump out of a plane kind of experience junkie. I simply enjoy experiencing new things. Most of all, I have a passion for experiencing different cultures, places, and things to eat. You can follow all of my experiences on my food and travel blog nicoleeatsandtravels.com.”

Thank you Nicole for sharing your travel adventures with us!