June 24th, 2009 – I've been strategizing, planning, and getting sick . . . . again. This time I think the culprit was fried chicken. Damn Colonel Sanders!!! I’ve been trying to make jungle plans and have met with the usual amount of frustration. At my last hotel I inquired into the possibility of doing some trekking. The gentleman behind the desk made a couple of calls and a guide met me at the hotel.
Well, Yan is a former guide as I soon discovered but an extremely nice guy. We soon became friends. He told me that although he no longer conducted guided tours he did have a friend who would help me out. This friend (Sahar) had some interesting experience. Apparently, he assisted some folks working under the aegis of National Geographic and their search for the mysterious orang pendek.
What the hell is orang pendek you ask? That would be Sumatra’s version of bigfoot, albeit a scaled down version (about 3ft tall – Littlefoot?). There have been rumors for many years of a small hairy humanoid creature roaming the junglein Kerinci National Park. Sahar helped set up and maintain motion activated cameras in certain areas of the jungle. The experiment proved fruitless. The little hairy bastard is an allusive bugger (Check out the Orang Pendek Project homepage). I was also told that Sahar assists a professional photographer that periodically visits the area. I found this most propitious and agreed to meet him in his village after leaving Sungai Penuh.
