50: Mystery? Do something spontaneous

I may be going nowhere... but what a ride it is!

For this challenge I had a number of ideas for spontaneous excursions in mind. My threshold for something spontaneous was relatively high. It had to be more than a spontaneous dinner with my girlfriend, or spontaneous trip to the movies. So I wrote up a list of potential spontaneous excursions that I could embark on. I watched an episode of Yes Theory (a YouTube Channel that promotes exploring things outside your comfort zone) and they threw a dart on a map of America and had a crazy adventure when they visited Jackson, Mizzouri. I thought too that I could pick a random spot on a map of Victoria, spend the night there and have an adventure to satisfy this task. But the thing is, the challenge wasn’t to spend a night at a random location, it is to do something spontaneous. And the thing about spontaneity is that it can’t be manufactured. So I had to sit on this one, until something truely special emerged.

I am currently in Malaysia completing my studies at the Monash Campus in Sunway. It is currently winter holidays for the local Monash students, but a few of them have stuck around campus. I decide to stay on Monash residence, mainly for the convenience, and on the second day I met my roommate Shahmir. It was a bit of an awkward encounter, mainly because I didn’t have a shirt on and was in my pyjamas. But he was cool, and we got along well. Since that first encounter we would often chat in the corridor and on one occasion we played basketball together.

About a week into the program I decided to get a haircut, and on my way I bumped into Shahmir. We said hi, and he mentioned that he was planning on doing a hike the next morning with a few friends, but I would have to wake up early to catch the sunrise. How early, I asked. Oh not too bad, 3:30 – 4:00am. I told him that I would think about it and get back to him that night. After a hearty chicken and hummus combo at the local market I decided to lock in the adventure. So I set my alarm, put my water in the fridge and got an early night sleep.

The next morning at about 4am Shahmir, his two friends Harthi & Pavtel and I started the 1.5 hour drive to the base of the mountain. When we got there it was a beautiful clear sky, but about 5km away there was a localised thunderstorm! I was worried at first whether we should do the hike, because if we got court in the storm we would be stuck on the mountain in the dark. On the other hand, we had come all this way to catch the 7am sunrise, and the storm wasn’t over the mountain but rather off somewhere in the distance. I decided to check the whether forecast specifically for the mountain and it said clear skies till about 10am, so I felt it was safe enough to climb…

We started the hike and it was more challenging than I anticipated, in the car Shahmir told me that it was about 800m to the top, turns out it was closer to 2km. After about 15 minutes of walking we stopped at our first rest break (at the 1600m mark) and it was at this point that Shahmir’s friends Harthi and Pavtel decided to stay back. They would continue to climb up the mountain but not at the pace that we wanted to go at in order to get to the top for sunrise.

I had done a lot of hiking before, but I still found it quite challenging to do it in the dark. There were a lot of bugs that we passed including an ant the size of my middle finger and a snail the size of my fist. I also saw earth worms, crickets and centipedes littered throughout the hike. The bugs come out to play when the light go out, just make sure you are careful where you put your hand. The hike was steepest towards the middle. We saw a sign saying 1460 meters to go, and after about a 10 minute vertical climb we reached another sign that said 1390 meters. We were never going to finish this in time.

After that the track flattened out, but we still had a bit to go and about 25 minutes to spare. We picked up the pace and I could feel my heart throbbing in my neck. Every turn felt like we were getting closer and closer to the end but never quite reaching the peak. With 5 minutes to go I decided to really kick things into gear, but only managed about 100 meters before my chest started to tighten. Why did I eat like such crap this holiday!?! I refused to give up. With 2 minutes to go I was just putting one foot in front of the other, head spinning from the heat and heart pumping from the exercise. I was almost about to puke when I heard three glorious words. “We are here”. At this point I am about 10 meters behind Shahmir and quickly catch up to him just to make it to the clearing at the top. The morning light was starting to shine though but we hadn’t missed the sunrise yet.

Feels good to be on top!

To get to the very top of the mountain and get to the lookout we had to climb some steel ladders and giant boulders. Although we were late for the full sunrise we were still excited to get to the top. We finally made it and looked around for the sun only to realise that it was on the other side of the mountain! Still worth it though. The view was amazing from up top and it was peaceful just sitting there watching Malaysia wake up. I smiled to myself sitting on top of that mountain, only realising then that I had completed the mystery challenge.

Spontaneity is not something that you can manufacture, it is not planned and it is not comfortable. It is only when you are willing to take the plunge, to say YES, that you can truely be spontaneous.