28 September 2005

Jacky came over just before 11:00, she wanted to show me the mountains and some stone formations, and some waterfalls in an area that her friend Sheila lived in. She took me into town to meet Sheila and eat some lunch we got some chicken and some pork barbeque. Jacky is allergic to chicken so me and Sheila had chicken and Jacky had pork. After we ate our lunch of barbeque and hanging rice Jacky took me to where we would be catching a motorcycle that could carry three passengers and handle the mountain roads. Sheila caught a multicab from town to the same location and actually made it there before us. Jacky and Sheila found a driver and made a deal with him for the fair both to and from the mountains. He took us up through the mountains which offered several splendid views and down into a valley that a river flowed through. When we reached the end of the passable road we got off the bike and walked a short distance to the river. I thought that we were going to walk along a path on the river, but Jacky told me to take my shoes off and role up my pants. So ok I did thinking that we probably wouldn’t be walking far. I’m wrong again. Both of these girls have much tougher feet than I do it seems, because they had little problem with the rocks, and me not being used to walking barefoot over a river bed I started to feel pain in my feet rather early on and was glad anytime we came to a patch of sand or mud or had to wander out of the river bed onto the dirt bank that lined the river. After walking quite a ways and all of us starting to feel some pain in our feet Jacky asked the gentleman who was leading us how much further. I couldn’t understand his answer but Jacky turned to me and asked do you want to keep going. Pain probably present on my face I answered it’s up to you do you want to go on. She said no, and I asked her if she had been to the waterfall that she was trying to take me to. She said no, and that she had asked the gentleman leading us several times along the journey how far it was to the water fall, and his answer had always been the same, “its just a little ways, just a little further”. My feet were telling me that every step I took forward would be another step I would have to take back when my feet hurt even worse so I was glad when Jacky said that she didn’t want to go any further. Sheila on the other hand seemed as though she could go either way, but as she was carrying her high-heels this journey up the river not having been part of her plan she seemed as though she could stand to go back herself. I later found out, that the little villa at the end of the passable road was where Sheila lived, and she had told Jacky that the falls were probably to far to walk. Jacky not having been up river that far before didn’t think to bring shoes proper to the trip, and didn’t tell me to either. We started our trip back, but buy this time my pant legs were soaked because I couldn’t role them up so far, and my feet hurt just to stand on the rocks. We began making our way back down the river and when we were about a third of the way it began to rain. At this point I gave up any attempt to stay dry at all, for one my shirt was wet from sweat and my pants were wet from the river. The girls on the other hand weren’t sweating as much as I, and had hiked up there wader pants to well above there knees. When it began raining Shelia pulled an umbrella out of her purse and said I’m a girl scout, always be ready, so I said lead the way girl scout and she did. Though I must admit seeing two girls walking in a river with and umbrella to keep dry was something I had never anticipated seeing, but what is even funnier is that it made some sense. We did eventually reach the villa again much to the great relief of my feet though at this point it hurt to stand on anything. After the rain we were all a little wetter but we piled onto the motorcycle and the driver began the rather bumpy trip back to the main highway and a more proper town. When we arrived in town, Jacky discovered that her back tire was flat, and told me to wait with Shelia while she found someone to repair her tire. A few minutes later she walked back to where me and Shelia were sitting and said that they were working on her bike and we should wait at the vulcanizing shop. Shelia was going to wait where she was for her mother as she was going to go to another city to buy a wedding cake. Jacky and I walked to the vulcanizing shop where we waited for the man to finish repairing the holes in the inner-tube. After the repair was completed we continued back to my hotel room at Leopard’s beach resort. Once there Jacky began felling sick and her legs began trembling and she wanted rest for a while. Not wanting her to ride her motorcycle in such poor condition I was glad she stayed. But as she stayed she began feeling worse and the pain in her stomach was intensifying. I offered to get someone to take her home and, but she said no, she had to go into town and go to the market. She had planed on seeing me off at the ferry pier later that night, but as she was not doing so well I said perhaps we should say our goodbyes now, and she should go home as soon as possible. So she got ready to go and we said our goodbyes. It is now 7:46pm, and I need to pay my hotel bill and prepare to go to the fairy at 8:30pm and so for now I am going.

As I'm sure everyone will want to know who this Jacky is that I have been talking about, this is her.