Firefly Observation by Homestay Haji Dorani, Sabak Bernam

Part 1: 3 Days and 2 Nights at Homestay Haji Dorani, Sabak Bernam

Part 2: Free and Easy at Homestay Haji Dorani, Sabak Bernam
Part 3: Buffet Dinner at Homestay Haji Dorani, Sabak Bernam

I could easily score 300% for my overly excellent procrastination. My previous trip to Bali with my ex-classmates a year ago is still yet to be blogged, yet I am here talking about something else that took place in October 2012. The trip was not anywhere near impressive. It's just the people whom I traveled with that truly mattered. Anyway, for your own review in case you somewhat missed it, here is a brief introduction about my 3 days and 2 nights at Homestay Haji Dorani.

As the title suggests, our first night was spent on a boat controlled by the local guide, and floated along an unknown, pitch black river to observe fireflies. Frankly, I couldn't even name the river or the place where we boarded the boat. Transportation to and from Homestay Haji Dorani was mentioned to be provided in the itinerary, but we were eventually told to drive to the destination instead. It wasn't a pleasant drive, I would say. The guide literally sped along the way to the extent that I had to risk getting into an accident on roads that I was never familiar with, while trying to tailgate them at my best. The jetty was a place surrounded by trees by the way, managed by the locals.

P/S: The credits for the photos shared in this particular blog post go to Fathu and me myself.

As usual, we were required to put on our life jackets for safety purposes before we crossed the dangerously designed wooden bridge to board our boat. From the destination and its surrounding to this part of the trip, I was still worried about scams. It could be!

Soon, we departed in search of fireflies. In order to protect the fireflies by all means, flashlights and everything that could possibly cause any forms of harm to the little insects must be off for the moment. Video cameras were no longer helpful then. Torchlight were also best to be off at the same time for the similar reasons, and only the guide's was on.

Fathu switched her digital camera to night mode and shot a short video to briefly talk about our situation for our travelogue, which the video gave us the creeps. It resulted in grey-ish green faces of us with dark surroundings, just like the photo above. Hah!

It's the firefly on her palm! Usually black or brown with elongate bodies, fireflies belong to the family, Lampyridae. According to Debbie Hadley, their larvae live in the soil, under tree bark, and even in swampy areas. They simply love to be in moist, dark places!

We didn't spend a very long time on firefly observation. It's an activity that allows you to look at natural Christmas trees after all, even though I will never deny the beauty of it. We returned to our chalet as soon as we arrived at the jetty, and it was yet another scary journey again.

That's basically how our first day at Homestay Haji Dorani was spent. :D

x.