Lifted by Water by Celine Jeanjean

Author:Celine Jeanjean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Celine Jeanjean

12

The ride down is actually quite fun. Once we get inland, the roads get more narrow and winding, and taking those curves on a motorbike is oh-so-satisfying.

Night is now deep and dark, and the only light comes from my headlamp. Tall trees tower overhead, the darkness too thick to see beyond them. The road isn’t illuminated, so beyond my headlamp's light, the night is black and unbroken. I ride more slowly than I would in daylight—if there are any obstacles on the road, like fallen branches, I won't be able to see them from very far ahead…

Tim rides on my tank as he did before. I have absolutely no idea how he doesn't slide off the smooth surface, but I guess this is where his magic comes in. Part of me wonders if I should get him some special cat goggles because the wind in his face must be making it hard for him to see, but then I catch myself.

This is not going to become a regular occurrence. I am not going to start pandering to him. That’s the start of a slippery slope, at the bottom of which are the people who find it adorable when their cat insults them.

We've been riding through the forest for a while before the satnav takes me off through even smaller roads. We’re heading towards Batulan Rock.

As we get close, we pass by one of the few villages that exist within the forest. They aren't inhabited by Panongian people, but by an Akha hill tribe. The Akha are a migratory people that mostly live in northern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and the Yunnan province of China. For some reason a part of them broke away from that area a couple hundred years ago, and they came to settle here, in Panong.

They live in relative seclusion from the rest of the island, refusing government assistance and insisting on living in traditional huts rather than in more modern concrete houses. As I ride past the village, my headlamp quickly illuminates a collection of simple bamboo houses, built directly on the packed earth. The village is protected by an intricately carved gate meant to keep malevolent spirits away.

The way they live, and maybe their gate, seems to allow them to live in harmony with the pari-pari, the orang bunian, and the countless other Mayak inhabiting the forest. Other humans attempting to live here would likely find so many weird and disturbing accidents happening that they wouldn’t last long.

And then it's back to the crowded darkness of trees on either side of the road. I make a mental note to look into the Akha later, and whether Nerong has had anything to do with them.

We ride for a while longer until Batulan Rock appears abruptly after a bend. As with Luyang Temple, where the Mayak hold their Musterings, the forest gives way to leave the rock jutting out of the earth, unencumbered. The name of the place is actually confusing because it's not one rock but a collection of enormous granite boulders.

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