I Dream of Fireflies
Trip Start
Feb 11, 2011
1
Trip End
Feb 13, 2011
Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia
Sunday, May 8, 2011
There were only two words that could describe our slow boat down the Yak Yah river, under the cover of light grey clouds, a bright half moon and the twinkle of Orion's belt. My wife and I were seated in the front row of a ten seater motorised sampan, as it glided with stealth past the wall of mangroves that flanked either side of the river, as the sparkle of small pockets of lights added a touch of the Christmassy to our journey. Only this wasn’t Christmas season. We were right in the middle of February, in the heart of tropical Peninsula Malaysia, and what appeared to be the twinkling of thousands and thousands of small Christmas lights lined up on the river banks was actually nature’s dazzling light show as male and female fireflies coveted for each other’s attentions.
As we moved along, the flickers continued to draw silent oohs and aahs from those on the boat, and as for us, we were utterly mesmerised. Just before we turned back towards the jetty where we boarded, the boatman cut the engine and let the craft drift into the mangroves, holding on to a thick branch to keep the vessel steady. I stretched out my hand, and a lone firefly descended upon it. The little beetle walked around to explore the unfamiliar land, before lifting off and returning to its loft of leaves. Revered by the Japanese as a metaphor for love, it felt ever so fragile in my hand, and had I closed my hand I would have extinguished not just a life but a flame of hope, burning bright in search of its mate. I began to draw the parallels in my mind, of the fragility of life, our common human quest for love and a partner in life, and how some people carry the flame all through their life, never giving up hope that someone, somewhere would sweep them off their feet.
We turned and headed back towards the jetty, still awed by our encounters. We had been told before we got onto the boat that this was actually not a very good season to view the fireflies, and if we had the chance we should actually return between the months of May to September and on the nights of a new moon. As we approached the jetty, I closed my eyes for a few seconds, tried to imagine the entire area softly glowing with the glittery lights of millions and millions of fireflies, and savoured the enchanting image in the stillness of the dark. Someday, in the not too distant future, I hope my wife and I will be able to return to this place, and hopefully by then the firefly habitats will remain as they are, and their descendants as numerous as the stars in the galaxy.
As we got off the boat, I gently squeezed my wife’s hand, and kept replaying the magic boat ride again and again in my mind as we headed back to the comfort of our resort in Dungun. How do you get to this slice of Malaysian paradise? By Firefly Airlines, of course!
