If you see a crystal clear pool in the mountains, stay far away from it. This is a WARNING.
I'm writing this as a warning to anyone in the region/ travelling to the region known as the Cameron Highlands. Stay on the path when forest trekking, DO NOT under any circumstances go off the road. DO NOT approach any ponds you see.
But if you were an idiot like me and did all those, just leave the thing alone...
You may have heard the recent news coverage of a resort in those Highlands having to close their establishment permanently, reason they gave that the number of people going missing in the woods, both tourists and locals were rising rapidly over the past month. Exactly when I had just stayed there, a month ago.
It was definitely my fault, god, my hands are shaking just typing this down but I figured this may be the only place I can relay anything without it getting taken down. But please, if you are there and you're seeing this, just leave the pool alone. The least I could so is warn you
It all started when my family decided to embark on a getaway trip to the remote misty hills of the Cameron Highlands, as it perfectly coincided with my brother's school holiday.
I remember just looking out the window, staring at the continuously passing forest scape, eventually melding into dark green hills as we traveled up the lonesome gravel road. The winding journey up the hills combined with the towering trees and foggy distant created such a surreal feeling that I don't think you can get pretty much elsewhere.
In the few times we visited the place, my brother would always do the same thing which was to roll down the car window of our SUV and stick his head out to breeze past the fog." Woooo!!!", he would yell out and the ravines below echoing and reverberating his voice. His face would return slightly damp from the vapor outside. I can't really scold him for it, I was the one who taught him how to do it, back when I was much younger. Now in my 20s, I no longer have the urge to do but it is somewhat comforting to have a living window to the past.
Before I continue further, let me give you some context. My mother's home village resided in a fairly isolated village far up the hills, their only source main source of income was the fairly unique temple that many tourists come to visit. Unique as in the temple was a living fossil of when the local indigenous group first met with Chinese merchants back in like- 12^(th) century i think and they settled there, marrying the locals and fusing their cultures together. But the temple has a much deeper cultural significance to the villagers rather than being a tourist magnet.
So in turn, a much flatter Shinto looking temple was erected with multiple carvings of both local and Taoist deities throughout the temple walls. Attracting the eccentric backpackers that want to learn more about some exotic culture, university students looking to write about it in their research paper or family members returning after having been away for a while. The third demographic would be us, while the first demographic would be how my dad met my mom. A Chinese woman who had hardly been outside her village entranced by a backpacker from Spain, and the rest you could guess.
My uncle, my mom's younger brother owned a getaway resort close to the temple to capitalize on the stream of gullible tourists and to ensure the village would remain largely unbothered by nosy outsiders. We would get to stay at the resort, courtesy on family discount. And as far back when I was 10, I remember occasionally travelling there during the holidays or on reunion parties.
But I digress, there was another unique thing that region held in it, a hidden gem you would say. Decorated on the forest floor, were deep crystal clear pools, tinted in shades of blue so beautiful and ethereal it created this perfect cyan, turquoise to midnight blue gradient that lead towards the middle. Only anyone who's ever lived there their whole lives would know their existence.
But almost no advertising was done on these geological wonder, not even my uncle who I've come to realize was, least to say, capitalistic. Not to mention, they were closed off to the public and locals don't even go near the forest where they laid. Multiple reasons were given, the area was crawling with venomous spiders, or that the pools were a conserved area or even that the pools emitted high contents of sulfur and carbon dioxide, which didn't seem to far fetched given that it was believed they were connected to underground rivers and tunnels.
However, I've had the privilege of gazing at those liquid gems from the forest trail and admiring their still glittering surface, a feature that came with the 'family discount'. Up until 2 years ago, me and my brother had always been accompanied by my dad or both my uncle and dad, which turned out to be strict supervision for me and brother's energetic and reckless personality
My mother always refused to step foot into the woods, which I had thought it was because she wasn't the adventurous type, but as of recent and what she had told me after our trip. It all made sense.
Every forest hiking trip was simple, don't stay out too late and stay on the trail. That was it, it was so simple. It was so simple....