Misty-eyed and wistful about mist-pools.

One early morning in Borneo... old forest in mist-pools. that was one magical morning.

It was easy waking up at 4:15AM. The last day in Danum Valley and I did not want to miss a thing. A quick shower (my many showers were a source of constant amusement in the group) and we were all out by the 4WDs. Observation tower, we were told. OK. we had no idea what it was going to be. The forests around us were swathed in mist and we climbed our way up a mountain just as the sky was beginning to get an indigo-purple hue that announced pre-dawn. I ran up the stairs to the observation deck and gaped at the scene before me. Mist pools galore, the odd tree clumps peeking out as the mist ebbed and flowed around the forest. Constantly shifting. No two seconds held the same scene. Triggers and tripods everywhere, picking my way between them I took it all in through lens and lungs.

And then came the idea to climb the impossibly tall climate observation tower to our right... imagine a cell phone tower, double it in height. A sheer vertical ladder went up some 50m (150 ft). nothing on either side, rungs some half a meter apart. one slip and you were history. Looking straight up the ladder my heart sank. "Divya, you go first." She did and all i needed was her "you must come up here," and i was up the 50m in a trice. If the scene from the first observation deck took my breath away, the sight from up here (we were waaaay higher than the first deck now) had me breathing out very s-l-o-w-l-y. and grinning like a cheshire cat.

No trees, no poles, no stumps, nothing in the way. we were above it all. and below us the drama of the newborn day was unfolding. The emergent layer was just catching the first rays of the sun. Bare, long white barks and bright red dipterocarp seeds were just revealing themselves in pristine glory. the mist was catching the pink of the nascent rays and lifting, shifting. and i thank divya a million times a day, even now.

i held that moment, that scene, that freshness in my mind. it was not to be trifled with. this was life. pura vida.