Kayakers negotiating a tough stretch of Sungai Kenong,Pahang, riddled with fallen logs.
How the expression “bucket list” came to be is worth a few chuckles.
British-American screenwriter Justin Zackham, in 1999, maintained a list titled “Justin’s List of Things to Do Before I Kick the Bucket.”
For brevity, he eventually renamed it “Justin’s Bucket List”.
This term became widely known when he scripted a movie called The Bucket List, released in 2007, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
The film is about two senior citizens diagnosed with terminal cancer who share a bucket list and embark on both hilarious and tear-jerking adventures before they die.
A young kayaker breezing along a pleasant stretch of Sungai Kenong that is free of obstacles.
I have a friend from India whom I’ve known online since 2009.
A few days ago, she texted me to say that she and her husband had achieved their dream of moving to Canada.
She mentioned that now, in Toronto, they had rivers and lakes “just in the backyard”, sparking her desire to get a kayak.
Despite being busy with her new life, that kayak and those lakes and rivers are definitely on her bucket list.
Do you have a bucket list? A list of aspirations and yearnings that are just about you? No time frame, no pressure.
Psychologists and life coaches recommend getting a notebook and using a pencil and eraser.
The front of your notebook is where your main list goes. Freely jot down anything that interests you.
As your consciousness and perceptions evolve, some aims might seem pointless later – erase those.
When certain items start to feature strongly in your mind, use the back of the notebook. Repeat the title of that significant item and start recording the steps you take to achieve it.
Your bucket list can be a piece of paper, a text file on your computer or a list app on your smartphone. It forces you to think about yourself.
If you don’t write down “kayak into a jungle”, for example, that dream might get buried under work commitments, family obligations and a thousand other things.
But when you frequently see what you have scribbled down, thoughts might translate into action.
A tough section of Sungai Kenong requiring kayakers to manfully haul their kayaks through strong rapids.
Maybe you’ll spend more time learning about kayaking instead of scrolling through social media. Maybe you’ll stop impulsive buying to save money for that adventure. Maybe you’ll start dieting and exercising diligently, as you need to be fit for kayaking into a jungle.
It took me eight hours to drive from Penang, where I live, to Kuala Lipis, Pahang, to go kayaking and camping in a jungle.
I had to drive over Cameron Highlands via Simpang Pulai in Perak to reach Pahang on the other side of the Titiwangsa mountain range.
I didn’t realise I’d have to paddle upriver through the jungle along Sungai Kenong, against the current, for eight hours. There were stretches where missing even one stroke meant going backward.
I saw elephant dung balls floating downriver, the size of bowling balls.
We never saw the elephants because they could hear us from far away.
By the time we reached their area, we only saw traces of them – freshly disturbed earth and flattened tree saplings.
We did see grumpy wild boars the size of motorcycles with vicious-looking tusks. Our guide was skilled at scaring them away by throwing branches at their flanks.
I pitched my tent in a clearing just 3m from a pile of aged elephant dung balls, which my guide said was good because it would dissuade tigers from coming near (tigers, huh?).
I experienced so many other things on that trip, and though it was six years ago, I remember them like they happened yesterday.
So, what’s on your bucket list?
