Monday, October 27, 2008

The White Rapids…

Trivia: Why is it called White.... water rafting? - Cos the rapids are white in color :) hehe

:) Finally, on 26th Oct, 2008.. I have reentered the rafting world. My last rafting trip was in Austria in M1 2001, but that was relatively a low level trip with short rapids up to grade 3. So, after numerous failed attempts to go rafting, I have decided to go at it alone at Sungai Selangor, with reported rapids up to level 4.

The trip to raft started, as usu on Friday afternoon.. up to KL. Stayed at Ivy’s, as usu.. (thanks gal..) Saturday was mainly a rest day, with some work to finish.. Was suppose to go swimming on Sat morning, but the lazy me prevailed… sorry again Ivy.. had a nice lunch at Old Town Kopitiam and had dinner and movie later on. So… not bad for a relaxing Saturday.

Okays, twas Sunday when all the action took place…. Woke up late at…. Groggily prepped myself… and headed to Midvalley KTM Kommuter station. Took the 7.27 am train… and nervously journeyed to KKB.. arrived there on the dot at 9am… took a cab to the Post Office (meeting point) .. but ahem.. the other participants who drove were late.. so went to eat brekkie at nearby mamak.

Well.. after everyone has gathered, off we went to the starting point… here, another looooong wait as there were about 50 participants that day… so wait long long for the briefing.. after that, we broke into grps of 4-8 and hopped onto the 4 rafts.

I was in a boat with 2 other Malaysians and a Swede. There were 2 guides with us as well in the boat.. so we were the lightest boat there was with only 6 peeps. Short practice in the water about the instructions, like “over left” means quickly lean to the left, and “inside” means quickly go into the the inner part of the boat, and not on the sides… and.. finally…off we go!!!

The first few rapids were small rapids with small drops… but man, that brought back good memories. Things became familiar again. Ahh… man I really missed rafting… Now, altogether were 4 major rapids ranging btw grade 3-4, and many other small ones. Shortly after, we came to our first Grade 3 drop, aptly named “First Canyon” . The drop wasn’t very high but it was enough to get the adrenaline going. We got splashed with water and I got my clothes wet.. (well, it was already wet before that when I jumped into the river before the rafting had even begun).

The second major drop was called “Suck em Dog” errr errr… okies.. I’m getting lazy here… Just read this article…. http://www.wildasia.net/main.cfm?page=article&articleID=181 for a lowdown on the rapids ….

Okaaaaay, rafting was a blast. Though the water levels were not as high as I had hoped for… but I guess it was the weather is unpredictable so cant do anything about that. Next off, I’m looking forward to more rafting trips; hopefully Sungai Singor in the near future. So… to all those who wanna try something new… do give white water rafting a try, and I guarantee it… you’ll like it!!

So total itinery for those who wanna KKB the Jonie way:
0630: Arghh…. Woke up late!! Haven’t prepare yet!!! Curse abit... sleepwalk abit..
0715 : Arrive at KTM Midvalley
0727: take the KTM Kommuter to Rawang, msged the guide… might be late and change to KKB at Rawang.
0900: arrive at KKB KTM station. Either call the guide to pick you up or pay RM5 for the cab to the post office… (I ran out of batt.. so err… no choice, lorr.. take the cab)
0905: Meet guide…eat brekkie…raft raft raft…
1400: Fin rafting..shower , have short lunch, exchange emails, phone number.. IM, facebook, spits… whatever…
1430: Leave for home… or ask someone to bring you to the KTM station. Train at 1505 (basically every 30mins)
1630: arrive at Midvalley… proceed to shop or home.

Trudge on…. And raft on!!

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