After a few change of dates, the trip to Singoh was finally confirmed on the 11th to 13th of Feb, and we would set out for Singoh on the 10th. I was down to KL on the 9th night itself, and arrived at around midnight in Unc’s place. Settled in for the night before departing to Tmn Melati LRT the next morning. Another weird thing happened to me here, but that’s for another post. Anyway, met up with Safiq 9 am and headed to KKB to meet up with the rest of the team.
At KKB, a total of 12 of us would be going for the trip and we took off in a car (Safiq’s), the Khersonese van and the 4WD. Along the way, funny things happened (for eg the van took a wrong turn, and ended up in Taiping) and the weather was freaking hot… We exited from Kuala Kangsar, and met up there again to make sure everyone knows the way.
Ended up in Gerik at about 2-3 pm and had lunch while discussing the next step in the plan. A friend of Bai from the wildlife conservationist dept, Leong, joined us at the table and we had a nice chat. After that and a few phone calls to the state dept office, we were told that apparently, the entry permit was not ready (the usu Msian civil service larr) although the team had sent it in weeks earlier and that we can only be collected the next day.. sigh… but anyways, two will remain in Gerik and get the permit, while the rest of us will head into the forest and bunk a night at Pak Samad’s place, in the Orang Asli settlement.
The ride there was interesting. We had a short stop at Banding, where we had a picture session at Lake Temenggor?? before heading into the logging tracks towards the village.. this was an interesting ride. As they were all logging tracks, the ride was sorta 4WD-ish.. gg through sandy and dusty up and down slopes … fast…really fast, with timber trucks to avoid along the way. Visibility was almost down to zero as we zip along the way.. literally eating the dust of the vehicles in front of us cos the 4WD’s air-con was not working.. and yup, you guessed it, we rolled down the windows.. By the time we reached the village, all the bags, human beings, and the car was covered in dust… haha.. from black, most of us ended up with blond hair… ;)
Short Break at Banding....
Met up with some of the orang asli in the village who were very very nice ppl, and some of them were ex-rafters themselves who would happily divulge their stories about going down Singor. Chatted until nightfall, when Pak Samad finally arrived, and we had dinner together. Talked more till it was time to bathe and rest when we finally decided on the plan the next day. We would split the group in two again. Some would go to the campsite earlier, and with Pak Samad’s help, bypass the Wildlife dept chkpoints while the rest would wait for the other two to arrive with the permit. Unfortunately, that would mean that we would not have time to start rafting, as we predicted that by the time all of us arrive at the campsite, it would be around 3-4 pm.. damn.. another setback. But oh well.. Singoh is a beautiful place to begin with, and I wouldn’t mind spending my time just soaking in the beauty of the place.
The next day went as planned, and by the time we set up the campsite, it was already around 4 pm ( I was jumping around in the river la..ehehhe… )We were quite lucky, in a way- we met some orang asli who were fishing and caught 9 HUGE ikan Klah… each of these fishies costs about RM100++ in the market.. and they sold it to us for RM20 only.. haha. All cleaned already even.. haha… J so we had ikan bakar for dinner that night… each person one fish.. yummy.. At the same time, me, Safiq, Surin, Bai, and some others tried fishing too.. haha.. no one caught any, except Simbor… he was damn lucky… It showered for a while after dinner, so we were all huddled together under the plastic tarp with a campfire and some candles to keep us warm.. Played Tai Di with Surin, Bai, Safiq.. for a coupla hours .. haha… won a lot of times, shoulda played with money, before going fishing for a while (which again, we did not catch anything) and heading off to bed. 
Ikan Kelah Bakar
The next day started groggily for me.. was up and everyone was already eating. The water was murky L… the rain the night before washed the mud from the logging areas into the river… sad.. cannot see the clear waters anymore… everyone’s spirits were down when we saw the water. We made a painful decision then to finish the rafting in a day, instead of camping another night at Kuala Sami. Safiq was really sad, as that means no more fishing for him on this trip… and he brought 3 rods down.. L
Ok..ate up and we were up and ready to go. Time chk 930am… Divvy-ed ourselves into the rafts. Posing(pointman), Simbor, Rupee, Bom, Ros, and Abak (captain), in the heavier, more stable AVON raft, while Luyau (pointman), Kuree, Safiq, Surin, me and Amit (captain) in the lighter, untested NRS raft.. hehheh.. Of all these, only Abak, Posing and Surin has gone down Singor, the rest of us were newbies. Haha.. Surin was the designated “mentor” and cameraman, Bai decided not to do down, and with Pak Samad, became the driver. Ok..and so were off…
Phew.. less than 5 mins we were already hitting some grade 4 rapids… Safiq was acting like he was scared and squealing like a girl..hehehe… Soon enough, we were already at our first big grade 5 rapid.. We stopped to recce the place while Surin gives instructions and preps the camera, which means the raft I was only had beginners, and was the lighter, untested raft too… uh oh….Ok, first the AVON went down… we could see the raft until it reached the rapid, where it just suddenly disappeared from view.. err…er….err….BIG UH OH…
AVON going down one of the rapids
Alright.. time for us to go down. Picked up our paddles… and .. paddle lightly …lightly.. Amit shouted paddle forward!!! And I started paddling as fast and hard as I can… the rapid loomed in front of us… it was huge… two seconds from falling into the rapid, I grabbed the rope and held on to the paddle.. whoa…… we went down the rapid… the whole raft was submerged underwater.. was folded in half for a few seconds.. I suddenly felt I was on the wrong side of the raft… dammit… I’m in the river… and so I had to let go of the rope… damn… was submerged in the water for a close to another 5 seconds before emerging up for air… when I saw that I floated down the second rapid… and that the raft was still stuck in between rapids… three on the raft were frantically paddling away, trying to get the raft unstuck from the big “stopper”. One of the guides (can’t remem who) threw me the rescue throw bag and I caught hold of the rope. He pulled me and the paddle to the side. At the same time, I saw Luyau as well at the riverside.. he too got flung off… less than a minute later, the raft managed to escape the stopper, but Kuree also fell off… hahah… man.. that was exciting…. Surin came and debriefed us, saying that we should have entered the rapids faster to avoid getting stuck the next time.. ok ok… Later, I learnt that they tried to throw a rope at Safiq to grab so that they can pull the raft out from the stopper, but twice the throw bag hit the side of the raft, and fell into the river…hahahha… that was sooo funny… hahahah… ok… on to the next rapids..
Almost all the rapids were like that… huge 4-5 foot rapids… that submerged the raft each time we went on it. There were smaller grade 4 rapids as well.. but all in a continous fashion, where if anyone fell in, the rescue point would be a few hundred meters away.. so .. err.. pandai-pandai lah… jangan cuba nak jatuh…hahah… surprisingly… no grade 3 and below rapids at all… it was just grade 5, grade 5, grade 4 here and there and more grade 5’s…. there was one grade 6 rapid.. which was about a ?20 (HUGE la.. ) foot high waterfall… err…we din go down that one la.. we just walked down, took some photos and skipped that.. that one was a killer… think no one has gone down that one before…
At about 1pm, we reached our snacks area, Kuala Sami. Bai was there with the food with Samad… rested for about 30 minutes while eating fruits and chocs and twiggies… the food tasted soooo yummy although it was very simple.Also went through the photos and vids we took, with Bai giving his opinions on the rapids… It was interesting to hear him talk as well, his ideas on how to attack the rapid.. ok.. time to go again…
Kuree fell in the next rapid at Jeram Sami itself, but no biggie.. managed to save himself in time… and we continued on… I fell in again at another grade 4 continous rapid, where I was grabbing on to the rope, and cartwheeled myself out. The guys managed to pull me up immediately, so no rapids/tiem lost there…
Haha… after about another 3 hrs of rafting… we FINALLY reached the end of our ride at the Kg Tekam… we were dead… all dead… dead, tired, hungry and thirsty… Met up with Bai and Pak Samad again, deflated the rafts and loaded the 4WD, changed to dry clothes and off we were, back to the orang asli kampong. Rested for a while there before heading of to Gerik this time, for a night’s stay in a comfy hotel ;)
Breakfast after a good night's sleep...Well, headed back to KL the next day.. and to Singapore today… I am so dead tired… haha.. the trip all in all was super exciting and death defying, but the best part was enjoying the company of new friends and acquaintances who till now never cease to amaze me with their strength, and some sort of sense of humor (like wrapping some one up in a kain kapan…) hehhe.. well.. they might be going again in April.. so..hm… to go or not to go is not the question, issit?.. hehehe ;)
Trudge on…
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