survived and alive..

Yes, I did it. we did it! despite all the rambling and drama...

Left Seremban around quarter to seven Saturday morning and made it to Su’s place in Kuchai Lama by quarter past, (that’s a record. thanks to my new baby! ;) picked up two other friends in Pantai Hill and made our way to the Sg. Buloh R&R where we were supposed to gather before heading to Kuala Kubu Baru. Two out of the five cars managed to get the message mixed up and ended in Rawang R&R instead. First installation of the drama and many more all day.:0) The journey from there to the meeting point took us about 45 minutes.. mostly trunk road and I absolutely loved every moment of the gear changing with my new car! hehehe

The whole thing started with the organiser's little intro on the place before we put on our gears: helmet, life vest and paddle. Followed by a short orientation about white water rafting, how to sit on the raft to prevent from falling off when in the rapids, how to maneuver the raft, what to do if you fall in the water, what to do if someone else falls, how to rescue someone using the lifeline. We even played a little game on taking instructions while waiting for the drivers to get back. The cars were to be parked at the end point where the shower and all is, so we wont have to come back all the way. The water level that day was low since it hasn’t rained in few days. Good for beginners but the amateurs might feel less challenging apparently. I was glad as you wold have guessed. *giggles* One thing ST, our lovely program director managed to conveniently forget to mention was that, this was a level four rapid!! (in case you are wondering, go here for description on the levels/rapid classifications)

Level 4 - You'll get soaked… like a 9 or 10 on the "fun scale"! Confused and erratic waves or holes. Large obstructions need to be avoided in what are referred to as must moves". Risk of injury if swimming without benefit of a raft! Very difficult and couting is required..

there were 17 of us and we got into 3 rafts. Six, six and five on each with two guides on each raft. This is my team, the most happening one!



the guides on our boat capsized it even before we started. giving us a taste of the worse to come i guess. We were soaking wet even before it begun. a little annoyed because we were the only ones to go in, but glad ina way it took some tension away..

And so the adventure began…

the starting was alright with smaller rapids. The guides get together to strategize when it came to bigger rapids. figure out what to avoid and what to hit, how to get thru it for a sweet ride and then brief what we should do. We were shitting in our pants mostly, nervous because the water was insane at some places. We fell into the raft more often than not and struggled to get back into normal position. worse when we have to move forward or back, shifting our weights to get thru, all in mere seconds. most of the time we just layed back to shift the weight. poor Br, got squashed most of the time. what made it more exciting is that we were pretty much on our own. Our guides barely spoke. we got all the instructions mixed up on ‘row forward’ and ‘move forward’.. most of the time, Sw took things on his hands and gave his own instructions. while Fe was in dreamland, Su busy getting on top of Br and St just hanging on to her life. the paddles we all over. and quite so often we were all over!


see what i mean?

we survived nevertheless! but along the way, not sure how exactly, I managed to fall out. first to take the plunge. fell with my head first went right down hitting a huge rock. Thank God for the helmets. I knew for some reason that I wont die, but thought I’d end up with bad injuries. At least the knee for all the knocks. floated back up hitting a few other rocks and then the bottom of the boat a few times. Damn, I was so scared praying hard all the way. How am I going to make it up? The only consolation was that I’m near the raft and still holding on to the rope (as instructed!) I struggled to breath and once again hit a rock, this time chipping my tooth (only realised it when I was up). Then suddenly some thing occurred to me and I gave up the rope , pooof! I was up on the water. Relieve, was written on over the faces of my raft mates. Fe & Br leaned forward and grabbed me in at once.It all happen so fast. My raft mates were amazing, they were quite shaken themselves when I fell on my head. ‘you okay?’ ‘yes, just give me a moment’.. took a couple of seconds to catch my breath and crawl back to my seat, got my bearings right and I was back in the game, ready to kick ass!!

All this happened in the first hour or so itself. Not even a third of the journey. good in a way cause we were all on alert after that. Br kept yelling "watch whats coming guys!” and Sw with his own instructions and the rest ‘hold the rope guys!’ every time we go past a rapid. One hell of a team work while our guides were on mute most of the time. the fear of falling off again only added to the thrill. We stopped at intervals quite often, waiting for other rafts/ groups to reach our point so that we could all move together.



Halfway thru, the organisers decided we needed more ‘fun’ and got us out of our boat for body rafting. Most of us got our asses bumped on rocks along the way. Ouch! but was nice. ‘wanna do it again?’ was echoed by an immediate ‘no thank you’ from me at least. . it started pouring somewhere in the later part with a huge flash of lightning. but luckily not long, the rain was a little more of a drizzle. Took the sun a way for a bit if anything.. We stopped for some snacks towards the end, after passing all the big rapids at one of the water falls. the pleasure of munching crunchy piece of apple, sneaker bars and energy bars while soaking yourself in the ice cold waterfall, all when you are hungry as hell is indescribable! after the break it was quite a smooth flow. even then we had dramas. this time overreacting more than anything with all the oohs and aaahs. :) towards the end we just floated thru on the still water all the way to the end point.

Overall, dunno about the other two teams but we had fun. full of drama, the squashing, smashing, hitting, banging, and yelling at one another. taking things into our hands, giving our own instructions yadi yadi. But we made it and had a blast! After each major crossing, we did a high-five by lifting our paddles over our heads then slapping it hard on the water to make noise and tell everybody we made it. so did the rest of the teams. Now, will I do it again? Most likely not. at least never a level 5 or 6 though. but glad I did it! (you are right N)



This is part of the troop (the rest were busy gallivanting :).. photos btw, are courtesy of a gal from another group who happened to bring camera along. thank you please.. more shots here.