White Water Rafting, Sungai Selangor June 2012

It was a breezy morning when the company decides to send us on a team building session near Kuala Kubu Bharu. One may asks what is there to do, and some would say... you guessed it??? White Water Rafting!!! As this is NOT my first drill, and I think that I am made for this!!! And I would say that this is one of the best thing to do in this country... Woohoo!!

Once the company HR has confirmed the trip and we were all excited it, although I have never heard of this Sungai Selangor before.

The minimum age to join this activity is 13 years old and oldest is 60. The class of the rapid after a rainy day could be as high as class 4.5. It would be more fun if you can gather a group of 5-6 in a raft. I would recommend to wear shorts and proper shoes. Sandals would be pointless as you would easily lose them once you get in the water/raft. And I would recommend a very good breakfast and also, bring some easy-to-carry small snack and a water proof camera.

We were asked to gather at the Kuala Kubu Bharu post office 9 am in the morning. This is the only part of the trip that I didn't like. There were in total 40 participants (from other groups who we do not know) on that day, and some guy were late and we were made to wait for them until 10.30 am. This was totally not cool as just because of a few guys, all of us were late and all of us had to wait there and do nothing. Some people just do not have respect for other people's time.

We started moving towards the point A (where rafting starts) driving our own cars which was around 15 minutes drive from the post office, where we were given basic safety / rescue briefing while our friends who drove to A have to drive to point B (where rafting ends) to park their cars and they were chauffeured back to point A. It took them around an hour to do this round trip.

This is the morning briefing before we started. It was quite entertaining as the speaker was trying to crack some jokes in his presentation.

Once we got on the raft, this was what I saw.

The water was cool and refreshing, and nothing really beats the view of the forest in the morning.

This is how the raft looks like, with all participants equipped with a peddle. Helmets and life jacket is a must and there were 2 guides on the raft with us. The experienced guide will sit at the back giving instructions to the team. There were a total of 8 rafts on that day.

There were total around 4-5 rapids, the most intense was the class 4.5 with around 3 meters high. But the one our raft had a problem with was the one with the class 3. Our raft flipped and all of us were in the water. Luckily, no one was hurt.

I took some videos also. This is at the class 4 rapid.

As you can see in video some rafters are really having lots of fun.

The whole rafting time was around 2 hours and towards the end of the trip, there was a rest area with a small water fall. The organizers served us with some light snacks - chocolate, apples and bread. Food always taste better in the forest. 

This is how the waterfall looks like. 

At the end of the trip, our guides let us swim until the finishing line as there were no more rapids and the water was shallow. It was really quite nice as you could just float and enjoy the nature.  

At the end, we got up from the river and found our cards parked at point B. We collect our baggage and hit the shower. Then I realized that we were at a local school. 

This is the outside of the shower.

Lunch was served. By this time, it was already nearly 3 pm. 

Food taste good when you are hungry. 

The cost per person is RM 180. The rafting organizer website can be found here. I think this totally beats sitting at home watching TV or playing with your iPad on a Saturday morning.

All pictures taken with my Samsung Galaxy S II (with a hypergear of course)