A couple of weeks back, Kim told us about a white water rafting deal via Kiulu on Groupon Malaysia (this is my first ever purchase) by Poturidong Tengah Bundu Camping Site. It's been a while since we've hung out and do outdoorsy stuff, besides some camping and Kudat sometime last year and this year. Now that Kim is back for a bit, we decided to jump to it. Tricky part was, while I was busy arranging for a weekend trip, I was told last minute that I had a campaign that I needed to be part of that same weekend. So I had to cancel my reservations with the guys at Poturidong and brought it forward to a Friday instead. Even if it means I had to apply for annual leave, because I had enough and I didn't mind! :)
Rafting is a great activity, something you'd do as a team, helps remind us how rivers can be so undermentioned. Truly is. I've always thought rivers are impossible to get acquainted with until I tried rafting! They're so oddly located, there's less charm underwater compared to the sea. Getting tamed by the river waters and having to be right smack of the action and having just unbeatable view of the forest and the greens, with just the freshest of water. Really nothing like it!
There are a few levels of rafting. Level 1 - 2 are evidently for amateurs which what Kiulu (located up north of Sabah and is just about an hour's drive from the city) was. It's good to try out amateur levels first, just to understand and put into place how rafting can be. As the grades go higher, the waters of said rafting area is more aggressive. In Sabah, the highest level of Level 3 - 4 is the Padas River.
The deal went up to about RM 72 per person, which is heaps of discount compared to its usual price that goes around RM 100 - 150 including transportation. We decided to buy for four of us without transportation since we didn't mind doing the hour's drive anyway (it's always great fun) because we get to stop at the local towns on its way. The four persons' package eventually stooped down much cheaper to about RM 55 per person. YAY for outdoorsy deals!
I really recommend these guys because the person I have been in contact with, which was Alson I think, was just really helpful and down to earth! He was really patient with my never-ending first-timer's questions, always willing to help me out with my reservations and stuff. Their guide, was pretty cool too, an old lad maybe in his 50s holding onto the boat like a boss equipped with his red skull drawn headgear.
From Kota Kinabalu,
We started off our day around 7am, driving up to Kiulu can be quite unpredictable because there is a random jam on the way to Sepanggar. So we decided to leave early and expected to reach the site at just about 10am. We reached there way earlier than we have given ourselves, at about 9plus, so we decided to visit Tamparuli town so and do abit of shopping :D
Afterleaving Tamparuli, we started driving up hill to Kiulu only to realise that our starting point / camping site is actually a little farther than we thought o.O luckily, we still enjoyed some allowance of a time, so when we reached the site, we reached there just in the nick of time!
After much briefing, we were brought to our starting point, and our rafting began! Let me know if you had noticed something funny about the pictures (we actually bought these pictures for about RM 10 per person),
Chris was probably the most emotionless person we have ever met. Going through hundreds of these photos, he was not even grinning, stressed, or taken aback by the littlest bit. He had this face >> :| the entire time! It was a bit of a pain to go through the photos having him right in front covering most of us.
While I.....
Smile so ridonkulously big every single time! WTF. I didn't realised I had that much of a smile all the time, until we actually went through hundreds of the photos plus video! I was :D the entire freaking time wtf.
I mean seriously,
There was one point when we were swirled around, we were actually heading towards a massive rock, because we didn't know what to do, it felt like we secretly wanted to succumb to it, and we eventually did hit the rock face front and that poor guy from the camp site flew out from the raft.
While Chris remain expressionless.
Kim happily rowing her boat, seconds before she ....
*after falling into the river* Kim: Okay now I got my money's worth!
When the folks told me that they "do" body rafting as well, I wasn't sure what to expect. Basically they would just let you off from one part of the river floating through the stream till you reach a calmer area and you have to swim back ashore. I was so doped with the idea, until I actually got let off and I was like "shit, this is a little scary". I was panicking at one point, because I couldn't feel my legs. Even though I knew how to swim in wide open sea (but sea had a different density) it still freaked me out. Eventually everyone had some pretty kickass time body rafting.
Including Xanne who told us that she doesn't know how to swim. Asked her what did she do to avoid panic she replied, "I was laughing too much, I forgot I didn't know to swim".
Halfway through it started raining so heavily, our vision was VERY blurry. Well at least for me, especially with my astigmatisme. But it FELT so good to raft in the rain! Drenched, beating through the waters. So good!
Ahhh I should do the next levels! Let me know if you need some insights, I'll be more than willing to help you :)
Love,
Jacqueline Rowena @ Jacqkie.
Rafting is a great activity, something you'd do as a team, helps remind us how rivers can be so undermentioned. Truly is. I've always thought rivers are impossible to get acquainted with until I tried rafting! They're so oddly located, there's less charm underwater compared to the sea. Getting tamed by the river waters and having to be right smack of the action and having just unbeatable view of the forest and the greens, with just the freshest of water. Really nothing like it!
There are a few levels of rafting. Level 1 - 2 are evidently for amateurs which what Kiulu (located up north of Sabah and is just about an hour's drive from the city) was. It's good to try out amateur levels first, just to understand and put into place how rafting can be. As the grades go higher, the waters of said rafting area is more aggressive. In Sabah, the highest level of Level 3 - 4 is the Padas River.
The deal went up to about RM 72 per person, which is heaps of discount compared to its usual price that goes around RM 100 - 150 including transportation. We decided to buy for four of us without transportation since we didn't mind doing the hour's drive anyway (it's always great fun) because we get to stop at the local towns on its way. The four persons' package eventually stooped down much cheaper to about RM 55 per person. YAY for outdoorsy deals!
I really recommend these guys because the person I have been in contact with, which was Alson I think, was just really helpful and down to earth! He was really patient with my never-ending first-timer's questions, always willing to help me out with my reservations and stuff. Their guide, was pretty cool too, an old lad maybe in his 50s holding onto the boat like a boss equipped with his red skull drawn headgear.
From Kota Kinabalu,
We started off our day around 7am, driving up to Kiulu can be quite unpredictable because there is a random jam on the way to Sepanggar. So we decided to leave early and expected to reach the site at just about 10am. We reached there way earlier than we have given ourselves, at about 9plus, so we decided to visit Tamparuli town so and do abit of shopping :D
Afterleaving Tamparuli, we started driving up hill to Kiulu only to realise that our starting point / camping site is actually a little farther than we thought o.O luckily, we still enjoyed some allowance of a time, so when we reached the site, we reached there just in the nick of time!
After much briefing, we were brought to our starting point, and our rafting began! Let me know if you had noticed something funny about the pictures (we actually bought these pictures for about RM 10 per person),
Chris was probably the most emotionless person we have ever met. Going through hundreds of these photos, he was not even grinning, stressed, or taken aback by the littlest bit. He had this face >> :| the entire time! It was a bit of a pain to go through the photos having him right in front covering most of us.
While I.....
Smile so ridonkulously big every single time! WTF. I didn't realised I had that much of a smile all the time, until we actually went through hundreds of the photos plus video! I was :D the entire freaking time wtf.
I mean seriously,
There was one point when we were swirled around, we were actually heading towards a massive rock, because we didn't know what to do, it felt like we secretly wanted to succumb to it, and we eventually did hit the rock face front and that poor guy from the camp site flew out from the raft.
While Chris remain expressionless.
Kim happily rowing her boat, seconds before she ....
*after falling into the river* Kim: Okay now I got my money's worth!
When the folks told me that they "do" body rafting as well, I wasn't sure what to expect. Basically they would just let you off from one part of the river floating through the stream till you reach a calmer area and you have to swim back ashore. I was so doped with the idea, until I actually got let off and I was like "shit, this is a little scary". I was panicking at one point, because I couldn't feel my legs. Even though I knew how to swim in wide open sea (but sea had a different density) it still freaked me out. Eventually everyone had some pretty kickass time body rafting.
Including Xanne who told us that she doesn't know how to swim. Asked her what did she do to avoid panic she replied, "I was laughing too much, I forgot I didn't know to swim".
Halfway through it started raining so heavily, our vision was VERY blurry. Well at least for me, especially with my astigmatisme. But it FELT so good to raft in the rain! Drenched, beating through the waters. So good!
Ahhh I should do the next levels! Let me know if you need some insights, I'll be more than willing to help you :)
Love,
Jacqueline Rowena @ Jacqkie.
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