The Padas River white water rafting THRILL (5 July 07)
Well, I've only been back 30mns but had to tell you that we had a fantastic time. It hadn't rained in that area for 2 weeks the guide said so the water level was shallower which made it not as scary. Most rapids were level 2, some were 3... 1 boat out of 15 flipped over, but ours managed to keep upstraight. And none of us (out of 5) went overboard either (a few people did though).
But, let's start at the beginning... Painful wake up call at 6am and Roberto wasn't feeling good at all. At 4am he complained of not being able to sleep in a comfortable position and did a self-diagnosis that concluded he probably had a tiny kidney stone that caused all this pain. However, he still wanted to go ahead (he cannot stand still so there's no way he was going to relax in the hotel). He told me that if the worse came to the worse, he'd have to get some injections in his back and would I be able to inject him? Me ??? He had no idea who he was talking to... I told him I'm the kind of person who faints at the sight of a needle, there's no way I could inject anyone.
Thankfully, he seemed to improve as the day went on. We started with a 90mns coach ride to Beaufort train station. The guide had warned us that this was an old railway line from 1916 with no A/C on the train, and not enough seats for everybody so we'd have to fight over them with the many locals. We thought he was joking, but he was NOT. Roberto & I didn't fancy standing up in an over heated carriage for 2 hours so we opted to sit on an open platform. I worried about getting sunburnt and getting a sunstroke as I had no hat (since I wasn't expecting this... in my romantic mind I'd pictured something on the line of the Orient Express !!! HUM).
So I used my beach towel as a turban and just caked myself up with sun tan lotion and drank lots of water... though not too much to avoid having to use the toilets, which were a hole in the floor where you could see the railway line.
The scenery though, more than made up for the discomfort (lower back pain and bordering on cramps in legs with not much room to move -- many other people sharing the said platform with us for the same reasons). Lots of beautiful trees and the railway line was following the Padas River so it added an extra touch of magic. I tried to take photos but though we were not going extremely fast (it was a steam train) it was fast enough to get blurred shots sometimes. I switched to a faster shutter speed and it seemed to do the trick. I was so visually enthralled that I didn't really have time to focus on my body pain. Roberto had a bigger rucksack and could lay right back and was far more comfortable... I was just holding onto my camera as tight as I could as the train was vibrating a lot and I read in my camera book that memory cards must not endure vibrations as it could wipe out the data, or distort it..... ahhhhh. That would have been the last straw !
We first reached the last stop for white water rafting and the train made a 30mn stop here so we could get off and put everything we needed for later in lockers. Then we hopped back on the train to go to the starting point. There we had our safety briefing with a very funny instructor who demonstrated that we'd have to be careful putting people back onto the board if one of us fell over as sometimes by trying to pull one back in, if you step back too far, you push another one out ! He also said that last week a male guest lost his pants in the process and had to go back on board half naked... he said 'so guys, we can't afford to have that kind of exposure again, next time, you swim back all the way... ladies: it's up to you, we don't mind if you have loose pants'.
It was quite a thorough briefing actually... they took H&S very seriously (for once!). For instance they said that when you fall into rapids you must NEVER try to stand up as there could be stones underneath that could tear your feet, you must always let yourself go with the flow, and float backwards, with your arms folded across your chest and your feet as high up as you can. Then you will reach a point where the water is calm again and the crew will go and get you. The bit that worried me most was when the whole boat flips over and you get trapped underneath. He assured us that oxygen would get trapped underneath too but that we'd need to feel our way out to the surface again (which, to me, would seem exceedingly difficult with a life jacket). The water being quite muddy, you just would not have been able to see anything at all, even with googles, just feel your way out.
We were given water to drink before the 2 hour ride and some watermelon to eat too and then they assigned an average of 5 people per boat (+ one instructor) though some other groups were bigger and had bigger boats. We loved it from the first moment...
It was actually a brilliant route because we started with 3 x level 2 rapids to 'warm up' and then in between the water was so calm that we practised going overboard. We all had to jump in and pull each other back up. I was useless... Roberto was as agile as a monkey and managed to pull himself back up on his arm strength alone, I, on the other hand, was as graceful as an elephant and when I got pulled back in, I was laid out in full, with my legs upside down and in a very un-lady position. But it was heaps of fun. We all (but R!) struggled to get back in.... It was wonderful to 'swim' for a while anyway, as it was such a HOT day, we needed to cool our skins off once in a while. The scenery was just spectacular and I made a point to focus on this too.
There was this constant game going on between all the boats as to who could splash the most and how to get all your fellow rafters as wet as one could. This wasn't huge fun sometimes as if I wasn't looking I'd get a whole whack of water in my face and if my mouth happened to be open, it tasted pretty foul. In fact, within 15mns I started to feel a slight stomach pain, as if I'd swallowed some germs and the little bug was making itself known. Thankfully, I had just the right stuff in my bag when we got back, I swallowed a pill vs stomach upsets and I was instantly better...
Roberto being the more muscly of all the blokes (the other 2 were Chinese) was seated at the front where one has to paddle extra hard. During the very last rapid, he was even asked to sit on the actual front of the boat, not to the side with another bloke. He had no paddles, just the rope to hold onto, and he thought it was WILD.
In fact, we both enjoyed this SO much that he said 'ok, next holiday destination: Colorado, where we can do this EVERY day'... I had warned him that he'd find it addictive ! :) He's such a water baby (Aquarian like me), he was bound to LOVE it.
Then we had a well earned lunch. They showed us a DVD of us rafting down but I didn't buy it because there were SO many boats, that I only featured in it a few seconds here and there. Roberto, however, bought a set of souvenir photos (4 x 6x4 and 1 x 7x10) though the print job is rather dire... but hey, what do you expect 'on site' in the middle of nowhere ? The Railway Station we used is the ONLY one in Borneo (or in Sabah at least) and doesn't go anywhere else. Though there a few tiny villages on the way so the locals go on it on & off....
After that, it was back on the open platform of the train. It was 3:45pm so the sun wasn't as strong... The train ride was also, thankfully, shorter. Fewer stops meant we saved one hour (which is less pain on the bum !). Then it was back on the coach for 2 hours...
I immediately went on line afterwards and Roberto is swimming away as we speak... I told him that he would hate his office job when he gets back and would be much better suited as a kayake instructor.... He totally agreed. But I guess there's no white water rafting around London ?! Is there any decent ride in the UK even ???
Anyway.. I'd better sign off as we agreed to meet in the restaurant, by the pool, at 8pm. I am still amazed by the quality of the buffet here... just on the dessert front they had about 15 to choose from, from lychee tartlets, to peach and/or blueberry cheesecake, chocolate mousse, crepe suzette, panna cota, creme caramel, ice creams with yam, and all sorts of flavours, ETC ETC... all beautiful presented in little containers. Just a feast for the eyes as much as for the tastebuds !
Tomorrow, we're off snorkelling again... let's hope we continue to have glorious weather. The last 2 days couldn't have been more perfect... (I dare not think where we'd have ended up on the train if it had been pouring... I think we'd still have rather sat outside, with a raincoat on!).
Take care, see you tomorrow..... moi xxx
Well, I've only been back 30mns but had to tell you that we had a fantastic time. It hadn't rained in that area for 2 weeks the guide said so the water level was shallower which made it not as scary. Most rapids were level 2, some were 3... 1 boat out of 15 flipped over, but ours managed to keep upstraight. And none of us (out of 5) went overboard either (a few people did though).
But, let's start at the beginning... Painful wake up call at 6am and Roberto wasn't feeling good at all. At 4am he complained of not being able to sleep in a comfortable position and did a self-diagnosis that concluded he probably had a tiny kidney stone that caused all this pain. However, he still wanted to go ahead (he cannot stand still so there's no way he was going to relax in the hotel). He told me that if the worse came to the worse, he'd have to get some injections in his back and would I be able to inject him? Me ??? He had no idea who he was talking to... I told him I'm the kind of person who faints at the sight of a needle, there's no way I could inject anyone.
Thankfully, he seemed to improve as the day went on. We started with a 90mns coach ride to Beaufort train station. The guide had warned us that this was an old railway line from 1916 with no A/C on the train, and not enough seats for everybody so we'd have to fight over them with the many locals. We thought he was joking, but he was NOT. Roberto & I didn't fancy standing up in an over heated carriage for 2 hours so we opted to sit on an open platform. I worried about getting sunburnt and getting a sunstroke as I had no hat (since I wasn't expecting this... in my romantic mind I'd pictured something on the line of the Orient Express !!! HUM).
So I used my beach towel as a turban and just caked myself up with sun tan lotion and drank lots of water... though not too much to avoid having to use the toilets, which were a hole in the floor where you could see the railway line.
The scenery though, more than made up for the discomfort (lower back pain and bordering on cramps in legs with not much room to move -- many other people sharing the said platform with us for the same reasons). Lots of beautiful trees and the railway line was following the Padas River so it added an extra touch of magic. I tried to take photos but though we were not going extremely fast (it was a steam train) it was fast enough to get blurred shots sometimes. I switched to a faster shutter speed and it seemed to do the trick. I was so visually enthralled that I didn't really have time to focus on my body pain. Roberto had a bigger rucksack and could lay right back and was far more comfortable... I was just holding onto my camera as tight as I could as the train was vibrating a lot and I read in my camera book that memory cards must not endure vibrations as it could wipe out the data, or distort it..... ahhhhh. That would have been the last straw !
We first reached the last stop for white water rafting and the train made a 30mn stop here so we could get off and put everything we needed for later in lockers. Then we hopped back on the train to go to the starting point. There we had our safety briefing with a very funny instructor who demonstrated that we'd have to be careful putting people back onto the board if one of us fell over as sometimes by trying to pull one back in, if you step back too far, you push another one out ! He also said that last week a male guest lost his pants in the process and had to go back on board half naked... he said 'so guys, we can't afford to have that kind of exposure again, next time, you swim back all the way... ladies: it's up to you, we don't mind if you have loose pants'.
It was quite a thorough briefing actually... they took H&S very seriously (for once!). For instance they said that when you fall into rapids you must NEVER try to stand up as there could be stones underneath that could tear your feet, you must always let yourself go with the flow, and float backwards, with your arms folded across your chest and your feet as high up as you can. Then you will reach a point where the water is calm again and the crew will go and get you. The bit that worried me most was when the whole boat flips over and you get trapped underneath. He assured us that oxygen would get trapped underneath too but that we'd need to feel our way out to the surface again (which, to me, would seem exceedingly difficult with a life jacket). The water being quite muddy, you just would not have been able to see anything at all, even with googles, just feel your way out.
We were given water to drink before the 2 hour ride and some watermelon to eat too and then they assigned an average of 5 people per boat (+ one instructor) though some other groups were bigger and had bigger boats. We loved it from the first moment...
It was actually a brilliant route because we started with 3 x level 2 rapids to 'warm up' and then in between the water was so calm that we practised going overboard. We all had to jump in and pull each other back up. I was useless... Roberto was as agile as a monkey and managed to pull himself back up on his arm strength alone, I, on the other hand, was as graceful as an elephant and when I got pulled back in, I was laid out in full, with my legs upside down and in a very un-lady position. But it was heaps of fun. We all (but R!) struggled to get back in.... It was wonderful to 'swim' for a while anyway, as it was such a HOT day, we needed to cool our skins off once in a while. The scenery was just spectacular and I made a point to focus on this too.
There was this constant game going on between all the boats as to who could splash the most and how to get all your fellow rafters as wet as one could. This wasn't huge fun sometimes as if I wasn't looking I'd get a whole whack of water in my face and if my mouth happened to be open, it tasted pretty foul. In fact, within 15mns I started to feel a slight stomach pain, as if I'd swallowed some germs and the little bug was making itself known. Thankfully, I had just the right stuff in my bag when we got back, I swallowed a pill vs stomach upsets and I was instantly better...
Roberto being the more muscly of all the blokes (the other 2 were Chinese) was seated at the front where one has to paddle extra hard. During the very last rapid, he was even asked to sit on the actual front of the boat, not to the side with another bloke. He had no paddles, just the rope to hold onto, and he thought it was WILD.
In fact, we both enjoyed this SO much that he said 'ok, next holiday destination: Colorado, where we can do this EVERY day'... I had warned him that he'd find it addictive ! :) He's such a water baby (Aquarian like me), he was bound to LOVE it.
Then we had a well earned lunch. They showed us a DVD of us rafting down but I didn't buy it because there were SO many boats, that I only featured in it a few seconds here and there. Roberto, however, bought a set of souvenir photos (4 x 6x4 and 1 x 7x10) though the print job is rather dire... but hey, what do you expect 'on site' in the middle of nowhere ? The Railway Station we used is the ONLY one in Borneo (or in Sabah at least) and doesn't go anywhere else. Though there a few tiny villages on the way so the locals go on it on & off....
After that, it was back on the open platform of the train. It was 3:45pm so the sun wasn't as strong... The train ride was also, thankfully, shorter. Fewer stops meant we saved one hour (which is less pain on the bum !). Then it was back on the coach for 2 hours...
I immediately went on line afterwards and Roberto is swimming away as we speak... I told him that he would hate his office job when he gets back and would be much better suited as a kayake instructor.... He totally agreed. But I guess there's no white water rafting around London ?! Is there any decent ride in the UK even ???
Anyway.. I'd better sign off as we agreed to meet in the restaurant, by the pool, at 8pm. I am still amazed by the quality of the buffet here... just on the dessert front they had about 15 to choose from, from lychee tartlets, to peach and/or blueberry cheesecake, chocolate mousse, crepe suzette, panna cota, creme caramel, ice creams with yam, and all sorts of flavours, ETC ETC... all beautiful presented in little containers. Just a feast for the eyes as much as for the tastebuds !
Tomorrow, we're off snorkelling again... let's hope we continue to have glorious weather. The last 2 days couldn't have been more perfect... (I dare not think where we'd have ended up on the train if it had been pouring... I think we'd still have rather sat outside, with a raincoat on!).
Take care, see you tomorrow..... moi xxx
posted by Sylvie at 11:37 AM
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