The Land Below The Wind: Padas River - Day 2

I think I need to make some time to finish blogging my whole trip ;p Hehe...maybe I'll just lump the remaining ones into one entry...nah...would like to recount the experience and keep them just record's sake. This time, I'm keeping what I write so that I can read them again in the future ;p

Anyway, the second day was more 'exciting' if you like. And the anticipation was due to the plans to go white water rafting at the Padas river - which took up the entire day; though only about 1 hour of actual rafting.

We woke up early, with the bus coming to pick up around 7:30am. By the time we got ready, the sun was already bright and shining.

I think I was reading the new online while waiting for the others...

The journey started off uneventful, with the bus making stops along the way to pick up some other groups going for the water rafting. The trip was organized by BUSAT, which stands for "Borneo Ultimate Sports Adventure Tours".

Along the way, the guide from BUSAT explained to us our journey plans and we were told that we had to take the longer route across some mountains because the train that we were supposed to take at Beufort has broken down.

Basically, the journey was supposed to take about 2 hours from KK to Beaufort. And then from Beaufort, we would take a train a ride for about 2.5 hours to Pangi Station - which is the starting point of the water rafting.

So since we had to take the longer route, via a "mountain highway" - that was what the guide called it - the whole journey took an extra hour or so to arrive. Or so we thought. There were good mountain scenery to view if one is interested along the highway - though I slept most of the first few hours.

Mountain scene...from the bus

And Pang thought it would be cool to check how high we actually were with his new Tissot watch. 1300m - pretty high up I would say, though considering that we would be climbing Mount. KK at 4K metres...it didn't feel that high ;p

Did I say we thought we it would take only an extra hour? Well, we thought wrong...when this happened...

He must be thinking, "Man...where to start?"

Fortunately (or not), I think they have done this before and after 30-45minutes, they managed to get the spare on and we were back on the bus.

Not before I got a bit of sun...which only help the "burning" process later on when were rafting under the hot sun.

OK...so instead of heading to Beaufort to take a train, we arrived at the Tenom train station instead to get on a train to Pangi.

Tenom Station

When I said train...I meant this...

While we waited for the train to move out from it's depot area, we took the opportunity to take some pics...not too much cam-whoring ;p

And finally, after about an hour's ride, we reached the starting point of Pangi Station.

By then, we thought, "About time!" - we were excited despite some of us getting a bit hungry already since it was past noon. Fortunately, the whole package included some snacks like cakes and fruits before we actually started getting wet.

Since we could take any picture while we were water rafting, we took some pictures of the rapids instead.

And because I'm a bit too lazy to re-write what others has written on "What is Padas River", allow me to quote from this website:

Padas River is situated in the interior of southwestern part of Kota Kinabalu that is only accessible by train (used since the late 19th century in Borneo). Basically, this trip will give you two experiences advantages - 1) Excursion of Class III-IV river, 2) and suitable for aged from 12 to 55 years old

The adrenaline rush excursion covers a distance of 9km of this rather muddy 200 km river that holds 7 exciting and tough rapids!

These rapids carries amusing names such as Merry-Go-Round Rapid, Break Point Rapid, Scooby Doo Rapid, Cobra Rapid, Curve Rapid, Lambada Rapid and Head Hunter Rapid. Each rapid will give you the feel of the motion as what the name means.

The names that the guide gave us was a bit different. I think there was one called the "Washing Machine" because the rapids spins the raft around and a high possibility that your raft might overturn! Haha...and two of the rafts did overturn - though we (8 of us) managed to maintain ours. We also managed to "save" some of those who fell into the river before bringing them to shore.

All in all, it was a lot of fun! Only thing is that it was a bit too short, with the rapids trail only lasting something around 9km.

Still, thumbs up for the adventure!

A buffet lunch was in the package, we filled our stomach with BBQ chicken wings, lamb and sausages, before heading back again - via the old train back to Tenom for the bus ride to KK.

Up we went!

By the time we reached KK, it was closer to 10pm and everyone was super tired from the bus ride. Man...if only the train to Beaufort was working...

I certainly enjoyed the water rafting, since it was my first and there probably be less of a chance to raft on such rapids in the near future! :D

More to come in: The Land Below The Wind: Island-Hopping - Day 3