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 yes - that's us all bundled up inside a lorry ;)

I don't think anyone of us complained, because we were all so excited like little schoolkids about to be entertained by Ronald McDonald. The journey on the lorry was very eventful,passing little villages in the middle of nowhere and local children waving at us like we were celebrities ( It helped that we had a real model and a near model on board though )

        

             The view of PLUS highway           Real model and near real model

  So after about 20 minutes of bumpy ride we arrived at the start of the river. Different groups from different tour companies were already there, all carrying their designated rafts into the river. MJ and OJ gave us a safety briefing and showed us the basics of 'bum bum' and 'jump jump'. Being excited as we are, we just couldn't wait to get into the rafts and into the water until MJ dropped a bomb - we are supposed to be doing body rafting first!

Body rafting, a term used to let your body slide through the running water ( without you swimming), down a small rapid and reach for a safety rope as part of the safety course before commencing any water rafting activities, got us all worried, especially me.

True, I can swim, but I am not comfortable letting myself being swept away by current and not fighting back.From the faces of others I can see alarm as well. Especially those who don't really know how to swim, even though we were all wearing life jackets.But people say an experience can change your perception on life and even on people. I watched, as one by one, my friends, people I have known to be afraid, to be scared, to be coward, go into the water one by one and ended up on the other side safely, giggling about their new adventure. These are the same people who would always remain my inspiration, through the whole activity and many more activities to come.

The line of people who inspired me.

Okay, so we finally got our rafts, got in, and began rowing. And thus, begun one of the most awesome adventures of our lives. We trashed, rowed, fell out, fell in, got capsized over, swam in the clean, cold water, watched other rafters and kayak-ers  make their way around us. Shuba fell out her raft 3 times but never gave up ( kudos to you mate! ) and our friends raft got constantly stuck in between rocks, prompting them to 'jump jump' till they were worn out. Trust me jumping on a huge raft in the water tires you out easily! 

 

 

Lights. Camera. ACTION!

 At one point, MJ ( our raftmaster ) purposely capsized the raft so we all fell really deep into the river ( it still gives me the shudder to think the river was THAT deep! ) and had to fight to swim up to the surface. But it was all in good fun. We even stopped in a secluded place for a swim! The models found some fishes in the water so they settled for their very own fish spa while catching up on their lives. Talk about modern women!

 

Their very own fish spa deep in the jungles of Perak. Who said girls don't know how to have fun? 

Tarzan decided to take a leap of faith

 

Swimming in the peaceful surroundings with great friends

 

Great adventure, great experience, great friends. Thank you guys.

MJ told us it is only another 10 minutes of rowing and then we're already finished. By now everyone's fear has completely gone and we were all feeling a lil sad that it was going to end. Alas, end it did. We hoisted our raft up from the river, jumped into the very rusty van , all wet and slippery and tired, but happy, back to Gua Tempurung car park.

When we returned, lunch was already served. We tucked in heartily, as we are all very tired at this point. Then we had a shower, and headed back to KL.

I lost my glasses, almost crashed my camera and almost lost my phone, but I believe it was all in good fun. It was one of the best events I have ever been through, and we all braved our fears for extreme sports. No one chickened out, and we made new friends who are just awesome people. Thank you for inspiring me, Amreet K, Gary, Anjly, Dharma, Parhiban, Mahadevan, Serakumaran, Shuba Raj, Sathia and Shashi. THANK YOU.