Kayak (part 2)

We made two stops during the trip. 1st pit-stop : Kampung Danu.

An old couple that were collecting pebbles & they were not locals:The MOST LUCKY 4 persons in the world that was bestowed with leaking kayak:

We took a little walking tour of the kampung. Actually, it's not so "kampung" anymore lar... look at their house .... bigger than mine wei....This suspension bridge is the only way to get to/from this village:

ah... noticed the locals having FUN in their natural swimming pool??

Taking group photos r veli the ma-fan de... so hard to get everybody ready & posed at the same time.
Take 1: Failed!!
(Colin shy so was looking down, Louis in pain (I guessed by the position of his hand) & Margaret was busy pointing at some hensome guy, while me..well still munching away like a porky)

Take 2: Failed again!!
(Colin showing his BIG package & Louis was smiling for his LUCK, the girl in front of him might b the reason)

Take 3: Finally OK!!
(although Louis tongue was busy but nvm lar ...)

heheh... Pretending to be shopping (photo on the left) & the LUCKY geng poses again 4 ur entertainment:

There's no toilets around so when nature called, the discreet way was pretending to go for a swim & relieved ourselves into the river (don't lie ... u all did it 2, din u??). Hehehe... FREE urine shower gel le ... for those lucky ppl bathing downstream:

The cleanliness of this kampung is TOP rate:After the so-called tour (as I answered "NO" to all of Azmi questions whether I saw the rubber?? Pepper ?? or Cocoa??? dang.. I must hav passed by all those without realizing it), our battery were recharged, thus excitedly continue on our journey:The river we kayaked on was really very picturesque, worthy even as wallpaper, don't u think??The most heart pump section of the river that we kayak through. The river was narrower, water was shallow, with rocks around that created mini water falls, or more appropriately known as rapids. I totally loved the rush that I felt while getting through it:

Further downstream, we stop at a small sandy beach where we had our lunch (which consist of 1 giant yummy pok-piah & sandwich). After lunch, a few of us jump into the water for a nice swim!!
Spot me spot me ...After the FUN in the water, we reluctantly continued our journey. Actually the thunder & rain was the final push for all to jump into the kayak.

Once in a while, I let the kayak drifts down following the current and just absorb the beauty & wonderful shapes of rocky outcrop by the river bank:

The "all natural" carved out stone banks are especially prominent in the many curves and bends of the river.

And here's Mount Cone Head (heheh .. following the Thai tradition of naming the mountain according to their shape):ok ok... I need to confess something, the above 3 photos were not taken during this trip because IT RAINed SO HARD after the last stop. man ... I was soaking wet for the rest of the journey as rain poured down like there's no tomorrow. Everybody just kept on paddling and everything was a blur to me, really (duh ... I wear glasses).

But I was lucky bcoz Azmi did paddled towards 1 of the huge stone so that I can touched it. Once he even paddled under the hanging rocks & showed me some bird nest...

My experienced, reliable, fabulous & really strong kayak partner & me (still soaking wet): yay... safely arrived at Kampung Semadang at ~3.30pm. Every1 helped out in carrying the kayak up those steep steps... again by every1, it's actually just the Strong Guys...
After getting down from the kayak then I realize my poor butt was numb thanks to the non-existent-seat-padding of the kayak. Here's the view from the bridge :

Well, the guide pop open a portable changing room. Even if it's rather bright & slightly transparent, I wanna just take off those wet clothes & changed into dry ones as we were freezing by now. But unfortunately, we had to wait for more than 1 hour for our clothes (the drivers were sent to get their cars). This was the only view available while waiting for our dry clothes:Finally the kayaks are back on the van's roof:The only casualty for the day was mrtoilet's (left side) slipper. I send my deepest condolence. Dear mrtoilet, please don't dwell on the past but instead find a new 1 & carry on: I had tons of FUN kayaking downstream from Bengoh, to Semadang Village, despite the rain. It was exhausting but a really worthwhile experience.

It's a perfect way to spent the day, out in the open, drifting down a clear, clean tranquil river, just taking some time out to do something out of the ordinary.