White Water Rafting ~ 26 & 27 Jul 2008

Me and a group of friends went for white water rafting at Sungai Sedim, Kulim on 26th Jul 08. It was the fisrt ever water rafting for me.
If you were to ask me to describe the trip, I would say only 3 words: IT WAS FUN!
We departed from Penang Island at around 7 something in Jul 26 morning after breakfast. Reached there at about 10. We started the rafting at 10:30 after some water confidence testing.
The white water rafting has five level. Level 5 is the toughest one and they call it Xtreme. We started with the level 5 on the first day. We were 5 in a boat - they call it raft. As the ideal number of people in a raft is 4, we ended up with one person sitting in the middle of the raft and became the backup rafter. We stucked for quite a number of times because the skipper said our raft is too heavy as too many people. But we managed to go through the hurdles after some bumping, forward, backward, etc. Our raft capsized for two times. The first time when it was capsized, my spec out of my eyes a bit but luckily managed to adjust it back. But I was not that lucky for the second time. My spec broke into two pieces after a big hit. I was almost drowning when the raft capsized, I told myself I must rescue myself as I still have my parents, my family, my friends,....and there are lots of things I haven't done and experience. I told myself to calm down, practice yoga breathing and managed to do that finally. Thanks god. :) Everyone are fine. :) I was almost blind after the second capsized as my power is 500 something and I cannot see thing clearly if I didn't wear spec. We took about 4 and a half hours to finish the hardest level.
Everyone were thinking not to continue to raft the second day, i.e. level 1 to level 4. Luckily the skipper managed to build the confidence level of everyone after some conversation. To me, the confidence came back after the conversation. But it lost again the next day due to 2 major reasons:
1. I can't see clearly without my spec
2. my period came the second day
So at last, I decided not to raft the second day. But then luckily the skippers there allow us (who are not raft) to follow the landrover along the journey so that we can see how our friends raft and can take their pictures.
Things to remember:
1. never panic
2. stay calm
3. ALWAYS rescue yourself (but don't worry, the skippers are always there to rescus you. But you, yourself have to rescue your own. Meaning trust yourself you can rescue yourself and others can rescue you)
4. listen to the skipper's instruction
5. have good teamwork among the rafters
6. last but not least, HAVE FUN.