Saturday, March 29, 2008

Wild water rafting at Padas river


FORGET upstream and downstream. The normal laws of physics do not apply in Padas where the river writhes, tosses and turns, sending rafters paddling furiously to stay afloat amid its churning white waters.

If you have no idea where Padas is, relax, you are not alone.

From my lodge in Kota Kinabalu, I had to first make a 90-minute minibus journey just to reach the transit station of Beaufort.

That's where I caught Borneo’s only train, which unfortunately runs on what my guide called “rubber time”, meaning it arrives when it chooses and not according to schedule. When it finally rolled in, a cabal of Koreans duly pushed bags through the open windows, reserving all the seats and forcing me to spend this second 90-minute journey standing up, which in hindsight proved to be good white-water rafting practice.

The train, which is just over 30 years old, set off with a sound like a thunderclap.

Continue reading (incl. pics) at: Adopt a tree to save orang utans

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