An Adventure?

AN ADVENTURE? That’s right. It is that time of the year when everyone who matters takes a break for a holiday. For us, Arman John Jennrich happens to be home all the way from Chicago to join Farah and Aisya who have been home weeks earlier to spend time with us. It is a happy reunion for their family and for us both. It is nice to have them home after the last time that we visited them in Chicago and the good time we all had then in Orlando to be at all those fun theme parks at Disney World, Epcot, MGM Studios, Sea World, and Animal Kingdom. However, realizing that John has only a short vacation and his desire to meet and be with members of our family, we have to think of a very worthwhile program for him.

To begin with, just as it has been with Farah ever since she and Aisya return home since mid September, we let John tell us just what he would wish us to do for him. There is no denying it that he longs to eat nasi lemak, roti canai, roti naan, capati , indian curry, lemang and ketupat and of course satay kajang and the various mee goreng and kueteow etc. He has a long list of the things that he misses besides food and with the short time that he has, we have to plan a pleasant and enjoyable vacation for him. There is no saying that up to the time John arrives home, Farah herself has not finished with the things that she longs for, now that she too is back for a short stay home. However, Farah is becoming concerned about her increased waist line ever since she has been home. As expected she just cannot resist any food ! When she weighs herself, she feels upset at her apparent weight increase which she says already touches twenty pounds heavier.

Thus, after a short rest, we arrange for a short trip to Farazil’s place in Kota Kinabalu. To really give his sister and brother-in-law a memorable visit to his place, Farazil takes a week vacation. Of course, the two of us decide to join in since we do miss our two grandchildren, Aiki and Hibiki. The most economical flight we could think of is none other than Air Asia, which is becoming the most popular air transport to Malaysians these days due to its low fares compared to MAS and other airlines. The only set back to Air Asia is its free seating policy which can be quite a hassle at boarding time.. Of course of late, it has introduced the pre booked seats upon payment of ten ringgit per passenger. John is very tempted to go on this system, but it cannot be done on the spot, Almost everything with Air Asia is done through the Internet. If the pre booked seats have not been bought through the Internet, a passenger cannot hope to have one on the very day of his boarding the plane.

The popularity of the airline is clearly evidenced by the full flight indicators of each flight, just as ours are on the days of our departure to and from Kota Kinabalu. In fact, the night when we are coming home, John is contemplating to try to pay for the pre allotted seats, but I say to him that it is futile and there is a chance that because a lot of people might do that, for the rest of us who have none, there is every possibility that the rush for the seats will be lessened. On the actual boarding, however, it is evident that my guess is wrong. John says he is amazed at how much everyone seems to rush ahead to be the first to board the plane. We have been very lucky to have John, who gets on board ahead of us and secures the right seats for all of us. Such is the experience of flying with Air Asia. Overall however, the plane is new and the seats are clean and comfortable. In fact the flight itself is good. The fact that the airline does away with food and refreshments on board unless one is willing to pay for them , matters little to all of us. After all it is only a two hour and a quarter flight time apart from the waiting time prior to it, which is unfortunately quite considerable, bearing the fact that Air Asia requires all passengers to check in at least two hours before departure and it makes clear its policy of closing the check-in counters forty five minutes before departure time. At one time when we sent off Michael Loh for his Air Asia flight, an Indonesian man reached the terminal just five minutes late and he was told to book the next flight instead and forfeiting his earlier fare on top of that. This can be quite a hassle when our flight happens to be at six thirty in the morning from Kuala Lumpur. Lucky for us, Izzat takes time off from his night sleep to drive us to the Air Asia terminal, the new LCCT - Light Craft Carriers Terminal . In fact, it is Izzat again who comes all the way to fetch us home way past mid night on the day of our return home from Kota Kinabalu.

We are given a very warm reception on our arrival by Farazil and Yasmin, who need two cars to fit in our luggage. The first morning breakfast at the local Indian restaurant is very welcome indeed more especially since we have had no food and drinks since four that morning. Later that day, we are treated to fresh home made bread of Yasmin, who as a past time and hobby makes specially ordered bread for her friends. According to her, she has secured regular customers for her home made bread which she says is free from additives or chemicals since she makes her own special yeast from fresh fruits. Indeed her bread is very tasty and irresistible to the taste. At first glance of its size, I cannot think how we can finish it, but finish it we do in no time ! We cannot complain of no food at KK. We are eating virtually most of the time - what with Farazil treating us to his Hotel’s Japanese sukiyaki and Indian buffet and not forgetting the sea food too. Just below their apartment there is also a Japanese restaurant which choice of Japanese food is reasonably priced. Even the Japanese food at Farazil’s hotel looks much below priced compared to those in Kuala Lumpur. In fact generally the cost of living in Kota Kinabalu is a lot less than most western Malaysian States, reason enough why both Farazil and Yasmin say they look forward to a long stay there.

Entertain wise, on the second morning there, Farazil introduces John to a polo game at a special horse riding club of Michael Loh. Both Farazil and Aiki spend most of their weekends horse-riding there. Michael used to relate to us how tired he felt each time he is left by Farazil to look after Aiki’s horse ride. Since Aiki is not quite ready to horse riding by himself, to ensure safety for him, each time he does ride, poor Michael has to secure the horse’s reins throughout Aiki’s ride which is never for a short while but repetitively long. However lately Michael has got wise to it and now he gets one of the stable boys to take care of Aiki’s. Knowing how energetic Aiki is, it is not easy to keep up with his requests / demands for attention and entertainment / funs. But that is what it is with all our grandchildren anyway. It is no less with Omar or Emir though not that much with the rest. As we grow older, we no longer have the energy to sustain these seemingly grueiling attention expected of us old folks. In my younger days, I recall being able to join in the funs of the youngsters such as my nephews and nieces and even my younger cousins. I just have endless energy then. I wonder some time just where it has gone now. If it is about food, I certainly have even better quality food than before. Indeed, if ever I think about any food that I desire I can always find the means to have them. No short fall in that ! Just where then do we all lose that energy ? Each week when I play squash with Tunku Besar I dread to think that I might not be able to finish the game or that my already damaged and aching knees will give way. Thank God, so far that does not happen. Only thing is almost after the game is over I will feel the pains in my knee joints and this pain will persist for the next few days before the next game. However, this is nothing new to me. I have always had some kind of pain on my knee joints even long before my surgeries on them. It is my body nature I guess !

Farazil takes us to the Bee Movie to let us experience the cineplex there. I guess these days all these cineplexes are comfortable unlike what we used to have in the cinema theatres of old. Notice how we all use the word "theatre" to describe the cinema halls of those days. It must have been because of the size of these cinemas then. Unlike the cineplexes of today which has at the most three hundred seats, in those days the cinema halls - theatres - can easily have more than a thousand seats. My company once owned a cinema near our house that can seat more than one thousand five hundred. Little wonder it attracts a church group to buy it over when we decided to close shop during the cinema recession when the country was hit by the video craze. Anyway, Kota Kinabalu still has some old cinemas which are on going but of course ticket prices are a lot lower than the cimeplexes. When it comes to cineplexes , you cannot beat KL which has them everywhere these days. The modern days movie goers are having it so good. For Ainul and I, we cannot help feeling so relax and comfortable at these new cinemas that almost every time we watch a movie, we always unintentionally doze off. for a while, although at one time when we watched the cartoon movie "Madagascar" ( ? .) We were both fast asleep almost throughout the show !

Coming back to Kota Kinabalu, besides the good food we all enjoy during our five days stay there, and the Sukiyaki at Farazil’s hotel being the best of them all as acknowledge by all of us, the highlight is none other than the white water rafting which both John and Farah have been looking forward to. Comes the morning of this excursion, we are all set for a good time. I feel somewhat cautious of it since I have seen movies of this kind of adventure which is not quite all fun but steep in hidden danger. Thus I keep asking Farazil and Yasmin if it is indeed safe for all of us and especially so for the little ones Hibiki and Aisya who are only three years old and even for Aiki for that matter who is only eight years old. Both of us are given assurances by Farazil and Yasmin and further assured by Octavious who owns the rafting company. He goes on to say that it is only stage 1 and 2, which is considered to be the lowest water rafting category in terms of rapids present, flowing river current and roughness and hence pretty safe even for babies - so we are told by him. Thus assured we go ahead with the day’s outing to the hinterland of Kota Kinabalu to an area called Kiullu.

The journey by bus for our special group which includes Mr. and Mrs. Octavious, and their son Guy, does not seem to take that long before we arrive at our final destination. Only thing that still bothers me then is the heavy rains that fall the very night before our morning trip. I feel concern that the water level at the rapids might rise. Again at this one, we are assured that the river will be normal. The rain is not that heavy to merit rising water from up river. We are provided with acceptable changing rooms to change our outfit and sufficient life jackets and head gears for our safety needs. Farazil lends me his beach shoes whilst Ainul retains her normal rubber sandals, I decide to go without my spectacles since they will be of no use with those expected sprays from the rapids. Ainul takes along her sun glasses since Farazil says it is pretty safe doing so because they provide a special glasses holders to prevent wash up at the rapids. For the first time ever I see and feel being in a rubber raft which can accommodate seven people on board comfortably. We are all split according to the availability of these rafts. Ainul and I and Farazil are together in one raft which is later on joined by two Dutch tourists making it six altogether with the our raft guide-cum-instructor on board - fairly comfortable passenger wise. John, Farah and Aisya are in another raft of seven, whilst Yasmin and Hibiki in another raft of also seven. We are all excited now for this white water rafting experience and eager to go. Before we realize it, we are off onto the speeding river current.

I sit on the front left side of the raft at first until the two Dutch join us. I then shift to the left back seat with Ainul in the centre seat and a Dutch on her right.The final seating sees a Dutch up front left with Farazil on the right. Second back row, I am on the left, Ainul in the centre and another Dutch on the right. Commanding the rudder is our raft leader and guide from the outfit. Everything looks set for an interesting and much looked-forward-to adventure, which for us both and also to the two Dutchmen is a first time. The Dutch earlier on have done the kayak - canoe run but only for a short while. When they capsize after a short run, they decide to abandon the idea since both of them feel the jitters to proceed further. Hence they assume that getting on the raft would be safer, which at first it seems that way to all of us anyway.

Our course downstream covers seven kilometers As we paddle off I could feel the speed of the raft as we hit our first rapid. We are all excited to experience for the first time that special roller coaster ride on fast moving water which hits and sprays us as we move into the rapid. I make sure that my left foot is firmly placed at the bottom inner part of the raft so as to prevent me from being lifted off it as we glide in the rapid. With all our paddles firmly dug in the water and rapidly swinging them back and forth to stabilize the raft, I realize that in reality we have very little control over the whole thing unless everyone synchronizes the paddling movements. Thank God we got through that first rapid and then we are back on calm water and our rudder guy tells us to relax and let the current takes us downstream. All of a sudden in the midst of our conversation with each other we see another rapid ahead and now we are told to paddle hard. The second one is bigger than the first one and this time we hit a protruding rock on the left side and our raft spins around making us face backwards but only for a short while. We overcome the spinning by our rapid paddling and then we are back on calm water.

On looking back we find that we have overtaken the other three rafts behind us. We have been fairly impressive with our paddling to create speed for our raft. The rudder man now tells us to slow down and wait for the rest to come up close to us. By this time we experience very pleasant cruise downstream with the river current doing the work for us. Up till then I have coordinated the paddling strokes with my Dutch friend who is in front of me. Of course I leave Farazil alone to manage his side of the raft. We got ourselves involve in lively conversation with our two Dutch friends until we notice we have reach a kind of overhead hanging bridge where perch on it are two camera men who have been assigned to video tape all our rafts. Suddenly one of the guys jump in to the river and swims towards our raft and jumps in to be with us. He now has his special camera in front of our raft and taking pictures of us from the front. Aside from him, we see a single canoer paddling besides ours and keeping ahead of us. We are told that he is the "safety guy", for whatever it means to us then. However we can see that this guy is a real expert with his canoe.

Suddenly ahead we see another rapid and we hit that in no time. It is somewhat easy this time. We get by with flying colours and after that we are back in calm water when our rudder man tells us to stop paddling and he guides the raft to the right river bank where he tells us to disembark for swimming if we wish to. This is one spot where the river is quite deep but somewhat calm and ideal for a dip in but keeping in tact our lifejackets while doing so. All of us have a nice time here. Overheard from the others who happen to be there too - some Chinese tourists - requesting to remain longer at the place to enjoy the swimming therein.

Now we are off again on our journey downstream. The next rapid we come to is a small one and then we are back on calm water. It is at this time when we are all immersed in conversation that we suddenly see in front of us a big rapid to which our rudder man fails to warn us. We start paddling rapidly. My Dutch friend on my left front coordinates well with me in our paddling strokes. Of course I am too busy to notice what Farazil and his Dutch friend is doing. I see that our raft is moving to the right bank of the river and I relax somewhat in the hope that it will get back to the centre. I am about to see if we are in position when I realize that we are about to hit a huge protruding rock near the bank. In the wink of an eye, our raft hit the rock right smack from the front . With the swirling current our raft suddenly turn turtle. I find myself immerse in water and under the raft which is now upside down. Momentarily I panic since my head cap encloses my eyes. When I pull it up then I come to my senses and realize we are in the torrent water. I immediately shouted for Ainul since I cannot see her anywhere near me. My imagination runs wild with thoughts of major tragedy to all of us , more so to Ainul.

I am immediately swept away by the fast current. I still hold on to the raft’s paddle which I should have let go as earlier advised by our instructor prior to our rafting. As I float rapidly downstream I am not able to look right or left being too busy trying to avoid knocking my legs and body against protruding rocks on the river beds. In my predicament I suddenly hear a voice behind me shouting to me to swim to the river bank and then the "safety guy" appears. He says loudly to me " Catch-hold of my canoe and don’t let go until we reach the river bank !". I do just that then and then I reach shallow water. I feel a raft hit my back side and there in it is Ainul. It takes some doing for me to try to get on board the raft. For one thing I am still in a state of shock and my knees feel hurt besides feeling limp somewhat. I fell really thankful to Allah that we are all safe after Farazil jumps into our raft a short time later. Now all our team mates are back on board and in silent we paddle all the way to the end of our raft journey.

What can I say about white water rafting ? Is it really safe ? Would I do it again ? All I can say is, we cannot take anything for granted. We always have to be prepared for the unexpected.

Of course it is fun to experience at least once in a life time. To do it again ? Hmm well, let me think !