White water rafting

Perhaps some of you have migrated over to my Wandering Year blog, or perhaps some of you have remained/ stumbled here. But needless to say, my team had decided to keep Kuala Lumpur as its home base for a little bit, instead of being down in Singapore. Yay!!! I guess my lobbying and enticing them with all the island diving trips and all were helpful. I will keep writing here where I can, on my weekeend adventures, but would also like to introduce two more people who would be writing with me. Introducing.... *drumroll*

The Beaver and The Elephant!

Why the nicknames? do not ask me, I asked them to come up with a pen name and thats what they came up with. I myself, am to be known as the Corporate Weekender aka The Fox. (Dont ask me, Beaver gave me that name). They too will share their adventures here (when they can find the time to write something). But in the meantime, I thought I would share one of our adventures.

A few weeks ago we all went white water rafting in Kuala Kubu Baru. Located about an hour out of KL, its a really fun active weekend activity. You head on to the top (near the Selangor dam) and raft down for about 7 km. There is a mix of levels for those of you who are interested in challenging yourselves as well as those moments when you just want to chill. The best part is that after a few km's, you can just ditch the raft and float all the way down the river.

Its an amazing feeling to go all the way out and hear nothing but the rush of the river, the birds. And perhaps your friends giggling like crazy. There were about 13 of us (4 boats) and the best part of all was watching a family consisting of one father and three sons having a male bonding session. Just to show you how rough and tumble it was.
(Splish splash down the river)

(And over she goes)

We used the following people - PieRose Swiftwater Sdn Bhd. Contact +6019-645-8615 or email at pierose13@yahoo.com. I recommend them as they have very well trained guides and give you a very good briefing on how to deal with the raft. We had boats flipping over and people falling in, and we watched as the guides just jumped in to help save those who fell in. Very professional, and to be honest, on a boat and going through crazy rapids, what you want are professionals who know the river (the guides are river people / people who live in the area).

(Pay attention to your guides)

Total cost was about RM100++ (Sorry, I cant remember exactly how much). The fees covers your rental of the raft, paddles, helmets, life jackets, guides, even a cd of your pictures (If you have the guide with you taking pics) and the best part of all, amazing home cooked chicken rice!!

Great way to spend in nature and slightly out of the city.

(Chillaxing down the river)

Sekeping Serendah - getting away from the city

Sometimes you just get sick and tired of the city. Dont you have days when youre stuck in traffic yet again. When the honking of the other cars starts getting to you. When you want to scratch the eyeballs of the drivers who have decided yet again to just wait in the yellow box making it impossible for you to drive by. Dont you have days when you are just tired of your computer, tired of the cityu, tired of everything else?

Well, then of course, its time to get away.

I kidnapped The Boyfriend here sometime last year after hearing about it from a friend of mine. It was quite fun, telling him nothing and driving up together for the first time. Located about one hour out of KL, its actually not that bad a drive. Though I can guarantee you that you will get lost repeatedly. (I did). But dont worry, just keep on trying to find it. Follow the directions on the map (you will be using small roads) and you should be fine.

There are three different types of accomodation there. The wooden house, brick house, and of course, the glass house. We stayed at the glass house while we were there. Yes, a house fully made of glass for the exhibitionist in you. But you will seriously feel like youre the only person there. You can barely see your neighbours house let alone another human being.


(Can you spy the glass house by the stream?)


(Its a double story house that comes with a kitchen and an outdoors bathroom)


(There's even a place to build a nice warm fire in the middle of the night. Perfect to snuggle around)

The place itself is really nice and quiet. You can hear the birds twittering and the stream running, and nothing else. You can even order dinner and while youre upstairs puttering around you'll come down to miraculously find dinner spread out for you. (A fine dinner it is)


(The soft gurgling stream)

All in all, its deff a nice place to just get away for a little bit. A day or a weekend. Some things to note though :

1. There is NO coverage. No blackberry, no cell phone, no internet, no tv. Its gonna be just you and nature baby
2. Sometimes you get unlucky. The Sunday morning when I was there a bunch of people decided to do a REALLY LOUD picnic at the pool which is close to my particular location. Not really what you would like when youre on a romantic weekend getaway
3. Similarly, your neighbors might decide to binge drink and dance to REALLY LOUD MUSIC. We had to actually walk down and ask them to turn it off. Since we are in the middle of the forest and you dont usually see people around, the four girls in the house got a shock to suddenly see other people coming up to their house. (Maybe that was retribution itself hahaha)
4. Its pretty expensive to stay there on the weekend. Best prices are on weekedays.

For more details, check out serendah.com


(Gorgeous pool)

Kite Park

There are times when you just want to get away for the weekend. You want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and never see a skyscraper. You want to be near water with a breeze with blades of grass between your toes. Sometimes you want to be surrounded by things other than the click-click-click of computers surrounding.

Sometimes you just need to get away.

I found this park about 6-7 years ago. I was driving on this highway (the Middle Ring Road 2 or known as MRR2) with a friend on the way to a housewarming. There was heavy traffic and I realized that everyone had slowed down to take a look at the hundreds of kites in the air.



After coming back from the US, I went looking around for this park again (yes, my directional memory is pretty good) and found it! Its on the way to Selayang, you have to drive past the exit to Genting as well as past Batu Caves, keep on going straight and eventually you will see a bunch of cars parked on the highway and a big sign warning you of kite flying ahead. If it helps, you should by then see the many kites in the air.

Whats nice to do here? Well, I just love watching the kites, and watching all the families having a good time. I also love that all races of people are here. It is a park for everyone. I also just like lying there, reading. For those slightly more active groups, there is a lake and a pretty tough jogging route right next door. You can see a bunch of people working out together here.







I do try and come out here more often now. Its not easy though, takes about 30 min to get here from the middle of the city. But its deff worth it to take a look at this place at least once. Best times and days to come would be on the weekends (of course), between 5.30 - 7.30 p.m. is when you will spot the most number of kites in the air.

Who knows, like me, you could spend so many years dreaming of it and realize, you're always going to come back.

Recurring - Flea Markets

There are quite a few of these that go around on the weekend. It is indeed quite elusive and you need to know where to look for the advertisements and flyers. Luckily my sister is part of this community, and you can find some of her things on sale as well as announcements of flea markets on her website

dr3ssm3up.blogspot.com

One weekend I decided to pop by Hartamas for their Pick and Grab IV. It was quite a lot of fun (though it was seriously hot, no fans anywhere!). Most of the items on sale are clothing pieces mostly for women with smatterings of male clothes and some artsy pieces. It also brought out the funky bohemian crowd of KL all ready to look for another bargain

Clothes and other items

She makes harem pants look good