Saturday, August 11, 2012

Paragliding in Malaysia

One of my favourite experiences that I have tried a few times - Tandem Paragliding Adventure. Everytime we have our RedRibbon Days ' corporate clients doing the experience, I will usually volunteer to go see them do the experience. If I am lucky, the paragliding instructor will offer me to do the experience for free and I have been very blessed and lucky - that's the reason I have done it many times. The feeling is always amazing. I got a thing for adrenalin rush. 

The location is in Banting, it's about 1 hours drive from KL. The drive feels extremely long especially we have to pass by small towns and kampungs and the roads are small but the destination is worth it. 

Below is where we take off for the paragliding experience:


The view is breathtaking! I have been to this location more than 10 times but I always love the view.


The picture above is our 'Captain' for the experience. He is a professional paragliding instructor and won many paragliding competitions. He is a retired colonel who used to work in the army. Everytime I call him I think of KFC's colonel Sanders. But most importantly, he puts safety in priority. 

I have waited for 5 hours just to do this experience. In paragliding, it's also called para-waiting. Got to wait for the right wind. But based on my experience, if you are not the patient type, best to do this experience after 2pm. The wind is better during that time. Oh, yes, another note about this experience - there are no toilet facilities nearby. 

Photo of the customers that waited to do the experience for 5 hours (below). They insisted to do the experience at 9am but we waited till 2pm for the first person to paraglide. I was glad that they didnt mind waiting for their experience. All of them were quite hungry since we did not eat after Mc Donalds for breakfast but you dont want to do this experience when your stomach is full.
A photo of our very own Colonel giving safety briefing to our customers (below)



I like the tagline on colonel's tshirt (above) - "Fly Anywhere Anytime" but of course only when the wind is right, and as long as its between 2pm-5pm since you cant fly at night and in the morning, the wind is not that good. 




If you cant see the wordings on Colonel's tshirt, I got him to pose again. Not a bad model for me. (above)

Finally after waiting for so long, our first tandem paraglider is ready to take off (above).


I'm glad that everyone enjoyed themselves. Well worth the wait. On the way back, we all stopped at the nearest petrol station and rushed in. Everyone in the group knew the reason of our stop.