TheOrganisation’s Staff Association organised a tandem paragliding outing last Saturday at Bukit Jugra. Places were limited to 30 and based on first come, first served. I quickly emailed my interest and was happy to be included. We were told to pay RM100 (part-subsidised by the Staff Association. The charge for an individual is RM230 or RM190 if you’re in a group so RM100 was a very fair price) three weeks before the outing.
We were told to assemble at the bus at 08:30 but
as usual, people were late. In fact, the organisers only arrived at 08:50! We set
off for Bukit Jugra and arrived there about an hour later. That’s one part of
Selangor I’d never been to before. We were met by a retired Colonel (he was in
the Air Force) and he gave us some briefing. We also had to sign an indemnity
form after the briefing.
A few of us wanted to visit the bathroom first so
we were ferried to the nearby Muzium Insitu Jugra before we were brought up the
hill. We had to wait for the wind to build – yes, paragliding is very much
dependent on nature so we settled down for the long wait. A few of the tandem pilots
had arrived by then and we were quickly introduced to them. The youngest was a
teenage boy, 14 years old if I’m not mistaken. I joined in a few others and
chatted up one of the tandem pilots. He pointed out the flags in the distance –
at the temple, the school, the field where we would land, and those on the
hill. Basically, the flags near to the ground there would fly more often as
they are pushed by the sea breeze. We have to look at the flags on the hill, in
particular the one higher up the hill.
It was past 12 noon before the wind finally
strengthened and the first batch, me included, got ready. We strapped on the
harness which would then be attached to our respective tandem pilot. We had
already been told to face forward and not to turn around. The tandem pilot
would start by turning around to see if the wind had picked up. This was all
very different from the tandem paragliding I did in Sarangkot. And when it was finally me turn to
run, it didn’t feel anywhere as scary as in Sarangkot. I probably ran all of
five steps before the wind had lifted both of us up and before I knew it, we
were already in the air.
The ride didn’t last long though - probably all of seven minutes only, yes, way too short! - and we didn’t
cover a big area. In Sarangkot, I was floating and flying for at least 40
minutes and over a vast area. This one was limited to above Bukit Jugra and the
surrounding area. I was quite disappointed at the very short paragliding time and
the small area covered but there you go.
We were ferried up again and waited a long while
for the second batch to have their session. I then left with another colleague
in search of a prayer room. In the end, we walked down the hill all the way to
Muzium Insitu Jugra and performed prayers there. We decided to just wait at the
parking lot for the others to come down and were very happy to see that the bus
was already unlocked and we were free to pick up our lunch (which we had
ordered while waiting to paraglide) and have it in one of the gazebos before
sitting in the bus in air-conditioned bliss and relief.
We finally left at 16:15 and drove back to KL,
stopping en route at a mosque (I think it was Masjid Sultan Abdul Samad) for
Asar prayers. We reached our workplace at 18:10 and thanked the organisers for
organising the session before parting ways.
