The Selangor River offers classic white water within easy reach of Kuala Lumpur — but hardly anyone knows about it. In this, the first of a regular column, we introduce you to the best places around the region that are newly opened for adventure travel, and remind you of some classics that are at their peak
Ask any serious paddlers who have had experience in Asia what they think of the white water in peninsular Malaysia and you’ll get some very strange stares — and perhaps even a few looks of outright. contempt. Most of them will tell you immediately there’s no white water worth the name here, and the few stretches that are commercially rafted are for beginners only.
They’re completely wrong. Hidden away in the jungles, national parks and mountain valleys are some truly superb stretches of rapids that, for sheer thrills, challenges and adrenalin action, can hold their own with the best in the world. The fact is that nobody has really taken the time to check out these places, and it’s only now that a few hardcore explorers are getting into them that the truth is starting to come out.
What’s even more surprising — and pleasing for white-water fiends — is that one of the best of these stretches is just a two-hour drive from downtown Kuala Lumpur, on a river named the Selangor.