Wild On Nepal
Friday, March 30th, 2007The Lonely Planet Nepal book describes the Bhoti Kosi river as “the best two day rafting trip in the world…you will be paralyzed with fear” (or something like that…I don’t have the book on me at the moment). Perfect for us, considering the closest thing to white water in our handbag of adventure sports experience is Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. So we signed up with our UK partners in crime from the Andamans, Bev & Dan. We left Kathmandu in the wee hours and after whip lashing bus ride arrived at the river. The first day was practice. Our guide Laxmon briefed us on the rafting commands and we set off. The rapids were mainly class 2 and 3, exciting but not enough to tap into adrenaline reserves. In life vests & helmets Laxmon had us all jump in the ice cold river…another practice session in case day 2’s unforgiving river tossed anyone overboard.
Day two was a completely different river. Pick up a thesaurus and look up the words ‘insane’, ‘panic’ and ‘oops I crapped my pants’ and this will paint an accurate picture. In other words I loved it, and so did Beard Man Beshore. Class 4-plus rapids involve a lot of huge boulders that our raft kept getting stuck on. Laxmon would yell “Jump Left!” and we’d all slide over to the left side of the raft and bounce up & down. The height of the fury occured when our raft was banked sideways on a rock in the middle of a mad waterfalling rapid. With the left side stuck, water started filling the boat from the right side. Laxmon, our super laid back Nepali guide for the first time flashed a look of “Oh shit” in his eyes. “OUT OF THE BOAT, EVERYBODY OUT!” So here we are, 7 of us plus Laxmon balancing on a slippery slime covered boulder the size of the front hood of a VW Beetle. The boulder wasn’t level, and there was a bit of water streaming over it. He then instructed us all to pull the ropes of the raft in a heave-ho motion, to break it free. The water was rushing so loudly that it was difficult to even hear his Nepali-accented English commands, so everyone took to repeating his every word in a full volume shout. (the sort of shouts that Mom’s use when their trying to round up children for dinner) We were all balancing on the shaky slippery rock, trying not to bump eachother in the least bit. One tap of the shoulder would have sent me flying off the rock, consequently taking others down with me. The class-4 rapids down river was riddled with huge rocks, falling off our rock meant inevitable panic and pain. After tugging at the raft to no avail, one of our two safety patrol kayaker assistants appeared on the left hand bank of the river and tossed the rope. He tugged the raft free and we all dove off the river rock back into the raft.
This situation went down exactly 14 seconds after I saved JR from going overboard. I should rephrase, my nose saved him. He came flying accross the raft and assaulted my face with his helmet…I immediatly let go of the ropes and held my nose waiting for blood to gush. I was about to really have a good cry, the slow motion kind where the tears precede any peep of a whimper. JR interrupted my emotional commercial to remind me that we were still crashing through whitewater with a shout “Brooke frigging hold on!” Now I’m sporting a slightly swollen schnoz, but no bruising.
Oh man. It was seriously intense, but a heck of a good time.
After spending a few more days in Kathmandu, we’ve now just arrived in Bangkok. Tune in for further weirdness.
We hitched a ride from Kodaikanal to Munnar with 3 other Indian couples. A bit of a tight squeeze, but a great chance for conversation. We of course had to lie and say ... 
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