Nepal Day 14: "Raging Rivers"

Nepal Day 14: "Raging Rivers"

What a great day! Ben and I awoke after a great hard sleep last night and we were picked up at our hotel by our rafting group. This would be our 20+ rafting trip but this one would be much different then the rest. For starters, Ben and I would be the only foreigners on the trip. While everyone is conversing and giving/receiving instructions, Ben and I would remain gleefully ignorant of what was happening. We left at 7am and the "3 hour trip" took almost 5 hours (given Nepalese time), but we finally were able to sample some of Nepal's beautiful scenery.

As we drove through steep mountainous twists and turns, still avoiding paired

semis racing in the opposite direction, the mountain-scape blasted into sight. It was almost perfectly reminiscent of Avatar's Pandora, with terraced farming, clouds both above and below, and lush green forest blanketing everything.   It was misting which enhanced sense of magic in the air. We arrived at our site and waited around for another hour as our disorganized group inflated 1950s rafts that looked as though they had been used in a previous war. I must admit that Ben and I were skeptical as our guides dropped us off at the wrong location and had to reload everyone (plus gear) on the bus to head out to the correct spot. We were the only experienced rafters as well as the only swimmers in our group. Nonetheless Ben and I made it fun by splashing other boats and inciting a competitive spirit between the groups. We had a young group which made the trip very fun. We kept playfully hassling the guides and eventually our own guide decided to flip our boat!! Ben and I were calm about it, even excited but the other 7 passengers thought they were all going to die. So Ben "Mr. Bean!" became the hero of the day by helping the girls out from under the raft and pulling them back into it. I swam out and collected paddles and panicked breakaway non-swimmers. Another thing I love about this country, zero concern for safety. No one in this boat can swim? Sweet let's flip the damn thing. We all managed to get back into the boat with our paddles and everyone cheered. From then on we were a tight-nit group. We flew courageously through treacherous rapids, laugh in the face of widow-maker eddies, and cheered as we careened over waterfalls. Phenomenal and I even impressed the whole group by being the first to jump from the "tall rock". By the end of the excursion we were all taking photos and laughing about people who tumbled out, clobbering each other with paddle handles, and genuinely enjoying each other's company.   We left just as the sun was setting over the mountains.. It's times like this that I feel the Universe is truly conspiring in my favor, unrelenting serenity. We got back late this evening and crashed. Flight back to India tomorrow. On Yeti air.... Fitting.