Keeping with the adventure theme of our trip, Betty and I signed up for a one day river rafting trip on the Trisuli River. We met at the office in Pokhara, transferred to the local bus station and then hopped on a bus and drove the three hours to the local Adrenaline Rush (the rafting company) office and "put-in point". We met the four other people in our boat (three Swedish guys and a girl from Singapore) and our guide (Miley), were given a short little safety chat: listen for "forward", "right back", and "left back", if you fall out point your feet down river, head up river. Then we were given helmets, lifejackets, paddles and ushered in. Not sure what I was doing, I managed to figure out the few short commands pretty quickly, though it took me a bit longer to realize that screaming while going down the rapids lead to me drinking river water, something that took a few rapids to master, wasn't the screaming the point if it? The river was a combination of flats and rapids, some bigger than others, definitely a good beginner river. To add to the adventure, our boat nearly flipped once and filled with water another time though apparently this was part of the experience. One of the other boats paddling along with us flipped in big rapids and all eight of the people on it floated down the rest of the rapids. Me and another guy pulled two people into our boat and the kayaker lifeguards along with us rescued a few more in another boat. What excitement! Working while on vacation lol. We passed a funeral/cremation on the side of the river (literally a body wrapped in a blanket and lit on fire on the rocks - a bit awkward to row by) and then ate lunch on the shore of the river. After lunch the weather got cold, the clouds rolled in and the thunder started booming. I was really happy when we got to the end point and climbed out because the lightening started moments later (man my lifeguard training is stressing me out traveling lol). We changed into dry clothes at an office and then once the downpour started walked across a metal suspension bridge (in a thunder and lightning storm - not impressed), through a village, across a creek and around a mountain to our camp for the night. Drenched, cold and not impressed, thank god they had coffee and I brought packaged soya milk :) we spent the night in the open area because the tents were drenched but woke up to this amazing view, all the more battle hardened. Off to Sauraha and Chitwan National Park!
