Day 37: Rafty McRaftface

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I decided to treat Meg to white water rafting today. I’m a benevolent god you see. On a side note it was something we had both wanted to try and we were unable to facilitate it in our ever dwindling funds, so I decided to push the boat out a bit.



The company we had booked under was 8Adventures, which after research seemed like one of the better companies. Most were in the same price range of 50+ pound each whereas I avoided some of the ridiculously cheap ones for fear of flat rafts and quick deaths.



We were picked up at half past 9 from out hotel and taken about an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai, north east towards the Myanmar border. After winding roads and picturesque backdrops we were taken to a river hut where we were given a brief orientation before getting in a minibus and driving up the river. At the top (10km from the end point) we were kitted out with a lifejacket, an oar and a helmet. Again we were run through the basic instructions to be given by our captain, and then we were to set off. We were partnered with an American gentleman in his 40s, who was telling us how he had travelled the world. Hilarious irony ensued, when he told us he had been white water rafting 13 times and was nearly impossible to dislodge from the boat, almost immediately before we hit a rock and he ended up taking a dip in the smoothest part of the river.



The first 5km were easier waters, grade 2 rapids which was a good way to start, building us up for the heavier middle section. This was chaotic, dramatic, thrilling, brilliant. Constant shouts from the leader which led us to constantly be moving around the raft, almost like a game of extreme twister whilst being bashed by rocks and splashed. I drank my fair share of river water from splashes (thank you cholera vaccine), but come the end, myself and Meg remained unfallen. For the last kilometere we were allowed to jump in and swim to the end point, which was great fun until we had to get out, as a blistering current makes it quite hard to stand up in a river.



After we had finished we were given lunch, which was a huge portion of rice, a breaded chicken breast and salad. We were also given a soup to go alongside. About an hour after this we were taken back to our hotel. We opted to go for a run, as we felt we had not done enough steps on this day. I say we, I mean Meg, I protested heavily. In hindsight I’m glad we went. The flat surface and the lack of large amounts of alcohol, nicotine and junk food for the past few weeks left me feeling leaner and fitter than I have in a couple of years, and my time reflected this.



After this, by which point we were very tired, we went to find a rooftop bar, chiefly, the htc backpackers bar as we thought this would be cheaper than most. We did not find it but did find a different bar, having a bottle of beer, then heading to a “saloon bar”, to have a burger (6/10). We had a couple more drinks and then had a couple of games of pool (I’m FINALLY winning our series) before calling it a night.



Steps:14825



Pool Scores: Meg 3-4 Joe (Allez Allez Allez….)

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