Advertisement
Published: October 27th 2010
Edit Blog Post
From Chitwan we travelled back to Kathmandu to collect the rucksacks we had left there and to grab a decent nights sleep. The following day we caught the bus to Pokhara; the next we were rafting. We had previously spent five days in Kathmandu, after arriving in Nepal and before the trek to Chitwan, and so didn't feel it was necessary to linger there. We enjoyed our time in Kathmandu but Anny and I much prefer the village to the city, and as we were at that time rolling on so nicely, with activity following activity, we felt it unwise to break the momentum. We arrived in Pokhara in the early evening, attended the pre-trip briefing, ate two plates of Mo-Mos (each), bought and hired the various items we needed for three days on the river and then took ourselves to bed. By ten thirty the next day, after a four hour drive and our first camp meal, we were paddling nervously towards a rapid called "Big Brother", on the suitably angry and necessarily beautiful, Kali Gandaki river.
We went rafting, on the previously mentioned Kali Gandaki, with six older Americans who had a disturbing penchant for both group singing
and excessive campfire bonhomie, but who despite this proved to be most excellent company, we camped at night on sandy beaches, we ate great food and we got very wet indeed. Most importantly though, the trip was simply very good fun. A winning combination of serious thrills, stunning scenery, great food and good company. When not on the river we had a little time before and after dinner to explore the area in which we were camped; time which myself and Anny made good use of. The villages that we walked too were all fascinating, all very welcoming and all a nice diversion from the intensity of navigating class four rapids.
We had bought a bottle of Rum with us so we could sample the "famous" Rum Punch that the guys at "Ultimate Descents" make for everyone on the 2nd night. If I can offer one single piece of advice to anyone reading this with a mind to go rafting, it would be; do not take glass bottles on the river. Upon opening our dry bag that evening to extract our dry, clean clothes, we found them to be wet, stinking of Rum and covered in tiny shards of
glass! We sucked up what we could, washed our clothes in the river, and went for a walk to the local village to see if we could procure a replacement. We managed to buy an exceptionally cheap bottle of 50% proof alcohol, marked with three red crosses on a plain white background. Not a professional job. Not a great drink. Worked though! Anyway, the point I was going to make was that, given the supremely friendly nature of damn near all the villagers we met in this region, the simple mission of buying a replacement bottle of booze quickly and pleasurably morphed into a meet the village, hold the baby, quick pic with my sister, lets all sit down and chat and forget about whatever it was you were planning to do, type party.
Other things of note? I now have a paddling muscle that I never had before. I am exceptionally proud of it. It lives just below my right shoulder blade and bulges quite pleasantly when I flex it. It is the only muscle of any note that I have ever owned and it has now become hard to walk past a mirror without giving it a
little twitch. I am thinking of getting a t-shirt made. Also, on the second night, I got stung by a scorpion. I went for a gypsy's kiss in the middle of the night and after getting back into my sleeping bag I felt a hot sharp pain in my foot. My initial assumption was that I had cut myself on a shard of glass from the broken rum bottle, but when I shook out the bag to find it, a scorpion crawled out instead. "Oh bugger", I thought, "this could be serious." It was only a small scorpion, but as I hobbled over to wake up our guide Ashok, I was thinking; "I'm sure I've read somewhere before that it's the small scorpions which are the dangerous ones." Ashok assured me that this was not the case and that there was nothing to be worried about (leaving a mildly panicking me feeling just a little silly) which, the following day, proved to be the case. The only symptoms being a slightly swollen foot and a loss of feeling in the toe which was stung.
The fact that this blog is shorter than most of my recent entries is because
I am pleasantly short of time and a little behind, not because the rafting was dull. It wasn't. To catch up I've had to post this one pretty close to the heals of my last, and this one will soon be having its rump sniffed by my next. I think keeping this blog short is going to be both a bonus for me and a pleasure for you. The next blog will be about the very pleasant Pokhara and its stunning ENVIRONS.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.394s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 27; qc: 111; dbt: 0.2457s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
Muhammad Rashed
non-member comment
Thanks
It is my great pleasure to write about the article, I thanks personally the writer about writing so depth on his adventure on Pokhara, Nepal, we expects his expeditions will lead us to more amazing places with his blogs. Luxury Safaris