To kathmandu.. on top of a bus..

  Kathmandu, Nepal
Thursday, October 18, 2007

so, it's been a wee while, but i'm back online.. a little jaded, a little lighter and ready for a little R&R in the delightful captial of Nepal.. got into town early eve last night, 6 hrs (ish) of bus rides including a stint on the roof! heh he wonder if the travel insurance covered that..

the trip from lhasa to the boarder (via the friendship highway) was epic, E.B.C was unreal with it's alien landscape.. why anyone would want to rationally make the decision and climb the thing I will never work out..

but more will follow, I'm going to be based here for a good week on so, soak up the air! Tibet's allitude was a killer for me, E.B.C. was 5200m, Lhasa 3700m.. and with Kathmandu at a breezey 900, my now oxgyen filled body is starting to awake from the mental battle of control that occured on the roof of the world..

anyhow, hope you're all well.. i'm just planning a 2am drink session for tomorrow night.. COME ON ENGLAND! : )

So we lost.. we still made it through, totally written off at every stage, the whole time they struggled on!  What an example to all sportsmen! classic stuff.. blah

Right, after a couple of days of the bright-lights of KTM and Thamel at the heart of it pumping away as it backpacking/hippy-trippy/treking core, myself and to fellow Brits (one from Loughton actually, and even an ex Davenant Girl at that), Holly and Adam.. we rocked up to Drift Nepal office and signed up for a 2 raft experience down the Bhote Kosi river (back uptoward the board we just crossed - shame I didn't read the guide book more thoroughly on my arrival could have dropped in on the way down and drifted into KTM, there's also the world highest buggie jump 160m, streaking down into the valley) But we were set, rapids graded at 2-5+ awaited us, I couldn't wait, although Holly and Adam were a bit more edgy about it all! lol..

Was good fun, 3 boat load entered the river below the dam on the first day (1 boat included a group of pro-rafting guides from Colorado who were there out of season on holiday! lol, how cool is that) But we went off, and I loved the ride, it was stunning the valleys high above the twists and turns of the fast flowing Himalayan run off, totally thrilling after the cultural overload of Tibet, China and the rest..

showing off..

Holly pressed the ejector seat button half way through the 1st day and lifted up and out the boat and went splashing down into the strong currents.. didn't think it helped that she was sandwiched between me and adam (to large lumps) as we bounced down the river and it's rocks..

We didn't flip it but we saw what happened when you do first hand, after chatting to the lead guide (who said he'd been doing this for 20 years all over the world) we saw the raft he was in charge of go sideways into rock and backflip to the right (chuckin everyone out) into the swell below.. scary stuff.. but i guesss that's half the fun! the risks and all.. he was up on the bottom of the raft in a split second and helping drag people out.

The first night was cool as, we jumped out further down river, unloaded the rafts, throwing them on top of the bus and chugged back up to the dam to the campsite.  There was a bar and chill out area, food was prep'd by the guides and we settled into the night with a beer and tails of the day!  The video camera came out and we watched the highlights of the day including the dramatic flip! One guy even half fell out before the flip and got sandwiched between the boat and the rock when it hit.. they also announced that the tents hadn't been set up by the campsite staff (this was the first run of the season that river, so there was a minor breakdown in communications) not to worry though, the bar area was covered over and we set up the roll mats and sleeping bags there for the night.. it was a joy to be out in the open..

The next was the challenge though, the grade 4/5s kicked in now, our 1 day of training would be vital to the boat staying up right! We pulled up to the put in point and 2 other companies of rafters were also setting up, the yanks went in first and maneuvered the first rapid with success, we went in second and lost our guide over board within the first 5 strokes.. but he was cool, he didn't get his feet in the grips in time.. and was back in the boat before we knew it! The next boat though, not from out company didn't have it so lucky though, they flip the whole boat at the point where we lost our guide and this was a big boat, 8 persons plus the guide (we had 6), they all went in and got dragged along for a good 200m, luckly the colarado guides were watching and shot off after them (even before they actually flip - guess the experience was coming through)

The rest of the day was none-stop, so much fun.. gonna have to book onto another trip I think, they arrange 8-10 trip as well, were you pack up every night and head on down, tents and full on camping on the river banks..

There's toooooo much to do!

Anyhow, trekking, I need to plan my trekking, but am still undecided about the full annapurna circuit!