... and what a character-building exercise it was!
It was a long day today. While Jacalyn flew back fro Pokhara to Kathmandu, the rest of us embarked on a long 4 hours bus journey that started at 7:30am, taking us south-eastwards towards Kathmandu, for the singular purpose of arriving at the starting point of our Trishulli (also spelled as Trisuli or Trishuli) white water river rafting adventure.
We were very on time. The time was just after 11am when we got off the bus at a small little road side shop where the rubber dinghy was being prepared for us. Our coxswain was Dipess, a patient man who thankfully kept us all safe and sound during the 3 hour activity.
Through the whole morning I was looking out of the bus looking at the misty and wet weather condition and wondering if it was a little cold for river rafting. But the instructor Dipess seemed very confident and we were all prepared with tights and t-shirts, so I guess we really just had no choice but to give it a go.
THE VIDEO
Click on image below for my Strava Record of today's rafting
Click on image below for my Relive Video of today's rafting
Relive 'ABC 2018 Day 13: White Water Rafting Grade 3 on Trishulli River'
I did, for a short moment, entertained the possibility of wearing our waterproof outer shell layers during the water rafting just to keep ourselves from the wind and the waves. In retrospect that would have been good.
So we all blur blur donned our life jackets, helmets, grabbed our pedals and walked down the slope to the shore of the Trishulli river following closely behind Dipess. Ah Li had a swell time trying to catch the butterfly in her heart as Dipess gave us the safety briefing.
“When I saw that you actually sat on the side of the raft and had to rely on using your feet to ‘giap’ the underside of the seats to prevent yourself from being thrown over board, I was so frightened. But at the end of the day, it didn’t turn out as bad as it seemed when we first started off.” admitted Ah Li.
I believed among us all only Darric and Kong Wan knew how long the water rafting is going to take.
“This is not the monsoon season, so the Trishulli river rapids are not as bad,” said Dipess, our coxswain.
Very quickly we had a crash course on how to keep ourselves safe if we were thrown out of the raft, or if the raft capsized. The cold water was not a welcoming embrace should any of the two happened. There were no safety belts, and all you had were the life-jackets, the helmets and the paddles. The river was kind to us on this day on this grade 3 rafting course. Passing each rapid, we would be howling our lungs out while struggling to paddle, even if it meant paddling in air some of the time, to propel the raft forward.
There were quite a few bumps on the rapids but thankfully none strong enough to over throw any of us.
It was harrowing but hey nervously exciting to have a wall of water crashing onto our bodies when the side of the craft crashed against the waves.
We all tried keeping to the ‘safe side’ like what we did in the mountains, where the waves were not so huge. Sadly the river respected no such safe side, and neither those on the left nor the right were safe from the onslaught of the freezing cold waves. Delightful squeals yelped from all, whenever the waves crashed again and yet again, and the raft bobbed on the water surface, threatening to bounce some of us off. Times like these, very instinctively Ah Li and Ryan would try to hide themselves in the middle of the raft, especially Ah Li, who would stop paddling altogether and grab hold onto the side rope for dear life.
Our official photographers Darric on his GoPro and Kong Wan on his 360 had a time as swelling as the whirls in the water, capturing the expressions and emotions of all.
More Rapids?
After a while we all got so used to the rapids that after each rapid we would look forward to the next one.
“Ah that one is a small one lah,” wah after a while even Ah Li became numbed to the rapids.Suddenly from my left side a faint voice came.
“I need to pee.” said Fann pathetically.
“Pee into your pants lah, wah lau eh...” I called out to her.
“Yah, like peeing into your wetsuit like that. Very nice feeling one,” both Darric and Kong swan totally appreciated the comfortable sensation of having one’s body surrounded by warm urine.
“I know. I always do that. But I’m sorry. I can’t this time. I really need to pee.” chattered Fann through clenched teeth in the cold
After the raft went ashore for a short moment to allow her that luxury of a pee, Fann emerges even worse, walking with short, tight strides.
“Why you walk like that?”
“I am very cold.” Alamak.
The first leg of the rafting took us one hour and forty minutes. We were all soaked through the skin
Lunch? Climb up the slopes? And more rafting after that? *faint*
“Ok now we climb up to the side of the valley for lunch,” instructed Dipess. We looked bewildered sy each other- you mean, after lunch there was going to be more water rafting?!?!
Climbing up the side of the slope to the top of the valley on the side in wet clothes clinging tight to our skins, and with even the tiniest of winds generating a freezing spasm of shiver in our bodies, wasn’t the idea of a leisurely lunch. On this day, we had little choice but to comply. I really laughed when I saw how everyone struggled to keep his or her body heat-producing in the cold wind. Ah Li could not stand up right out of the raft and had to squat down for a little while for her softened legs to recover. Ah Sing was ahead walking up already- tough girl she was. The rest of us filed behind and gingerly walked up. In Nepal everything involved trekking up and down slopes- going to the hot spring, going to the toilet, going into the water raft, coming up from water rafting and going for lunch- all these entailed some form of climbing up and down slopes and steps, either in trekking boots or in toilet sandals.
Wow.. Dal Bhat buffet over a open fireplace!
Right on top of the hill, we were brought right to a fireplace set up as-hoc at the clearing.
“Wah the fire is very nice and warm!” exclaimed Darric and Kong Wan.
Indeed. We totally disregard the singeing of our leg hairs and went really close to the fire. Steam emerging from wet clothing satisfied us that we were being dried. The less well-endowed among us were still a comedic sight, jittering from the remnant cold when some of us were already thawing and enjoying one of the nicest curry chicken Dhal Bhat we had ever had. Truly, out in the nothingness, with only wet clothes on skin against the ten plus degree weather, this simplest of meals tasted like heaven. I had three refills of it.
I looked around and saw that Darric, Ah Sing and Ah Li were curiously exploring the area for toilet. A short distance away, Fann was standing a straight as an arrow, arms and legs all extended, and hands tightly fisted by her sides. All she was doing , was moving her feet in small shuffles while the rest of her body remained as rigid as a dead body in rigor mortis. Her lips and face all turned a deathly shade of blue. I was quite sure she was near the end of her life. But miraculously she still moved.
Suddenly....
Beside me, I heard a soft stifled cry “Aaaaaaaah.. this is crazy! Why am I doing this to myself.. waaahhh aaah aaah aaah..”
This was unusual. A rare moment of emotional eruption rom somewhere very deep within. Through the thick smokes of the fire, I could vaguely make out possibly the petite frame of Shu Ning, perhaps it was Shu Ning, but I wasn’t exactly sure, holding the plate in one hand, while the other hand was involuntarily moving the spoonful of rice originally designated for the mouth, tangentially across and away from the line of entry of her oral cavity. Yes it had been documented that in states of hypothermia, the somatic nerves and muscles do not respond in the usual way to the brain any more. This was probably one of the phenomenon. Whoever she was, this poor girl could not control her hands to feed herself.
Unbeknownst to us, Serene, Ai Lin and Nicole were suppose to marry up with us here at this open space for lunch. But the long suspension bridge between the river served as the only barricade between Serene and the possibility of saving at least some of the 9 of us on the raft from another one more hour of the cold. So we continued our adventure in the cold.
Those with insulation, will adapt to the cold quicker...
By the time most of us thawed sufficiently it was time to descend back to the shore of Trishulli River. By now the rapids were no longer as fearsome as when we first started. Most of us knew that either you paddle like mad, or stop paddling and hide in the middle of the raft and prayed for the best, the raft will surmount that rapid and float onto peaceful water again.
“Wah last time when we did the grade five water rafting in Malaysia, one of my friends bounced out of the raft by the time we realized he was gone it was a few minutes later already,” recalled Darric with fondness.
“I remember when we first did white water rafting in Trishulli River 19 years ago, this stretch was still grade four,” remembered Kong Wan.
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| Finally a change of dry clothes at the end of the rafting. |
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| The small shop at the end of the rafting course |
I am just grateful it was a grade three now. And after every rapid we were all intact, all the way till the end of the course. A very relieved bunch of us finally emerged unscathed from the raft, just chilled to the core. Across the suspension bridge and finally we rendezvous with the support crew and our bus again.
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| Some more food before we continue our four and a half hour journey back to Kathmandu. |
This exercise reinforced one point to me- it was all about body types and how different body types were more suited for different climatic conditions. Those of us with more adipose insulation really did perform a little easier in the cold. At least the body had the resources to adapt. Of course in a long endurance event or a race, body weight and fat would be a detriment.
By the time we survived another four hours of Nepali mountain highway traffic and arrived back at Kathmandu Garden Home Hotel, the clock struck 9 in the evening. It had been a really long day. However it was as memorable as it was long. A day that I would never forget for it really showed me how the boys and girls were able to rise to the occasion.
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