Monday, June 2, 2008

Trishuli Rafting II : yet another adventure

".... five years ago, back when at I.Sc. IInd year, rafting in very same river; I vividly remember those moments..."
the rafting crew

It took me very little time to locate Jwalanta, Shankar, Ankur and Suvash (the fantastic four) in the mass in front of NTC Bhadrakali. Nepali typical, being out of schedule is very usual; here it implies as much to me as to the organizers. Though scheduled to leave@ 6.30 am, the engines pushed the wheels only after 7.30.
the fantastic four, (in profile - the "luring" mountain)

one hour time pass @ Bhadrakali, NTC


Till then, about one hour of fun, jokes, laughs, and chic watch(nomination of prospective 3 raft partners). Brief sessions of photography now and then. We almost found the perfect set, but their bad luck (we believe) that they boarded different bus.

JD - thanx for all those pics

Fun is everywhere, if you are in mood; the bus was no exception. As also verified by one of the co-travellers at the end of journey, we talked, had jokes, composed dohori lyrics, laughed hysterically, and what else..... safely can be concluded, we were the only group shouting in the bus.

Oh ya... to be short, only the points mentioned while of the breakfast restaurant.
kheer chana,
the amazing antenna,
recursive fotography ma kati ota foto aauncha?,
the luring mountain ;),
and lots of fun within.....
@the commence point

We took no time to get to the river bank and preparing for everything. As we all knew 8 person/raft, we needed 3 extra. That was the only thing stopping us from rafting already, So, we started shouting frantically "3 3 3 .. 3 needed... 3 people... 3 girls.... " : eager huh??
the "almost" crew members

Finally, a dutch couple was what we got as our co-members; Tamara was beautiful typical hot chic (graduate in communication) and Jan Jaap was tall- handsome- short film, ad producer.
Had some briefing from our raft captain (Captain Katak) and hurriedly set off. (I gave off few tips as well; being a one time experience holder)
captain Katak

The group got together soon and 8 of us were talking and laughing not very far away. Initial rapids and we all "... I excite...". "Borat" is a popular movie.

We learnt some dutch language... which turned out to be the punchlines of the day... Anks, the jumping jack
"Hoe khathet"?
"Med mai khathet khut".

I personally felt that the rafting itself was not as excited as the previous one.. but then saying so would be totally unfair to those moments while @ some rapids!!!!. I believe, remaining guys don't bear very different opinions.
"Shankar going wild"

But that in no way implies that the trip was boring... overall the day was simply great!!
Our team reached 'first' at the end point. Already dying of hunger, we hurried for the lunch...
and some great chat with the dutch couple...
as usual... fun everywhere.
after lunch talk
"..biryaani ... biryaani...."
"that gesture imitation.. (clapping hands and opening palm forward as to ask something....)"
"the dutch couple gathered a great deal of statistics about nepal ...."
"Nepal's average age is below 20 years???"-- a lil bit of confusion, but that was logical..
"Maurijuana and hashish are legal in Holland, "---whhhaattt??
"Sea food for us is same as soup(kinda jeera taken after meal) for them... hehe"
...
... and lot more!

Well lunch is over and its sixth octant of the day... already been a couple of hours at the restaurant... and by then we were eager to return.

The Dutch couple are to leave for Pokhara the next early morning. And t hey said they hired a bike 225cc(which one is it?) to travel around Nepal..

Little dilemma while choosing the bus but managed after awhile.
On the bus, i guess, everybody was tired enough to take a nap; i noticed Tamara, JJ, JD and Suvs taking rest at different instances...

A short break to have some tea... I'd only mention that
- the tea was not filtered(everybody except me left the three quarters or more of it)
- and the confusion while paying the money...
(Tamara thought she had some money to pay at the shop, but it turns out that all the bills paid by the group.
So, she asked "who do I owe some money?"
I very much liked the instant answer that followed, "To God". Wow!! It was Anks I believe...)


The journey continues...
Tamara was not used to bus travelling and specially on the hilly roads; so common in Nepal.
Little surprises that she was extra scared at the turnings. One whacky turn raised the fair level to alarming heights. Her comfort level was especially degraded by the writing she read before travelling to Nepal, "Road accidents are very common in Nepal, and so is death as consequences".
I couldn't fully deny when she inquired me about this.. but I did try to take that fear away from her. (Hey, don't make any wrong assumptions... JJ was there other side of her to hold her hand, to embrace her.... poor me..... hehe)...
...
...
Another memorable incident...
the bus was turning around the UWTC corner, towards Sundhara and it was around 8 in the night; late enough for the dance bars to start the business. An erotic signboard of similar "shower girl bar" caught eyes of JJ, and he pretended to be lured by the board and jumped off his seat as if to go for the "ride". Tamara was able to maintain composure and seemed calm and showed herself unaffected by JJ's act.
I added, "Ya JJ have fun at shower dance, Tamara will go n have fun with me.."
The laughing had not yet stopped when Ankur interrupted...-
"You wanna make some money?"
"Yae... haaaaww maaach???"
can't stop laughing

That line of Tamara, for me was the joke of the day; Ankur dumbed by the response he got, could not reply back..... laughs everywhere.

After a couple of minute.... all the guys parted, shaking hands and bidding farewell to the Hollanders, but not forgetting a promise - to meet on the facebook!!!

Anks, JD, JJ, Shanks, Suvs and Tams, Thank you all for such a memorable day!!!

3 comments:

Jwalanta Shrestha said...

if we were to label the whole day, what would tags be?

rafting, trishuli, bhadrakali, chic, jokes, laugh, kheer, chana, mountain, mount, 3, tamara, mrjj, katak dai, borat, rapids, khatet, biryani, marijuana, how much, ... naaaaat....

is that the only 10%?

Rajiv said...

haha... mey be 9.. or even 8.... jeez... oh so many things to tag on a single day!!!

Anonymous said...

Rajiv, really nice article yaar, everything (almost:)) so cooolllleeely yaar!!!