Ladakh Chronicles, part 9 – Rafting in Indus

April 5th, 2009

A new experience in the rapid waters

16th July
Anne and MosheAs decided earlier, we got ready for our last adventure in the land of mountains. We were going to finally experience the Indus river, which had so gracefully welcomed us to Leh. The rafting guys came on time to pick us up, and we moved to pick-up the other co-passengers. Our would-be rafting partners were, let’s say a rather international couple. A German girl ‘Anne’ and an Israeli guy ‘Moshe’. Anne was a nurse by profession while Moshe was an engineer. They were visiting India for their honeymoon and had a quite an adventurous trip planned. Rafting was the first activity on their itinerary while it was our last on this trip.

As we reached our destination, i.e. starting point for our rafting trip, it turned out that there was a mix-up of plans for them. Apparently, they had signed up for rafting on Zanskar stream which is bit more higher and for intermediate level rafting. Zanskar is rated as 4+ grade rapids, while the one we were doing was 2+ to 3 grade rapids (starter level). So after clearing up the issue with the rafting organizers they had to shift their plan, on the later hour of the day, while we were put on with bunch of Hyderabadi guys. I was thinking, this is going to be a drag… “why do I never get a group of girls on my trip? All guys, I mean, come on”. But eventually, we all got acquainted to each other well and this bunch turned out to be quite an entertaining and a sporting group. They introduced themselves as Bharat, Tanmoy, Ravi, Karthick.

As our raft got ready, our captain gave us detailed instructions about rafting, commands and basics of teamwork involved in rafting. After brief demonstration of basic paddling, the captain instructed us to put our camera in a plastic jar, as a safety measure from water. When we won’t be cruising on rapids, we would get to remove our cams from the jar and take snaps. Unfortunately, the jar wasn’t big enough to accommodate my DSLR, I had to leave it with driver so he could get it at the finishing point. So we decided to take the video along, and share the pictures from the Hyderabad Four.

Rafting groupMe and Maggi, rafting adrenaline rushRafting was a lot of fun and although this was our first time, as we got comfortable with 2nd grade rapids we started feeling the thirst for more. Some distance after our first rapid, we met a fellow with a kayak who had broken his peddle in one nasty rapid. While we hitched him on our raft, couple more groups of rafters had arrived at the scene. One of which was quite full of firangi chicks. Sigh…. Anyway, soon the hi-hello with other rafters finished and began the race. Which, we stayed ahead of with rather ease. As we coupled more rapids, our captain burst our bubble of victory, as we were commanded to fall back and let other groups pass. What a shame. Then the captain informed us that now it’s going to be a smooth cruise for some while, so we can take photographs. Frankly, I wished if we could have kept our camera up all the time, had it not been for splashing water in rapids. The view was simply marvelous. However, Maggi did a good job in capturing the video, after all she was sitting in the middle and had to do nothing!!! Cruising in the Indus River with mountains on both of our sides was an overwhelming experience. It was way more different than driving along the river bank, watching mountains go past on both sides. Being there in the stream, the sound of water around you, made hell of a difference. After another small rapid, it was then all smooth ride to the finish point. As we reached a slightly shallower part of river; slightly before the point where the Indus river meets the Zanskar river and forms a confluence. It was very evident from the water and the Zanskar was muddier and was colder. The captain said that we could get in the water if we wanted to and swim along the raft holding the life-line ofcourse. Despite the fact that we were wearing life-jackets, I was not allowed to get in the water for two things (Thank you, Maggi)… One, I’m a smoker and two, I was holding in cash in my pocket (again, thanks Maggi). Anyway, three of the Hyderabad Four experienced the chilled water.

Rafting in Indus riverOther raftersKayak rider in Zanskar streamEnd point of raftingRafting group, from left - Tanmoy, Ravi, Bharat, Me, Maggi, Jaimin and Karthik

As we reached our finishing point and got out of the raft, we started feeling the chill in the air despite the sunny afternoon. After changing into dry clothes, hunger started building in our tummies. Our organizers had made arrangements for our lunch, so we drove to the rendezvous point. We then had proper introductions with Hyderabad Four and chatted a while after lunch. Bharat, Ravi & Kartick a.k.a. Anna were into the I.T. field, and the naughtiest of the lot Tanmoy a.k.a. Devil Boy was studying. Rafting was their first activity on the trip and this was second of trip to Ladakh for a couple of them. (Lucky ones)

Indus-Zanskar confluenceMagentic hillAfter a bit of rest, I wanted to take a video of everybody’s experience of the rafting which very well I went ahead and took but damn it never came through coz I forgot to push the record button on the camera. Yeah… Duh!!! We were all on drive back to Leh. We passed a couple of interesting points on our way, most notably, the aerial view of Indus-Zanskar confluence and Magnetic hill road. Specially, the Indus-Zanskar confluence which we had just passed few hours earlier in our raft, watching it from third point gave us a different scale of things. Magnetic Hill is a place where supposedly the gravity and some magnetic phenomena in mountains causes parked vehicle to move on its own. Although we didn’t try it ourselves, that’s just what we read on the board and what our driver told us.

Back at the hotel, we were all ready to hit Leh market for some shopping after a nice hot shower… well at least Maggi and Jaimin were ready for shopping. I, on the other hand given my shopping list to Maggi and left it on her get the goodies, while I planned going shutterbugging around.

17th July
Our last day in Leh. While we spent first half day mostly relaxing and packing our stuff, we decided not to take an afternoon nap as we needed to get up early next morning for our flight. So after lunch, we decided to go around Leh town once again and shop for few things which we might have missed. Most specifically to go to the interior parts of market which we didn’t go on any other day. Long story short, the plan was to window-shop in the new areas and let our shopping instinct guide us and be an impulsive buyer if the urge arise.

Half-way around the market, my shoe got busted and the sole just popped out for no reason. Luckily, we spotted a shoe-maker right around the corner and while he was repairing my shoe, we walked into an ice-cream corner across the road. Must be our lucky day, as quite a few beautiful (and I mean REALLY BEAUTIFUL) Ladakhi girls visited the shop. For such moments, I wouldn’t have minded if my shoe kept busting. After roaming around, we had shopped quite a few scarves / stoles, some crockery items and jackets for dirt cheap rates.

We decided to have our last dinner at our guest house, as we wanted to bid proper adieu to everyone there and take photos with them. It was really a pleasant stay there, as it had become almost our second home. Just like one get a certain anxiety while returning home, we would feel the same anxiety while coming back from our trips to our guest house. Thanks to the helpful and hospitable nature of the people there, it had been a joyful stay indeed.

It was a very strange feeling, as we went to the bed. We were already thinking, “why the hell we are going back?” and I knew we are going to feel this all the way back to Mumbai.

Related videos from Maggi’s youtube channel:

Next : Ladakh Chronicles, part 10 – Epilogue

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