It turns out that a
bunch of river guides who work for [ ??? Damn, forgot the name of the company -- Whitewater Adventures or something like that] come over here for "vacation." They bring used equipment such as paddles, life vests and helmets over here and donate it to a local company that they've befriended. Also, they've shipped used boats over here. Ok, boats that wouldn't pass inspection in the states, but boats none the less.
The leader,
Ian, was the first person ever to raft the Upper Pai River about 5 years ago. Once again on this trip I was blessed to be able to spend a couple of days with a really great group of people. There were also a few other regular "lucky" tourists like me. Some of these folks were guides in their spare time. They had regular jobs but would go lead raft trips on the weekends in California. Or were self employed and could take days off for multi-day trips when needed. The idea of doing this never occurred to me. Hmmmmm... Extremely inspiring....
For the first day I got to be in a boat with just two other people [damn, I've waited too long and names have slipped my mind again]. A father and son and a bunch of stuff -- it was an over night trip. I got to do some steering through small, simple rapids. I think that now I am entirely addicted. It's a lot more mental rather than physical. I was really surprised. Now I know how these tiny women can guide boats through rapids (and sometimes do better than men as they are relying on brains over strength). Definitely a problem solving activity over a very nebulous and indefinite domain.
Unlike the river trip in India, I couldn't take as many photos through the rapids as these were a bit more intense and tricky and I actually had to paddle. Until it joined up with another river on the second day, the river wasn't as high as it could be.
But this made for some really tricky runs (check out the video!). This raft (on the right -- no names) went for broke over the waterfall and got stuck on the top. For a long time.
This was just one of those moments. The all-gal's boat was stuck on top of the water fall (hey, still no names). Our raft was hemorrhaging air (left) and we keep hearing this noise. Like a frog, but definitely not.
There was something alive in the raft with us. I picked up the cardboard box in the front of the boat to look underneath and a chicken stuck it's head out of the bottom. Needless to say we didn't pack our own boat. At that point we had a pretty darned good idea what was for
dinner and that it would be fresh...
They brought a kayak along. Not exactly a river kayak, but what ever it was, it was
really addicting, even more so than boat guiding. Someone else using it earlier lost the paddle in a rapid, so all that was available was a regular boat paddle, which made things really interesting. For this photo, it was suggested that it would make a better picture if I tried running this small rapid backwards.
For the most part, the kayaking went ok. I only got hung up on a log once, at the top of a long rapid and had to do rest of it on my back, while trying to keep my sandals on. Those tevas are a great idea. Mine are in the storage locker...
Don't try this at home. -or-
Now, that's entertainment. At a rest stop we stumbled upon a wrecked bamboo raft, the kind used on the mellow river (no rapids) on that hike. Just a bunch of bamboo poles, tied together. The guides rebuilt it (with one of the locals using a knife to make bamboo straps on the spot) and down the river they went. They did well for a few rapids before the thing disintegrated beneath them.
At camp. There was a birthday and a very creative cake done w/ candles and Oreo cookies. Ian (the guide) was a great guy but attempted to poison me with whiskey. After I'd already made the same attempt. Went to sleep at 4:30 and was up at 6:30am. After my experience w/ the "trek" I made 3 different people
promise that there would be something approaching real sleeping bags, and still I ended up with one of those damn thin blankets again. Good thing for the whiskey I guess. And the fires.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 : Day 61
Mae Hong Son
next:
BP3.3 Thailand - Phuket
