wow, I'm achin like shit. Just got back from a 2 day rafting trip on the Bote Koshi, Nepals most hardcore river. It was awesome. The rapids were.... rapid. And big and wet and everything else you'd expect from white water rapids. Me and Selene were the front paddlers today after our two english chaps, James and Charlie, proved useless yesterday, either failing to respond to commands or responding by doing the opposite... (hehe, sorry guys, but you sucked!). So we got the front seats, which I have to say is way better. You get the full brunt of the water as you crash headfirst into it. We had quite a few occasions where our raft got stuck and nearly flipped us out in some severely huge rapids, but somehow it always worked out. It could have had something to do with our guide, who was steering the raft at the back. Krisna, which is his name, is the biggest guy I have seen in a long time. He is just a huge wall of muscles, some of which I think belong to an as yet undiscovered muscle group which he has cultivated himself from scratch. Despite looking like a Terminator, he is a very nice guy, and I'm sure he saved our lives a few times. I'm not so sure, however, about the time he told us "Forward! Forward! faster!" before aiming out raft directly at a huge rock with water rushing round it and falling about 2 metres into a kind of spin cycle washing machine type whirlpool. We hit the rock at full speed and our raft literally bent double, almost spilling us all into the middle of the spin cycle. he thought it was all terribly funny, and I'm sure he did it deliberately....

Anyway, we survived. Now we're back in Katmandu (yes, I'm still refusing to spell it correctly), and it's absoultely packed! It's the most packed we've seen it, which is wierd, as it's gradually ben getting more and more empty since we arrived in Nepal. The reason for all these people is that it's the 50th anniversary of the first Everest Summit expedition (at least the first successful one!), so loads of wannabe mountaineers, and a few real ones, are all coming here to celebrate. Having climbed the peak twice (see earlier entry) we are presiding over the ceremonies as guests of honour....

ok, I'm starved, gotta go and eat some rice and lentils.... or maybe a big juicy steak and a cold carlsberg.... ahh, the joys of being a tourist! :)
posted by Billy at 3:07 PM