Trip te Rafting

This weekend I saw myself in the water for hours together. Had gone for white-water rafting to Byasi (25 kms from Rishikesh).

The experience was amazing! Me says, one who hasn't experienced this has not done anything in constructive in life.

We were 13 people, most of us din know each other, but the trip got us together and we ended up planning for other such adventure trips! And not to forget the sudden Punjabi we started talking in..everybody calling each other as 'paaji' :)

The journey started on Thursday night. We reached Byasi on Friday morning and everybody was just in awe of the scenic beauty..the water was looking just so amazing..one has to see that to know how amazingly nice it was! The fact that most of us dinno how to swim did not matter much :)

After keeping our luggage in our respective tents and having breakfast. Wearing our life-jackets and safety-helmets, got ready for the adventurous rafting. The initial hitch was taken care of when the instructor Garry poured water on us and pushed us inside the water. The feeling of just let go! and just enjoy whatever was happening was amazing! And whatever fear was left was taken away by the first rapid. Sure, at times there wud b a slight fear of falling into the water..but then following the instructor's commands "Paddle fast" "Stop" "Relax" "All left" etc. and making up my mind "that no matter wat..I am not losing my balance" tuk care of everything. And well, all the bruises we got were all worth the experience..actually they added to our enjoyement :)

Loads of masti followed during the rafting, being in the water was just so amazing. All the rapids had something or the other spl about them..apart from the names of course :) Finally our stretch ended up a lil short of Lakshman Jhula in Rishikesh. We helped with lifting the raft and taking it to uphill so that it cud b wrapped up. I was in the front and had to support the raft on my back. Without even knowing whr I was walking..I just followed the instructor "towards left" "straight" "towards right" "stop". Thereon, we changed and headed back to the camp. All of us were so damn tired and hungry. I cudn't imagine that I ate so much!! :-p After having our tummies filled we were all set to hit the beds, we slept so hard that none of us felt anything during our sleep it was as if all of us were dead for that time. But then, the evening saw us all pumped up with energy.

Our masti continued with the campfire..singing songs, cracking jokes, general chit-chatting, and oh yes..we did talk about the famous and inevitable topic 'ghosts' :)
I guess no one can ever prevent himself from talking on this line, esply with such amazing surroundings. The moonlight was so bright, we din have to use the lanterns that were provided to us by the camp authorities n neither did we use the flashlights that we wr carrying..except for in our tents and the loo. Well, talking of the loo..I must mention here that the loo's were really interesting. They were western-style dry-loo's ;-) and the only 'flush' u cud use to get rid of the droppings was the sand!!

The next morning saw us all playing volleyball/collecting pebbles n stones/clicking pics and rappelling. Though we had planned for another stretch of rafting but it was cancelled given the condition of both us n the water. The water on those stretches was really violent and we were as it is quite tired. After all those activities we had food and started our way back home. Well the trek that we had to take to climb uphill to reach our cabs took out whatever energy we had gained :) but that was all worth it!!

The journey back I think was more exciting..we just sang, sang n sang on our way back...frm ghazals to pop to slow to fast to item numbers to cheap songs we sang 'em all!!

Here goes a mail from Shaweta 'te' Anand, where she wrote something for all the 12 people.

1.bhoot bhoot around the bonfire- Omen. n this man wasn't rowing and the ladies on the raft had to lead the raft for a while! he sometimes didn't listen to garry promptly and i wanted to jump out of the raft before he got us all drowned! he looked very funny while eating ganna in the cab on the return journey. the black dirt of the ganna got planted on his right cheek n nothing toojk it off, even though he tried licking it off! yuck!! n he dirtied the whole cab n sang vulgar songs ....ok i am lying, not completely though!
2.joke 57 for monga singh the manmeet, the night where all dimwits like us had to surrender to monga's relax 'singh' charms. this man should be called the 'funny(serious) man of the millennium'.
3.coming down from the cliff while thinking about the next trip to leh and another pass sheetal would want me to remember. his ashtaang yoga info sure was very inspiring. along with some biking tips by the mountanous paths.
4.a red bucket with a hole reminds me of neeraj. his attempts to wet us all on the raft, including the raft. wonder whatever would hv happened to him had he done that on the beach!!!n he was a little uptight about getting everything done well. he did manage that! 3 cheers for him n shew! he surely ensured a laxman jhula on a ram jhula though! but what the hell! koi bhi jhula ho, khandaan toh ek hi hai na!
5.i wanna esp. thank 'the' lovely SAM for keeping me amused with insane inputs, colorful pebbles, 'cheepar songs' and initiating beautiful reiki experiences for me. of course gaurav and monga ji made it even better.
6.i wanna thank my dear dear sister pooja. she made this trip possible. she gv our parents no reason to to object to out FIRST trip out TOGETHER since one century! love u n thank u pooja!
7.the pretty ladies monika and swapna.apart from the pretty poses monika made for her photographs, she is one of the very few people who quit yoga because it made her thin! swapna n shew are the 'ladies pride' for jumping off the cliff n later cooling it off burried in the sand n exploring some caves (for shew)! thanks sam for bringing shew back...:) aisa ladki phir kahan se laenge???
8. gaurav n asit ...humm! the men looked cute all burried n nude!!! though asit later gave a good cabaret show by roaming around 'just like that' on the beach for all to see!!! of course he was wearing his 'humm' but should hv clicked him going pink when he took off his shirt for the first time!! pheww!i am glad THAT NO LADIES MISSED THAT EXCEPT PERHAPS MONIKA. chalo never mind!
9. the shew. i wanna thank her for being the woman that she is. right from college, she has been this lady 'with a punch' and has always had a dangerous sense for adventure. all i wanna say to her is thanks for everything.
10. yogi se uske favourite songs in the cab yaad aate hain. sorry to him coz the moment he began singing, we ended up highjacking his songs!
11.saade bandaana driver saab bade rash si. i will never forget how he took the ropes n climbed up n down the cliff without safety ropes till the guide panicked n ordered him to glue his ass to teh rocks below him! n garry ji main kya bless him for saving us on the raft hit by OMEN! hahaha!

If till now you haven't got bored of this..wait till i come back from another such exciting trip ;-)