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Rafting on the Bhote Koshi River is a terrific experience for first timers ! You get on a 36 km long water adventure exploring rich mountains en route to where traditional Tibetan life starts.

Day1. I could live my first experience as a rafter at last . I was waiting for this for a long time. It was 6.30 am and an impatient mixed crowd of Nepalis and foreigners gathered at the travel agency in Thamel. After the mandatory registration, we got on the charatered buses that would take us out of the Valley towards the northern Tibetan border .It was a sunny day and a harmonious blend of colours, smells and music outlined on our way, composed of picturesque scences with steep storied mountains, beautiful gorges and lively local villages. We raced through the ancient town of Dhulikhel and reached Banepa to behold an ancient Shiva temple. During clear weather, the locals told me, one could distinctly see the Himalayan "Great white Giants". The bus rolled ahead and we virtually disappeared into thick wooden hill wet with mucky water gushing down from the upper glateau. I learnt that the Bhote Koshi is also known as "the river from Tibet". The term "Bhote" refers to the nomads living in the Tibetan plateau.

Rafting became a commerial hobby for tourists and adventurers on the Colorado River in the USA in the 1950s. Though rafting is a popular adventure sport in almost all the continents, Nepal remains one of the best destinations for white-water rafting. The first white-water rafting expedition in the country has been attributed to Colonel John Blasford, a British Army officer, in 1976 . Amoung 4,000 rivers and streams that Nepal has, 10 sections of the rivers have been opened for commercial rafting by the Nepali government . The Bhote Koshi package (including accomodation, transportation guides and rafting equipment) will cost around NRs 4,700 for a two-days, one night stay. And trust me, the adventure is worth millions.

The journey gave me a rare chance to observe incredible landscapes and towering mountains from inside the bus on the roof of which few people sat with rafting gears and equipments. I wondered if they got dizzy as the bus raced up and down the undulating ways alongside the mighty cliffs. The buses appeared so old that I often gasped in fear at the prospect of it getting wrecked and us rolling down to our deaths. We were informed that a bus had crashed in the drop near the river a few days before. It had made headlines. I was silently mouring the loss when our bus came to a halt. We got out to look at the spot where the bus had hit the edge and virtually flown to hit the ground and crashed into pieces. We quietly set off again. Free from stress this time as we passed the cursed place.

After about three hours of driving (and, in passing, a little fright by the bus driver), we finally arrived at Khadi Chaur. It was now time for the typical Nepali dal-bhat lunch. After the short break, we ran towards the river too impatient to beign the adventure. We put on life-jackets and helmets, gathered other necessary gears and equipments, formed teams consisting six to eight persons and scurried to the gushing river. The river guides briefed us about safety tips and emergency measures as well as maneuver instructions. The first rafting day is usually considered the training day. On the second day, we waited for sunrise and the guides set us loose on the gushing river.

Our 15-km first-day trip came to an end at Sukute, where we loaded our boats onto the bus and drove back to our campsite, 16 kms from the Tibetan border.

Borderlands Resort, for me, is heaven on earth - a beautiful and quiet place nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, overhanging the mighty Bhote Koshi, The evening we spent at the riverside hotel allowed each of us to share the feelings we had experienced on the first day rafting and what was going to come handy the next day, since rafting is a team game in which each one has to show soliarity to steer the raft. Most foreign travelers I met happened to be either neophytes or experienced rafters form all around the world (South Africa, Australia, Israel, USA, South Korea , Canada , Sweden , etc). We scurried back to our safari tents at the end of theevening. We were excited about the next day!

Day2. The sound of the roaring river woke us up. We savored a cupious breakfast to accomplish the intensive adventure. We started up again from the Borderlands raft launch over 19 kms non-stop challenging rapids. Some ragters dreaded the difficulties we would encounter later on. Bhote Koshi is one o fhte most technical rivers in Nepal and is admired as one of hte best 10 rivers in the world for short trip rafting. The dexterity of our enthusiast guides steering the rafts throughout the edding steering the rafts throughout the edding steep rapids was impressinve! We sometimes got off the rafts and threw ourselves in to the safe hands of these professional while struggling through dodges. We cruised down thrilling drops, narrow canyons and crashing waves; bumped around boulders and got stuck at them at moments. The local inhabitants had formed crowds on footbridges to observe us padding down the gushing river.

With all this and more, the adventure came to an end. We took group photos and gathered our gears to make the journey back. I was feeling so relaxed. I had just spent a great exhilarating - too short! - week-end! The experience was so addictive! I just felet like doing some long-rafting trips. All the way while coming back to Thamel, the word of the travel agency guys keeping ringing in my head - "You'll never forget the trip!"