Emily's email re: our Rafting Trip

FINALLY PICTURES (well some of them):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/

Here is Emily's email she sent out to everyone about our rafting trip. She went into way more detail then me so I thought I would insert it for ya'll!!
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Hi All!
I hope everyone is doing well and having lots of laughs whatever you are doing. Amanda and I got back from India last week, so I guess that means that it is now time for me to send the report on fabulous River India trip!

To bring you all up to date: our friend, Roland (from Pakistan, Acadia, and UBC days), started his own company organizing river rafting trips down some rarely-rafted rivers in Northeastern India. The company is “River India” (http://www.riverindia.com/), and I recommend that you all go check it out! Amanda and I joined Roland for the inaugural public trip of his company, rafting down the Siang River in the corner of NE India near the Tibetan border. In total, there were 7 rafters (including Amanda and me) and 6 guides (including Roland).

We spent two days in Dehli, and that is one hustling-bustling city! I had been to Dehli back in 1992 and 1994 with my parents, but Dehli as an adult on your own budget is a very different experience! We stayed at a quaint little guest house off a main drag (or at least it seemed like a main road considering it was 3 lanes turned into 5 plus rickshaws and tuk-tuks). Amanda and I tried to spend our first afternoon exploring bazaars and walking seemingly familiar streets, but stepping out in Dehli was completely exhausting for our overnight-traveling bodies, so we opted to sit in the courtyard of our guesthouse and read books. J Day two in Dehli proved to be more successful, and this time we were prepared for the constant rush and noise of the fighting traffic, as well as the mobs of people, cars, and cows. We spent the day sightseeing Hindu temples, a world peace temple (Aksharamdam), and a Ba’ahi temple. (Katy, I was thinking of your grandmother!)

So, Dehli aside, let’s get to the heart of the trip: We met our group of rafters at the Dehli airport, and after introductions and a search for coffee, it was apparent that this was going to be a great mesh of people to spend 10 days with. To give you an idea of how remote our rafting trip was, we had to take a 5 hour flight from Dehli to Dibrugarh (Assam), overnight in Assam, take an 8 hour ferry up river to Pasighat (Aranachal Pradesh) (where we met up with the river guides and our rafting gear), overnight in Pasighat, and then drive 8 hours through winding roads to Pingkong (Aranachal Pradesh), where we set up our first camp and eventually launched the boats on the Siang river the following morning. Basically, if I had travelled directly from Vancouver-Siang River, it would have taken 6 ½ days to “put-in” (extremely technical rafting term for the first launch of the rafts).

If I were to just tell you what we did on the rafting trip, then it would be a pretty regular schedule for 6 nights/7 days of rafting and camping. So, here it is: 6:30am wake up call to coffee, chai, and breakfast, take town tents and pack dry bag, launch boats off beach by 10am. Paddle, paddle, snack, paddle, hit a rapid (Class 2), paddle, find gorgeous beach to dock for lunch and fill bellies. Then, paddle, paddle, rapid (Class 3), paddle, bigger rapid (Class 3-4, paddle, find even more spectacular beach to set up camp for the night. Unload rafts, set up tent, collect firewood, start Happy Hour, build fire while guides cook up a delicious dinner, sit by fire with some rum and attempt to discover the secret of life from the guides and rafters. Asleep by 8:30pm. Repeat as desired.

While the rafting was great and exciting, what made the trip so memorable and amazing was the group of 13 people we were with for the 10 days. We were a journalist, a travel writer, a probation officer, a novelist, a windmill technician, a chemical engineer, a vintage BMW collector, an entrepreneur, a yoga instructor, a corporate developer, an educational technologist, and a post-MSc trying to find herself. As you can imagine, conversations were never dull, and everyone was genuinely interested in each other. Everyone had a story to tell, some great insight or quote to offer about living your life, a good laugh to share at the end of the day, and a great attitude about the constant presence of sand and lack of showers. Unfortunately, I can’t recap all the inspirational and enlightening moments we had in just an email, but believe me when I say that it was a wonderful group to be surrounded by!

So after 6 nights of camping and living out of a shared 40 litre dry bag (affectionally known as “Mom” because Amanda and I were teased that we were hiding another family member in there), we ended the inaugural River India Siang River trip back at the base camp at Pasighat. The next morning, after hugs and email address exchanging, we hopped back on the ferry to Dibrugarh, and then flew to Dehli and went back to our respective corners of the world. However, goodbyes did not come without talk of a reunion trip, possible meet-ups here and there, and promises to keep in touch.

And there you have it—a little belated, but the River India recap! Oh yes, and check out the pictures: http://emcoolidge.shutterfly.com/. Stay tuned for the next instalment of Emily’s Adventures, when I go to the island paradise of Zanzibar by myself for a week!