Last Stop, India

I had a couple of days in Kathmandu (a fair bit of time was spent in Tom & Jerry's) before flying out with Louise and Clarky (who were working in Voss this summer in Norway) to Delhi.

We had a hassle free adventure to Rishikesh. The car Ganesh had organised to collect us from the airport in Delhi was on time, the driver had very good English (didn't freak us out with scary driving which is a bonus), and best of all we had a massive, air conditioned car!

We got to Rishikesh pretty late at night, maybe 2am so we just crashed at Arvind's house on some spare mattresses on the floor before finding a hotel the next day. We were lucky to get a cheap room in a very clean, modern hotel with hot water, a balcony and even TV!

I had only 5 days in India so I spent 3 of them on the river kayaking with the Red Chilli gang. I also got to meet up with 2 other Danish kayakers who were working in Evje, Norway this summer as well as old friends such as Flow (from Austria) and the Kiwis from the bungee jump.

It was a pretty quick visit to India but I was happy I got to see all my friends and was also very excited about flying out to spend the winter season in Whistler, Canada.

Marvelous Marsyangdi!

Chris about to enter the first main rapid below the rafting put-in

Wow! The Marsyangdi was one of the most beautiful, breathtaking rivers I have ever been on. Apart from spectacular views of the Annapurna range, the Marsyangdi is easily one of most kayakers favourite rivers to paddle in the world because of the steep, technical rapids and continuous class IV whitewater.

Chris scouting 'Mammas Big Butt'. A rapid which was a lot easier than it looked when we scouted with a very intimidating hole at the bottom!

Chris entering 'Mammas Big Butt'

Making the move to avoid the sticky hole

Chris more than happy to get down 'Mammas Big Butt'

After a night in Besisahar (and recovering from the 'Magic Bus'), Daz (owner of Pure Land Expeditions), Chris and took a jeep with our kayaks up to the put-in (just a bit further up from the commercial rafting put-in). Our plan for the day was to paddle from here and down to the dam then get the local bus back to Besisahar so we could stay in the warm hotel again as some of the teahouses further down can be rather grim.

At first both Chris and I were a little apprehensive because we had been told the Marsyangdi was 'the river' to do in Nepal and that it was steep, technical, fast, pushy and that the water level was also at medium flow.

Because we had our river guru Daz with us we were able to take our time getting down the river and the stress very quickly went away. Daz spent a lot of time with both of us focusing on reading steep sections of river and choosing appropriate lines down the rapids without having to get out of our boats to scout. We had a few times where we did have to scout but the new approach to reading the river definitely helped me feel a lot more confident in not only where I was going but also in my ability with my skill level to run the river.

Chow Mein lunch stop with a lot of curious kids

Women cutting grass below the hut where we ate our lunch

One of our spectators at our lunch spot

It all wasn't so easy going all the time. There were a few occasions where I found myself having a small surf in a couple of holes and flipping upside down against undercut rocks but I was surprised at how friendly the holes on the river were and dealt with these problems as they arose.

At the end of the day Chris and I were so exhilarated at the fact we had finally experienced this much talked about river.

A very dodgy hat we found a Nepali boy wearing at the take-out of the first day

Daz unloading our kayaking after our first day on the river. Unfortunately 'Prince' wasn't available for this photo

We got the local bus back to Besisahar and found the bus boy had a close resemblance to Prince. We all decided to sit on the roof of the bus with our gear and sing through some of Prince's classics with a bit of George Michael thrown in there.

There was then a couple of hours to spare before dinner and due to being pretty much in the middle of nowhere we weren't quite sure how to entertain ourselves.

We decided to go for a walk in the village. Daz made friend's with a young boy and told him our names were 'Tony Blair' and 'Margaret Thatcher'. The young boy obviously had no idea what was going on and eventually lost interest in us.

Then came the idea from Daz about the Class 5 Street Eating Challenge. Pretty much we would walk along the street, find something dodgy and dare each other to eat it and then give the food a rating like you would in white water. We even made the challenge more complex in the way we could get each other to run it 'blind' with 'no portage' allowed.

We ate probably a kg in sugar in Nepali sweets before dinner then it was time for bed.

View of the Annapurnas on our drive to the put-in below the dam on day 2

The next day we put in below the dam and we had some exciting rapids to start the day off with. After about an hour the river calmed down a lot and we had some spectacular views of the Annapurna ranges.

At the end of the day we hiked out of the river straight to a local dhal bhat place where we had some of the best dhal I've had in Nepal before we parted ways (Daz & Chris heading onto Pokora and myself to Kathmandu).

Last day on the Marsyangdi with a beautiful view of the Annapurnas in the background

The Magic Bus

A one-sentence summary cannot describe the bus journey I had with Chris and Daz on a local bus to Besisahar. Most individuals would have been complaining from the beginning, possibly before they even set sight on the bus or knew what was inside. I guess for me the only way to sum this particular bus ride up with one word is ‘entertaining’.

The bus first pulled up to where Daz, Chris and I were drinking chai and exclusively collected us before going to pick up the locals. While Daz was securing our kayaks and paddles on the roof of the bus I made sure we all got the good seats inside. I chose the front rows with ‘extra’ leg room and was pretty proud of my selection, especially after sitting next to Chris on the tourist bus before we got out to transfer where Chris had a lady recline her seat back so quickly it almost chopped his legs off! As she moved her seat 5cm forward and said ‘is that better?’ Chris replied ‘…uh not really, I can’t feel my legs’.

Our luxury moment of the front row with extra leg room was short lived. After about 5 minutes the bus started to fill up…..and up….and up. When we thought it was full, it wasn’t. I’m sure if you could stack people in the overhead luggage racks that would have also been an option for the bus company.

There were many things crammed into the bus, I could even hear a goat bleating from somewhere in the back (goats and chickens were expected). People then began to squish in the front around the driver, and in front of Chris and I, substantially narrowing our leg room and room in the aisle besides Chris to the point if the window of the bus was open we probably would have been pushed out.

Chris made a funny comment about the man sitting facing me trying to play footsies with me. I looked down and realised he had no shoes on and his feet were on top of mine.

We could hear Daz’s voice saying something but even though he was in the seat just opposite us we couldn’t see him anymore.

An elderly lady got onto the bus and I was in shock that the lady behind us wouldn’t move over to let her sit there. Chris thought she looked like the old Gypsy women in Drag Me to Hell. She could barely stand up along and it took a while for people to eventually move the young lady out and let the old lady sit down on a sit along with another aged woman.

When we thought the bus was at it’s maximum load the bus boy tried to haul a giant black steel chest onto the bus that seemed to have bigger dimensions than the door way they were trying to haul it through. It seemed incredibly heavy and Chris, Daz and I tried to guess what was inside. Possible explanations were: a dead body, Sinfried and Roy/David Copperfield.

The black chest just allowed a few more people to be squeezed into the bus as now babies could use the top the chest to sit on.

It was around a 30km bus ride but it took well over 3 hours. Whenever the driver saw someone he knew he would stop and have a conversation.

After a few stops a man came on and was standing next to Chris. His body was against his shoulder and Chris leaned over and said to me “I think that guy is smuggling Mars Bars in his pocket’’ ‘

’Why?’’

‘’Because there’s something hard pressing up against my shoulder’’

After an hour he was gone and a lady with her baby took his place. Chris felt something warm and wet on his shoulder and our conclusion was the baby might have peed on his shoulder.

Every now and again we would hear Daz yelling out ‘hey are you guys okay?’. We couldn’t see his version of the Magical Bus ride but I’m sure it was something pretty epic like ours.

We stopped in one village and spent 20min there while someone went shopping for a tarp. I badly wanted to go to the toilet but the driver refused to let me get off. I guess he realised I would have to climb over him to get out and now it was raining and he didn’t want to get wet. I figured there might be some ‘other’ type of rain on the bus if he didn’t hurry up and go. The thought did pass through my mind about cutting up a bottle and use your imagination for the rest but I’m sure it would have been a disaster.

We had a few more passengers on the bus. When we got to the point where there was no more visible space one lady got on the driver’s seat and sat with him for the rest of the journey.

I was pretty happy when we got to Besisahar and so was Chris (because he got feeling back in his legs again and had no more Mars or Snickers Bars pressing against his shoulder). Daz just seemed happy he could actually see us again!

So that was the Magic Bus journey to Besisahar where we would spend the night and get onto the Marysandi River the following day.

We did have another (much shorter) bus ride the following day with a bus boy who we named Prince but that’s another story.

No this isn't our bus (we didn't have enough room to get our cameras out!)