I went rafting this weekend. I Bumped, flew out of my seat, hung onto handles for dear life, nearly fell out and barely escaped with my life. Whatever people tell you about White Water rafting let me give you my personal word that it cannot compare with Rocky Road Rafting.
So how does one go Rocky Road Rafting? Well first of all, you shouldn’t have a plan and definitely no tickets, plans and tickets are fatal to road rafting. What you need is a little bit of crazy and a burning desire to drop everything and run away (run anywhere…… but not Rajasthan, the roads are good in Rajasthan). Land up at ISBT, Delhi (that’s the inter state bus terminal for those of you who are jet-setters, and not bus-sitters out there) in the middle of the night, look for the rattiest public bus (the smellier the better) driven by the most enthusiastic looking driver (the smellier the better, though investigating this too closely is not recommended), into Uttar Pradesh (or Madhya Pradesh, the roads are terrible for driving ergo excellent for road rafting in these two states). Scramble on board elbowing out of your way the paan chewing dude, the 80 year old grandma, Bunty, Babli and their kids Chunnu and Munnu. Make for the back seat (you may sit in the middle or front if you have heart problems), secure your luggage, secure yourself and hang on for the ride of your life as your driver takes you 80 miles per hour over potholes 80 inches deep. If you did your research carefully and picked a craz- I mean experienced driver, you can be assured of the fact that not a single crack on the road will be missed (despite the fact that the busses headlights aren’t working) and if your driver is a real sport he’ll speed up as he approaches the really good pot holes.
If you reach your destination in one piece, thank god …………. profusely. Then proceed to take part in the nearest adventure sport available, Hang Gliding, River Rafting, Bungee Jumping, Mountain biking on narrow dirt roads or temple stampeding (the other less acknowledged but extremely popular Desi Adventure Sport (DAS)) trust me the experience, the thrills and the heart rate levels will fall way short of Rocky Road Rafting.
So how does one go Rocky Road Rafting? Well first of all, you shouldn’t have a plan and definitely no tickets, plans and tickets are fatal to road rafting. What you need is a little bit of crazy and a burning desire to drop everything and run away (run anywhere…… but not Rajasthan, the roads are good in Rajasthan). Land up at ISBT, Delhi (that’s the inter state bus terminal for those of you who are jet-setters, and not bus-sitters out there) in the middle of the night, look for the rattiest public bus (the smellier the better) driven by the most enthusiastic looking driver (the smellier the better, though investigating this too closely is not recommended), into Uttar Pradesh (or Madhya Pradesh, the roads are terrible for driving ergo excellent for road rafting in these two states). Scramble on board elbowing out of your way the paan chewing dude, the 80 year old grandma, Bunty, Babli and their kids Chunnu and Munnu. Make for the back seat (you may sit in the middle or front if you have heart problems), secure your luggage, secure yourself and hang on for the ride of your life as your driver takes you 80 miles per hour over potholes 80 inches deep. If you did your research carefully and picked a craz- I mean experienced driver, you can be assured of the fact that not a single crack on the road will be missed (despite the fact that the busses headlights aren’t working) and if your driver is a real sport he’ll speed up as he approaches the really good pot holes.
If you reach your destination in one piece, thank god …………. profusely. Then proceed to take part in the nearest adventure sport available, Hang Gliding, River Rafting, Bungee Jumping, Mountain biking on narrow dirt roads or temple stampeding (the other less acknowledged but extremely popular Desi Adventure Sport (DAS)) trust me the experience, the thrills and the heart rate levels will fall way short of Rocky Road Rafting.
11 comments:
:(
You know why I say that.
haha and here i was thinking you'd stolen my thunder and gone whitewater rafting as well! :D
viva la exaggeratione.
how was the rest though? (really)
actually I did go white water rafting. the old saying its the journey not the destination that counts became very apt in my case.
We had fun though, white water rafting, losing our hotel (we ran out with our parathas wrapped up in napkins, leaving room keys on the table, didn't know the name of the hotel, where it was yet we went rafting and enjoyed it :P)
wow that sounds like a very bumpy adventure of a journey indeed! so much so that it overshadows the actual rafting you did! =) why did you have to run off mid-food-with-food and lose your hotel though?
i like your blog very much by the way.
boishakhi
=D
we had booked our rafting thingy and then we found (after much searching for a cheap decent place) and checked into a hotel (to which we were taken on a bike by some helpful bloke, which is also why we didn't know the name or location of the hotel, it was deep inside some streets) and sure enough as soon as we managed to sit down (peacefully) and order food we got a call from the rafting guys, ordering us to come NOW, because the others were waiting (aditi in a fit of enthusiasm had told them to put us on the earliest possible raft despite the fact that our heads were swimming). So we poked our head into the kitchen, got them to hurry up the breakfast, picked it up and RAN.
oooh i see! very breathtaking i must say. =P
boishakhi
=D
lmao!!
I could actually imagine you bumping around in that bus!
You could always come home if you want a repeat experience. Almost same to same it is - the road to my place, with some buffaloes on side as extra fittings to enhance the experience. :D
great description ramu. but you left out the dear dear flies.!! and the drivers endeavor to take numerous short cut that could have cut our lives short ;)
The auto drivers there were no less!!!
I can't believe, am still alive after all that!!
mosquitoes! they were mosquitoes! biting our feet, and the short cuts were so that we didn't miss the good pot holes!
errr..your knowledge of MP seems outdated..the roads are good now...anyway that is just an incidental fact...i can't believe i got left out of this trip!!
Just went to Pachmarhi and the roads were not exactly good, so..... but yeah they were better than before ( I will never forget our road to Mandu).
Really Missed you on the trip. We have to do it again, with you! Have too
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