I had a much-needed Thai massage in the mall today (30 minutes for 100 baht or aboout $2.80) because yesterday wreaked havoc on my shoulders! I wish I had pictures to share with you of my kayaking adventure but we left all of our cameras in the car so that they wouldn't get wet.
The day started out normal. We had breakfast in the hotel (I ate a fresh salad because they are hard to come by- all of the veggies are usually fried here) and were on our way in the caravan of people to the river.
We were one of the first cars to arrive and we had the choice to go on a river raft or kayak. Tee and I chose to kayak with the guides and everyone else filled up the rafts. While waiting for more people to arrive, we practiced in the water. He had never been in a kayak at all and I have only been in one once in Lake Tahoe, which was much calmer than the Class III-V rapids we were about to face.
Soon enough, we found out that there were not enough guides so go down with us in two-person kayaks so Tee and I would have to go together with me in the back to control. I was a bit unsure of that but once I saw how bad everyone else was, I felt a little bit more confident because Tee and I made a good team.
The group started out down the river and after the second rapid, we had to wait for the others who were already falling off of their boats. When four more boats came succesfully, we were told to go on ahead so we did.
We hit a pretty decent sized rapid and fell off. We got back on succesfully, however, and hit the next one. The next stretch was fairly calm so we decided to wait. We saw some empty boats coming down the river so we scooted to the side in order to relax.
After three boats and six oars passed us with no people in them, we started to wonder what was up. I remembered seeing quite a few people on the embankment taking pictures of us at one point so we began to think that that was where we were supposed to stop.
So we went slowly down the river and rested periodically by the side to see if the people who had gone on the rafts were down there. But we turned back around when no one was in sight and the brush began to thicken and the river began to thin. We went upstream hoping that by then someone would be coming- maybe one of the guides to come find us? But no one showed.
By this time we were back at the last rapid we came down and there was no way we were going to be able to paddle up it, so we turned around again and found a place down the river. I already had blisters on my hands and the both of us had cuts from the branches that were attacking us from all sides, so we found a spot to climb out and headed to what we hoped would be the road.
Well, it wasn't. It was a huge cornfield with rocky soil that we had to carefully pick our way through (since we didn't have any shoes on) to get to the road. Someone happened to be passing by in his tractor so he gave us a ride back to where we needed to go.
By the time we got there, everyone had already left, including most of the guides! They just figured that we would be ok I guess and when Tee told them the story they were just like "Oh". And apparently, if we would have continued we could have gotten very hurt because the rapids down the way were extremely big and dangerous. I don't think that the helmets we wore would have kept us from breaking any bones. :-o
The day started out normal. We had breakfast in the hotel (I ate a fresh salad because they are hard to come by- all of the veggies are usually fried here) and were on our way in the caravan of people to the river.
We were one of the first cars to arrive and we had the choice to go on a river raft or kayak. Tee and I chose to kayak with the guides and everyone else filled up the rafts. While waiting for more people to arrive, we practiced in the water. He had never been in a kayak at all and I have only been in one once in Lake Tahoe, which was much calmer than the Class III-V rapids we were about to face.
Soon enough, we found out that there were not enough guides so go down with us in two-person kayaks so Tee and I would have to go together with me in the back to control. I was a bit unsure of that but once I saw how bad everyone else was, I felt a little bit more confident because Tee and I made a good team.
The group started out down the river and after the second rapid, we had to wait for the others who were already falling off of their boats. When four more boats came succesfully, we were told to go on ahead so we did.
We hit a pretty decent sized rapid and fell off. We got back on succesfully, however, and hit the next one. The next stretch was fairly calm so we decided to wait. We saw some empty boats coming down the river so we scooted to the side in order to relax.
After three boats and six oars passed us with no people in them, we started to wonder what was up. I remembered seeing quite a few people on the embankment taking pictures of us at one point so we began to think that that was where we were supposed to stop.
So we went slowly down the river and rested periodically by the side to see if the people who had gone on the rafts were down there. But we turned back around when no one was in sight and the brush began to thicken and the river began to thin. We went upstream hoping that by then someone would be coming- maybe one of the guides to come find us? But no one showed.
By this time we were back at the last rapid we came down and there was no way we were going to be able to paddle up it, so we turned around again and found a place down the river. I already had blisters on my hands and the both of us had cuts from the branches that were attacking us from all sides, so we found a spot to climb out and headed to what we hoped would be the road.
Well, it wasn't. It was a huge cornfield with rocky soil that we had to carefully pick our way through (since we didn't have any shoes on) to get to the road. Someone happened to be passing by in his tractor so he gave us a ride back to where we needed to go.
By the time we got there, everyone had already left, including most of the guides! They just figured that we would be ok I guess and when Tee told them the story they were just like "Oh". And apparently, if we would have continued we could have gotten very hurt because the rapids down the way were extremely big and dangerous. I don't think that the helmets we wore would have kept us from breaking any bones. :-o
posted by Rebecca | 3:26 PM
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