Crazy for Coorg! (Part 3, aka Sacred River Rafting)

The last day in Coorg began with some white water rafting!

(Disclaimer: I clearly could not bring a camera on a rafting trip, so instead used well chosen photos from the internet to illustrate my point :-) )

We drove about an hour to get to the site, and suited up in style before heading out. We were told it wouldn't be a very intense rafting experience, really meant for beginners, but I was a beginner so I didn't mind. I also found out later that the river we were on was in fact the Kaveri - the same sacred river whose birthplace we had visited the day before in Talakaveri. I felt a bit strange about rafting on a sacred river, but who I am to judge.

Before heading out I decided to change into the pajamas I had worn the night before in case we got wet, since I only had one decent set of clothing left after the waterfall incident. There were 6 of us, and a guide who was African but grew up in India. We started out by learning the basic commands (forward, back, get down!) and then headed on our way.

Our guide was entertaining, with a strange sense of humor where you couldn't tell if he was joking or not. That coupled with an extremely mischievous smile made for an interesting trip. He kept joking about all of us "going for a swim" in the river, which created some pretty alarmed looks from my Indian friends who couldn't swim. Our guide didn't seem above just throwing us into the water one by one, but we managed to hold him off. He ended up jumping off the raft himself and going for a swim while we were in the calm parts of the river.

There were four rapids that we went through while rowing down the river, and it was so much fun! Water splashed over the sides as we made our way through the rush of current and I was sooo glad I had changed my clothes.

Even more enjoyable than the rapids were the calm portions in between, where we would slowly float through the green river, dark and silent, under trees that seemed to respectfully bow at us from the riverbanks. We made a detour through a small channel, and I looked up at bamboo trees which bent from both sides of the bank and met in the middle, hugging in the center as the sun forged through the cracks and celebrated their union. Water striders skimmed the surface of the river as they kept pace with our raft, and the insects of the trees calmly called to us from the greenery. No one spoke. I imagined what it would be like to live in a small cottage on the banks.

We made our way out of the channel back to the main river, and prepared for the last rapid. It was bigger than the rest and thrilling to go through, and after we went through, our guide managed to manuever our raft back toward the rapid behind a large rock. The boulder acted as a type of catapult for the water, and we all were soaked from head to toe in the makeshift waterfall. We changed positions within the raft and I made my way to the front and let the water rush over me. I had been worried about swimming in the river since it did have a greenish hue, but since it was sacred I stopped being paranoid and hoped the gods would protect me from flesh eating bacteria.

After changing into my last set of dry clothes, we headed out to our last stop - a Tibetan monastery located in Bylekuppe, the second largest Tibetan settlement outside of Tibet. The monastery is home to 7,000 monks.

The inside was even more impressive, housing three large gold plated Buddhas about 60 ft tall.

I sat cross-legged on the cool marble floor, and let my eyes focus on the myriad of colors on the beautiful wall, calm and content with the satisfaction of an unforgettable trip.