There is no prouder moment than watching the love of your life completely step out of their comfort zone. I realised this yesterday when I saw M jump out of the raft and immerse himself into the water even though he is extremely scared of water. As if the Seeing him be so brave and stand up against his fear has given me a newfound inspiration.
Yesterday M, a group of his high school friends, and I all went on a water rafting trip. We met early in the morning and traveled two and a half hours by bus to get to the river just one hour away from the boarder of Tibet. On the way I even saw a glimpse of the mountains poking out from the top of the hills. I cannot believe it has been a month I have been in the home of the most spectacular mountains and I have only just seen some. Alas, as soon as the mountain had shown itself the bus continued on the winding roads for the view to tuck behind the hills again.
Travelling above the clouds
When we arrived at the resort we were given a quick breakfast before driving up the hill with the rafts. The instructor dished out the life jackets, helmets, and paddles and started the well-rehearsed safety spiel to the two busloads of people. The more he talked, the more I felt less safe. The more he talked, the more I realised that water rafting indeed was not safe. The instructor kept dropping sentences such as today the weather has made the river a danger level 3 out of 5, normally 1 is the best for beginners and when your raft overturns…
After, we rowed backwards into the middle of the water to turn the raft around. To my horror this is when I saw the rocks sticking out of the water and the water was swirling in its own little pools creating currents around them. Before I had got into the swing of rowing the raft dropped down into the white water and mounted a rock on the side I was sat. I let out a squeal and gave a panicked glance to M as I was suspended in the air on the cliff. But with a large tug from the water the raft dropped back down following the current and continued down the river.
Bhote Koshi River where we went rafting – google images
After we had made it through the drop our team looked around for the other rafts who had survived it with us. However, to our shock one of the rafts had capsized completely and a sea of people who had been on board were being carried by the aggressive waves into the calm. Our instructor was quick to throw out the rope and save three of the people whilst some of the other raft guides assisted in the savour. Our team just sat motionless in the boat watching the miscellany of odd flip flops and paddles being carried by the water. Throughout the whole escapade I was praying that our raft would remain upright and that we would be safe on the water.
The next three of hours continued in this sort of rhythm but fortunately as we progressed further down the river there started to be more still water areas. It was in one of these areas that we had the option to get out of the raft and swim in the water. To my amazement M was keen to try to get out of the raft and swim in the water so I held his hand and slid off the raft with him. He could not kick his legs to stay afloat so clung on to the side of the raft instead. I was just so happy and proud of him for that one small self-motivated achievement and that made the whole trip so memorable for me. I had such a fun day amidst all the fright and I could not be proud of M anymore.
