Waking up to a view of the Himalayas then having breakfast in the garden courtyard of my guest house while warmed by the early sun, my sentiments from yesterday were reinforced. This is a wonderful place. That said, unlike yesterday I didn’t chill around town today. Instead I headed out for an introduction to rafting on the Zanskar River.
The rafting was fun, and it was beautiful to float down a mountain gorge for 3 hours. However, past the first few sets of rapids (max Level III) I was ready for the intensity to be dialed up. Unfortunately water levels were too low. Even had they been higher I’m not sure we could have dealt with more intensity anyway—too many Indians in the boat!
I love Indians around water. For a culture that holds it so sacred and flocks to the Ganges River to bathe, they are remarkably inept around it. It’s sort of like watching someone who loves the idea of cooking enthusiastically peel a potato with a butter knife: you love the energy of their effort, but cringe at the execution. The parallel imagery for rafting today was watching 5 people around me try to paddle without moving their top arm: the top hand stays glued to the shoulder so that the paddle blade only submerges about a quarter of the way, uselessly bouncing off the water like the knife off the potato’s skin. To add to the comic effect, when the boat got even a small splash from the rapids—barely enough to make my shirt damp—the whole crew erupted in nervous laughter. All told, there was no way we were going to manage any rapids more intense than Level III, and I’m amazed we even managed the set we did…it was probably too short to pose any real danger. All that said, the images of my boat mates I’ll take home are wonderful.
Before ending this post, I want to make sure that no one takes any offence to what I’m saying here. I call Indians inept around water in the most endearing way possible. All cultures have their quirks…for Canadians it’s probably being overly polite to the point some people think they are being insincere. The Indian people I’ve met, including those from Bombay on the raft today, are some of the most hospitable and warm people I’ve ever met, and I just get a warm laugh from watching them around water. I’ll never understand the thought process, but love it anyway, that would have someone show up to raft in sneakers and jeans,complet with a Blackberry clipped to the belt.
