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Stefanie's Travel Journal
Today five of us from our tour (Vickie, Cal, Sarah, Michelle, and I) went white water rafting on the Trisuli River.
We started off around 8 am and immediately got stuck in Dasain traffic. Dasain is a complex festival celebrating the story of some goddesses that would take me too long to explain. The festival lasts 15 days with the last 5 days being the big celebrations. Kind of like Thanksgiving for us, families like to get together and have a big meal and celebration. That big meal day is tomorrow so today was like the day before Thanksgiving when you really don't want to travel. The roads heading out of Kathmandu were packed with buses piled high with passengers, luggage, and goats. And when I say piled high, I mean it. There were people and luggage and animals on the roofs of every bus and minivan we saw. And some cars (little sedans) had as many as 10 people packed in them.
We were about 2.5 hours late for rafting but everyone was so our guide had waited. On the river he talked to us about the festival and said that since the Maoists have been fighting the government for the last 11 years its been difficult for people to travel safely. So this year there is a peace in place while elections are being planned so everyone is trying to go home to their villages and see their families this year.
The festival will continue for the next five days with celebrations at home (including just about every household sacrificing a goat and then having a big meal together), vllages have homemade, huge swings, and on Sunday night at midnight there will be 8 buffalo and 108 goats slaughtered in Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
So eventually we got on the water. It was not the best rafting I've done (I've had better trips on the American, especially when Scott Cleland owned the rafting company, and in Colorado for my cousin Robyn's wedding - its beautiful there in the western part of CO!) but it was nice to get out and do something different. The river we went on was not highly recommended for the best rafting in Nepal but since we only had one day it was the closest and our guide, Gelu, knew the rafting guide so we knew it was safe. The river was quite dirty (sanitation is a real issue here and will be the thing I'm happiest to leave behind) but the scenery was great and our group had lots of fun together.
We got back late and went out for one last dinner together. We went to a fun restaurant called Run Doodle where trekking groups can sign a big footprint and hang it on the wall and those who summit Everest are celebrated in a special cabinet. We filled out a footprint for our group so if you are ever in Kathmandu you can look me and my group up!
Right now it is pouring down rain. We just made it back from dinner to our hotel. Amazing how quickly it came in.
Well I better go pack up. I leave for Delhi tomorrow. I'll write my first impressions tomorrow night as well as some last thoughts on Nepal. Good night!
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