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Seven Lessons From A Gentle River Rafting Adventure
Life can be unpredictable, but a simple philosophy is all you need
Can you identify whether a river is masculine or feminine? Did you even know that there were female and male rivers? I didn’t. Not until I experienced river rafting in Bhutan.
On a week-long trip to this tiny country nestled in the ranges of the Himalayas, we headed to the town of Punakha, famous for the Punakha Dzong (fortress). But before visiting the fortress, we stopped at the rafting point on the gently flowing Mo Chhu river, which meets the more turbulent Pho Chhu somewhere downstream of the fortress.
A handful of rafts, in various stages of inflation, sat at the edge of a parking lot. Gentle waves lapped at the edges of the fully inflated ones which waited for the next group to get ready. I walked up to a narrow metal bridge festooned with colorful prayer flags and walked over to the other side of the river as I waited for our turn. Like elsewhere in Bhutan, it was calm, peaceful and soothing.
There’s always a first time
While I have been brave enough to get up on a hot air balloon in Turkey, tried my hand at parasailing in Australia and have also done skydiving in New Zealand, for some reason, I had never tried river…
