Weddings and Whitewater: Nepal Whitewater: The Bhote Kosi River

By Tom

Kathmandu, Nepal

Just south of the Tibetan border, Nepal's Bhote Kosi (pronounced "boat-ee ko-see") is a steep, narrow and committing Class IV and V- river. Due to late season monsoons this year, the river was not deemed safe for commercial rafting expeditions until the first week in November. Luckily Julia and I were able to fit in a quick two-day trip during our final moments here in Nepal. Day one on the lower Bhote Kosi was mostly class III rapids and I was allowed to kayak along with the rafting trip while Julia paddled in a raft. Day two on the upper Bhote Kosi is nearly continuous class IV whitewater dropping over 80 feet per mile. (For comparison, the upper Hudson where I commercially raft guided was 34 feet per mile). For this upper section, I sat in the front of Julia's raft and did my best to keep by big, fat raft guide's mouth shut and obey our Nepali guide's paddling commands.

Of the more than 40 rivers in 7 countries that I've run, the Bhote Kosi was one of the absolute best. The beautiful green glacial river cascades down non-stop over rocks and between boulders. The river is free of dangerous logs and debris, and flows through beautiful lush mountain scenery. I always pictured whitewater rivers in Nepal to run between giant, towering glaciated Himalayan peaks, but now that I've visited this country I realize that if you were to run whitewater that far up into the mountains, the rivers gradient would be much too steep for rafting. Instead, were were surrounded by relative "foothills" that were still as tall and steep as the highest Appalachians. Julia and I were also lucky enough to have a crew in our raft of two other young couples our age who were strong paddlers and fun companions. Together with our competent guide, we had tight lines down the challenging river.

The international raft crew; 4 Brits, 2 Americans and a N. Irishman

One of our safety kayakers makes his way down the Bhote Kosi

Perhaps the most frustrating part of our trip was on the bus ride back to Kathmandu. Two drunken Nepali men crashed their little car into the side of a bus. Our bus was the first vehicle to pull up to the scene as the crowd started to gather. It was a low speed crash and no one was hurt -the fender of the car was a little bit crunched. But the two drunken men refused to move their car and let traffic pass on the narrow mountain road until the bus driver paid them for their damages. There were perhaps 50 people in the crowd that gathered and there was a lot of hollering and pointing, but still the men wouldn't budge even though the accident was clearly their fault. It occurred no one in the crowd to call the police, as they would likely just demand bribes all around and solve nothing. After almost an hour of stalemate, a driver several cars back from us got fed up from waiting and paid the driver 1000 Nepali rupees ($15) for his damages to move his car. Suddenly he was all smiles, shook everyone's hands and then moved his car to the side of the road so traffic could pass. According to our raft guides, in Nepal this system takes the place of insurance -just block the road and be a complete pain in the ass until someone breaks down and pays you for the damages that you caused. In the U.S., this would be a great way to be beaten without mercy, but among the pacifist Nepali this system works. I suppose some things about this culture I'll never understand. Sigh...

So now after more than 2 months of wandering, we leave the subcontinent. In less than 4 hours, we catch a flight to Bangkok. Hopefully, we'll have some nice views of Mt. Everest before we start our Southeast Asian leg of our journey for the next two months.

Our route on the subcontinent, starting in New Delhi

During the last week, we spent a few days in the ancient cities and villages around the Kathmandu Valley. Here are some shots from our visit to the nearby city of Bhaktapur.