I'm Gonna Be Sick... and it's worth it.

Kayaking!!

Just saying it makes me look back on all the times when I should have succeeded in making it down a river unscathed. I'm not the best kayaker, and I should give up, but that's the point... I can't. It will plague me forever. So when I read in the trusty guidebook about the most legit rafting company in Thailand, I suspected they ran kayaking trips. The only company in Thailand to even have kayaks (how sad).

Upon dropping my bags off at my very basic guesthouse in Chiang Mai, I skipped down the street to the combo organic cafe/rafting office. Just to see what the deal was, I asked about kayaking trips, multi-day programs, and she just loooked at me and asked for a deposit. "Well, you see, I just got here, I'm sick, I'm just not ready... etc. blah blah"

If I wanted to go kayaking, I should get ready to go tomorrow, she explained. So I sniffed my nose, paid a deposit, and went straight to bed, nervous, not knowing exactly what to expect.

Crap. It's 6:00am, and the jet lag combined with the nervous energy has me up too early for my 8:45 meeting time. So I started a blog, and avoided thinking about today.

There were two couples rafting and another Aussie boy kayaking with me. One of the couples was cute as could be, from Erie, PA, and they met in the Peace Corps in Mali. We bonded as we climbed the terrible roads alongside villages and lesser rafting outfits, sometimes passing the traditional "trekking" group, which was full of sweaty 20 somethings walking just on the road with day packs, some listening to iPods. Yech... don't want to be a part of that tour group.

The river is broken up into 3 sections. The first with class 2/3 rapids, the middle with the trecherous 4+ rapids, and the last sections class 2/3 with one 4 rapid. I was optimistic I could do it all, and the guide got Chris (the Aussie) and I out of the van to scout out the rapids, and from a downstream perspective they didn't look so terrible, but terribly technical, and I don't have much experience in creeky rivers. This river is technical and big, pretty intimidating.

Both Chris and I hadn't been paddling in a couple of months, due to our left shoulders being half-way dislocated, so we dedided to warm up a bit. The difference in our abilities is that I've been kayaking for little less than a year, and he started in 2000. So roll attempt numbers 1, 2, 3 failed, and finally 4, 5, and 6 succeeded. Then I failed the rest. Oh geez, my heart was a bit broken, but I was told I could do the first and third sections, and hop in the raft for the middle section.

A bit defeated, but after a lunch of delicous thai (including sticky rice and banana wrapped in something), we were off! Warm water, what a delight. I only got worked a little bit in the first section, and swallowed a ton of the murky brown water, that villagers bathe in and elephants read the paper in. Elephants?

We were paddling alongside the nature preserve, an amazing facility designed to house retired elephants that have been abused into slavery. Now you can pay a ton of money to "volunteer" there, and play with the elephants. Instead, we paddled mere feet from the bathing elephants, some wild, some chained up. Passing by old thatched-roof homes of ancient small communities, I thought to myself how amazing this opportunity was.

Section 2 was some of the most treacherous whitewater I've ever seen. Dear heavens thank goodness I was in a raft, and still I was nervous. The company was great, they had many more guides than actual customers, and set up swiftwater rescue at almost all of the rapids. The two kayak guides, A and Sa as well as Chris all ended up upsidedown on a couple of the rapids, making you wonder how I would have ended up on every single one. A is the playboat champion of Thailand, and Sa is the slalom champion. I asked how many kayakers were in Thailand, he said less than 10.

Back in the kayak for the last section, it was time to appreciate exactly where I was. An amazing floral rainforest, next to Thais getting along with their day-to-day chores. Sa and I became pretty good buddies, and he told me to come back the next day. Much too tired, needing to save money, I politely declined, but said maybe next week.

Though I swallowed elephant poo water and scraped up nearly every joint in my body in the small kayak, it was an amazing experience I will never forget. Now I just need to chill out some place to catch my breath, and stop waking up at 6 am.