Rafting adventure on India's remote frontier

By Arthur Max

Associated Press writer

updated 11:02 a.m. ET April 21, 2009

ON THE KAMENG RIVER, India - The e-mail from an old friend who runs a white water rafting company was too enticing to resist: We're running a new river in India's remote east, he said. Join us.

It sounded like a rush. It turned out to be much more. In six days, we covered 72 miles of the Kameng River and shot some 100 rapids.

We plunged through roiling cauldrons of whitewater that lifted the adrenaline level to truly yee-ha moments. And I took more than one unwilling swim in the chilly water.

The Kameng sweeps through the Valley of the Hornbills in pristine rain forest. Elsewhere it passes below tiny bamboo villages of the Nishi tribe, whose men hunt the magnificent birds for the colorful bills that adorn their headgear and who carry machetes in monkey-fur scabbards.

We saw nature as it was meant to be — raw and lush. But we also witnessed its fragility: a simple farmer burns away an entire mountainside to work a small patch of land; bulldozers send rockslides tumbling down mountain slopes as they carve out a road; an energy-hungry nation begins work to dam yet another free-flowing river.

Whitewater rafting is a popular adventure sport in India. About 20 rivers spilling from the Himalayas toward the Indian plain are commercially rafted, with trips ranging from a few hours to two weeks. Some 30,000 people a year make the short but thrilling run on the Ganges above the Hindu holy town of Rishikesh, just a few hours drive from New Delhi.

The Kameng River is in the state of Arunachal Pradesh on India's northeastern frontier, more than 1,000 miles from the capital. The state was a battleground in the 1962 Indo-China war, and its ownership still is disputed. India kept it off-limits to foreigners until recently and has done little for its development. Even Indians need a permit to enter.

Our expedition was only the third time rafts and kayaks have been down the Kameng. Six professionals explored it in late 2007. A larger group of international adventurers ran it in March 2008.

If you go Rafting companies: There are many, but not all use experienced guides who will keep your boat upright. Among the biggest, with a wide variety of rafting and trekking options, are Himalayan River Runners, Aquaterra Adventures, and Red Chilli Adventure, Expeditions India, intends to focus on more challenging trips. Equipment: Companies provide tents, life jackets and helmets, wetsuits when needed for cold rivers, and surprisingly good food. Rafters may be asked to bring sleeping bags, flashlights and lots of mosquito spray. Experience needed: Very little. The river guides do all the real work, while the paddlers' job is to provide the muscle. Knowing how to swim is not required, and you don't need to be in top physical shape. Costs: The most popular short trip on the upper Ganges is about $70 for two days and one night in a beach camp including meals. A spectacular 12-day trip on the Zanskar River in the Himalayas is about $1,550 per person.

Anvesh Singh Thapa of the startup company Expeditions India, who was on both those trips, teamed up with Yousuf Zaheer of Himalayan River Runners for the first commercial run. Yousuf offered it to old friends and clients.

Our team of 10 was different from the earlier groups. Ranging in age from 30 to 65, some of us found our wetsuits bulged and sagged in the wrong places.

Among us were two women investment brokers from London (one of them had never seen a sleeping bag from up close), an Indian air force fighter pilot with a passion for wildlife photography, and Romulus Whitaker. Born in New York, Rom is India's foremost herpetologist, conservationist and the founder of a crocodile farm in southern India with 7,000 reptilian residents. He came to look for pit vipers, which thankfully he didn't find.

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"This river has everything," Anvesh told us — natural beauty, tribal culture, and abundant rapids, many of them Class IV-plus (Class V being the highest). He rated it among his top three favorites in India and said his international colleagues ranked it among Asia's top 10.

It took us four days to get to the put-in point. We flew from New Delhi to Guwahati, the state capital of Assam, then drove through eastern Assam's flat tea-growing country. Our jeeps turned north toward Bhalukpong, the single-street border town whose biggest business is the Casino liquor store. The last 40 miles from the town of Seppa was a grueling six-hour drive along a rutted road muddied by streams trickling down the steep mountains.

As we set our rubber crafts in the water at Marjingla, the entire village was on hand. One boy asked if the boats were made from dead elephants. An elder tried to barter village girls for the two London women, waving his machete in a courtship dance — to the titters and guffaws of onlookers.

When Arvind Bhardwaj, one of the river guides, told him the women were married with children, he shot back, "Don't worry — I'll give them plenty more."

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