This article first appeared in print on March 2, 2003 in the Travel Section of the New York Times with the headline: RIDING THE WILD BRAHMAPUTRA. You can check out the original article here. It happened in an instant. One second we were riding a huge wave on the Brahmaputra River, our raft angled sharply upward. The…
This article has originally appeared in the March 2020 edition of National Geographic Traveller India.
A SCOUTING VIEW OF THE DREADED RAPID CALLED THE WALL At the ATOAI annual convention in January this year, I was lucky enough to win a two-night stay at Bull’s Retreat, the home base camp on the Ganga of Mercury Himalayan Explorations, founded by my friend Akshay Kumar. I cut my teeth white-water rafting on…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”834″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text] We sit tensely in the raft, knuckles white on the T-grips of our paddles. The last minute briefings are over and we’re ready to go. Our intrepid team of kayakers and rafters has spent almost an hour scouting this big Class IV rapid from the shore. Named for Ningguing village,…
I turned 50 this year. It was a milestone that one can feel quite ambivalent about. Of course, the odds of making a century are usually well below 50%, and so it is in life—it is unlikely that you will live to be 100. So, often the reality belies the hope.
“Believed to be one of the most challenging river-rafting experiences in the world, riding the great white waters of River Zanskar in Ladakh is a heady cocktail of thrill, skill and pumping adrenaline,” says Ranjan Pal. Ladakh. A land of incomparable beauty – stark yet stunning. I have marvelled at this region’s craggy peaks, multi-hued…
Rafting the perilous and imperilled Tiger Leaping Gorge.
One of my particular passions is whitewater rafting. I’ve done plenty of the usual weekend jaunts to Rishikesh but I was hooked when I went on my first major expedition on the Siang (the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh). This was the first “open” descent of a magnificent river with some huge Class IV+ rapids and…
