Our Danish tour operator blinked cutely several times placing his thin long slender finger near his left earring and gave us a very feminine gesture of exasperation, “Oh dear, so you can’t swim well! So what? We have very experienced guides who will be with you in raft and then you will be wearing life jackets anyway!” May be someone up there smiled mockingly, especially when he mentioned “experienced guide”. But that’s for later, now we all looked suitably convinced and giving him a patronizing glance of admiration, we booked the rafting for the next day.

White water rafting is something I wanted to do for a very long time and class 3 and 4 rapids in Telaga Waja River in Bali seemed to be an ideal place to venture it. It took some convincing on my part to get my travel buddy to come on board as he felt time spent in handicraft shops has more excitement!

Next day we drove early as our starting point was about two hours drive from our hotel in Sanur. Bali is an extremely picturesque island with winding roads snaking through tropical greenery of profuse abundance interspersed with wet rice fields and distant blue shadows of volcanic mountains. So our drive was really enjoyable especially when our chatty fellow passengers, a Chinese couple, soon ran out of things to chat about and retired in peaceful slumber facing opposite windows.

Once we were divided in batches of four and allocated to our guides, our training began first on theory and then on practical tips on safety and emergency procedures. We were told what we have to do when he shouts, “boom boom”, “duck” or “paddle” if we want to avoid an unceremonious throw into the rapid.
Prospect of being thrown into a fast flowing wild river was not something that cheered me up as I listened to the babbles of our allocated guide who made no attempt to allay our fears. Looking at me pitifully on my question of the likelihood of such a catastrophe, his reply was diplomatic “stay by my side, you will be ok”
We had to now walk down about 300 steps through narrow footpath to reach the river bank where the rafts were waiting for us. I was already sweating profusely as tropical sun shone above us. 

My first view of the river as we reached down was awe inspiring. The roar of the water in its untamed fury and foaming white turbulence was something that reminded me of Alaknanda River in Rudraprayag. Very thought of getting into those fragile looking raft and tackling this watery rage, sent cold shiver down my spine. However the prospect of going back meant climbing those 300 steps and that’s something I was not contemplating at all in this tropical heat.

Once suitably secured (pushing in one’s ankle deeply in the plastic fold of the bottom and hoping it would stay there), we were rushing down the river in a ride that felt very much like being in a roller coaster without a harness. Foaming waves of turbulent water were constantly and mercilessly thrashing our raft and soaking us wet to our bones. Boulders of stones were deflecting our raft erratically like a bagatelle ball.

Our guide Wayan, a Balinese Hindu, being the first born as his name suggested, clearly wanted to stay in control by habit and his reassuring smile at me never faded. But then the poor soul didn’t know what was coming! Despite his smiles my confidence on him took a slight knock as we landed into more than our fair share of “boom boom” scenario with raft hitting the stone boulders and riverside tree trunks and overgrowths too often! His interest in India seemed almost insatiable as I continued to fill him up while literally hanging by the rope!

And then it happened, suddenly there was a massive splash behind me with the raft taking a big tumble. To our amazement we saw Wayan in water about twenty feet away desperately trying to swim back toward the raft with his own oar floating away from him. He was waving at us, didn’t quite understand whether seeking our help or reassuring us to stay calm! Although we were stunned we decided to “save” him since without his navigational skill we were all doomed to join him in water soon. Trying out our recently acquired skill from him we somehow managed to draw the raft closer to him against massive turbulences.
Wayan was in no mood to marvel his pupils on this excellent feat of rescue operation. Once on board he remained unusually quite for a while and we all tried to look suitably guilty while he recovered from his ordeal.

After about two hours of maddening wrestling with the river we stopped for a well earned rest near a gorgeous waterfall. It was deeply forested all around the river banks with so many different types of tropical trees and flora reaching high above the top of the gorge from where the waterfall cascaded down hundreds of feet below in its thunderous embrace for the river.

There was perceptible change in mood of the river as we proceeded further down. We could feel that water was getting deeper and my entangled foot at the bottom of the raft no longer catching any submerged rocks. The water current was still intense and keeping the raft on course was still a daunting task for all five of us. Wayan warned us that soon we would be approaching the most dangerous part of this rafting as it was going to pass through a long drop into lower water level. We braced ourselves in almost a fully recline position and held on to anything that’s around as the raft started tilting to almost ninety degrees angle as it fell through the cascading waterfall at least 20 feet below and we landed with a thud that almost shook every moveable organ of my body. Once the immense splash died down, head count showed fortunately none of us were missing from the raft!! Anyway the utter euphoria of adrenaline rush as we fell through was something that I will not forget for a very long time.

The climb up the gorge from the finishing point was not as strenuous as I though it would be. We were treated with hot shower and a hot buffet when we finished which was very welcoming indeed after such an adventure.

It was late afternoon when we started walking toward our pick up point. I had a last look at the river. It was far down below now, snaking past the curves of the gorge, looking almost tamed and perhaps waving goodbye as reflected sun rays started glittering in a golden dance as Telaga waja river surged ahead toward her journey into Indian ocean

Dr.Ranjit Mazumdar
Photographs courtesy of Dr Indranil Choudhuri.