My story of surviving after drowning! (On 13.04.2006)
By Malini Shankar,
Hello,
I have just come back from a very adventurous trip to Kitulgala, its the
place where the Oscar winning "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was filmed. This
place in Sri Lanka is now known for white water rafting and yours truly had a
few brush ups with the blessed travel agent and finally after my companion, -
the office receptionist who had promised to accompany me to assist with
photography and give me graceful company did not turn up, I went to Kitulgala by
a rickety old bus from Colombo on the day the New Year holidays started - on the
11th of April. 14th April is the Buddhist and Tamil New Year... so its usually a weeklong holiday for the Buddhist New Year in Sri Lanka.
All of Sri Lanka's vehicles were on Colombo's roads and the cops
were also ofcourse busy celebrating the onset of holidays with Kiribath, so mayhem ruled the
traffic lanes. It took 3 hours for me to wait for my princess not to turn up
before I decided to go it alone and another 1 and a half hours for me to reach
that bus station in a place called Pittahkotu in Colombo. Once there, I asked a
hapless cop to guide me to the bus to Hatton. Buses were parked crosswise and if
you had the misfortune of being anywhere near the tyres of the bus that could
move without warning and you are mowed down, just too bad. That is the way it
is, in Colombo, take it or leave it. My boss, was actually very worried about
how I would manage alone with my huge camera bag and tripod besides luggage
alone on a day when chaos would start ruling. The office staff were very worried since I am physically challenged.
On reaching the bus station the cop whom I asked for help barked at a
driver to take care of me till I board a bus to Hatton. (I did not understand Sinhalese much but bI guess because of the distance his voice had to carry across the tarmac ... his call, best qualifies for that rather rude description I lend sorry for that brother cop!) He in turn brought me to
the head of a long que of people waiting for the Hatton bus. None knew if an AC
inter city bus would come at all that day! I did not see any bus platforms,
ticket counters or staff of the so called bus station. So wait I did at the head
of the queue. After 25 minutes of roasting and getting stuck, literally amidst
perspiring oily haired women and men, I panicked at the sight of the bus hurtling straight towards me! Then out of nowhere a uniformed guy took my luggage and
blocked the mad rush of people storming in to help me get into the bus. Once
inside, I was kind of ok. I called my boss that I was in one piece and that I
would be leaving if the bus moved, in 20 minutes. It moved indeed. People were
standing even on my toes, because of the maddening holiday surge and there was a
traffic jam even in hill country. After rumbling along for 4 hours I finally
arrived in Kitulgala barely 75 kiliometres from Colombo.
I was honestly not prepared for what I saw. This place is not for the run
of the mill, also-ran tourist, not for romancing people either, it is for the
hardened serious traveler of the Backpacker variety. I have done white water
rafting before, I have stayed in many beautiful eco tourist resorts... but words
fail me now to express the beauty of this place called Rafters Retreat,. I was
booked in a log cabin, made wholly of wood and not a plastic anywhere in sight.
The log cabin or tree house is set in the midst of rich evergreen rainforests,
quite the way you see it in the movie. Birds start chirping early morning from
the wines and saplings creeping up the balcony demanding your attention. The
tree house literally overhangs the Kelani river, and I was actually waiting for
more cheap thrills like dangling over the mouth of a hungry crocodile. But alas
there are no crocs in this river! The flooring, also made of wood, is not even,
you might roll down literally from the bed because of the sloping floor. But
well, its a tree house, what did you think Malini ?
The bathroom is a cave,
lined with rocks and granite blocks; herbal snails as big as my palm stick to
the granite walls. The contraption that passes for a shower is a chiseled rock
and so you cannot quite regulate the flow of water. If you turn on the tap, you
can be assured of washing away your sins and cynicism in 8 minutes flat. The
water is simply too cold for you to indulge in an elephant bath like I do in
Colombo twice or thrice a day. Handcrafted lanterns adorn the lampshades and
the mirror is literally framed in a couple of wooden logs. The candlestand is a
piece of uneven rock. The chairs are also made of wooden logs, flattened, revealing the
tree rings and all. Its rustic charm, rustic beauty of Mother Nature,... all the
way. Oh I was so lost!
 |
| Sri Lankan food like all cuisines on earth offers a platter full of breakfast food...Red rice flour string hoppers called Idiyappam in India, freshly cut fruit, Fresh fruit juices, red rice with vegetable stew and sambol, coconut milk, sausages, omelette and freshly baked bread slices ... Grated coconut is not just a garnishing for the eyes in Sri Lanka, it definitely enhances the authenticity of the local cuisine. |
We survived the first and second rapid
alright. Fabrice was showing the whole world how much he loved his girl, and I
was actually taking pictures. At one point he actually admonished me if I behave
like paparazzi journalist! I turned away to take a wide angle of a lush green
valley that you see in the movie... Bingo, the raft commander said forward paddle
please because we were almost crashing against the rock. If only he had asked
forward paddle a couple of seconds before we would certainly have avoided the
rock and been midstream.
Then we could have conveniently fallen or cascaded
along. But bingo we hit the rock and a gentle nudge was enough to push the raft
outside the grip of the perch on the rock. But after being perched when someone
pushed the oar into the rock to enable us to move along... we plunged headlong
vertically into the fall.
 |
| We were warned that this was a tricky Waterfall, and we got perched onthis rock on the left Releasing ourselves from the perch meant we plunged headlong vertically about 5 metres in height! Picture Credit: Rafters' Retreat, Kitulgala, Hill Conutry Sri Lanka |
If we had not perched on the rock, we would have
cascaded down with the mass of water and moved along. But plunge we did, and in
the excitement of falling headlong, Jero who was rafting at the right hand
fore corner of the raft virtually got to his feet, that means on a plunging raft
he was akin to sleeping against the water! As he crashed against the water, it
threw him right onto me, while I was sitting in on my haunches in the hull of
the raft on the 2nd seat.
When he crashed against me (my right side), the force
took me to the left and I fell right into the water, hold on I took Jero along
with me ! Minutes before that Marki and someone else had fallen in a the 2nd
rapid I think. It was my turn now, but alas I do not know how to swim... A lot
of water went into my mouth, throat, lungs and nostrils... till the amount of
water equivalent to my weight was displaced I was drowning, then the life jacket
worked. It brought me afloat. But by then I was atleast a mile away from the
raft!!! Current was really swift at that point. I saw my blessed cameras
floating in front of me in their bags! I screamed my cameras! but it only took
more water into my mouth. By the time I came to the surface, I was in panic
breathing helplessly and saying ayyo, ayyo, amma amma...
But by then Jeronimo, (in Spanish J is pronounced as H!) was right there
with me having wrapped me from behind and arrested me from sailing away in front of him by
holding the oar against me. Indeed he turned out to be the real hero. He asked me if I was alright and told me to calm
down, that everything would be ok. By then the boatman from the 2nd boat came to
me, and started gently tugging me away. He was not in the least panicky! It was for him a routine rescue on every trip!
I asked Jero what must I do, because I was
kicking my legs violently though I was vertical in water. I could not retain my
balance. So Jero told me to just lay down on my back on the fast flowing current and look up at the sky but to hold on to the oar that was in his hand! I
did, and the current took me to shallow waters. Did not quite realise that our boat had drifted away without an oar! The boatman and Jero asked me to
stand there and wait for the boat to come to us. I was actually standing on
slippery rocks and could not balance again. I would not let go off Jero's
hand...and when the boat came it crashed against me and I think I lost my
balance. I told them to take the boat to the shore a couple of feet away lest I
could not climb in. then, in all that confusion, I took out my extra film rolls
from my pocket and gave it to the boatman who had rescued me, asking him to keep
it till I went to dry land. I climbed in and we went rafting further down again.
Later in placid waters I went down into the water to enjoy Mother Nature again
for a few minutes more. All my raft mates were downstream enjoying. But Fabrice
started swimming against the current to get into the raft for he was exhausted.
He asked me to let go of the raft so that he could stop swimming against the
current, I would not, instead the boatman managed to steer the boat with me limp
against it towards these guys, they got in, we rafted another 30 minutes or so
and came back to our resort. Man, what an experience!
I will need awhile to recover from the shock but I hope to be foolhardy
enough one day to risk one more such adventure ... someday hopefully. But please
do rest assured I was having great fun. I enjoyed every moment of it except when
I panicked I guess. Huh! that's the story indeed. Later ofcourse I trekked quite a bit to
take a lot of pictures and even went to the Belilena caves. That's another story...
Needless to mention I lost for good my first digital camera. i brought it back ashore but it was so jinxed with water have gone into the PCB of the small digital camera I had bought in the US after my film course in the New York Film Academy, barely two years before my Sri Lankan adventures. The other small auto focus camera with a film strip inside was washed out and fortunately... thank God the resort owner advised me not to take my Asahi Pentax K 1000 camera for the raft...
Pictures: Courtesy Rafters' Retreat.
Text : Malini Shankar,
Full disclosure. This trip was self sponsored.
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