There were some things I wanted to do and there were some things I really really wanted to do.

I wanted to own a house before I turned 25. I did.

I really really wanted to take my family out on vacation to an exotic place this year. I did that over the past ten days. Malaysia and Singapore were the destinations.

(That explains my absence over the past many days. Am currently on vacation – regular blogging will resume in another week or so).

The idea of a family vacation was niggling for quite some time. Family vacations in the past were restricted to local places in and around India, mostly religious or family members’ places. ‘Exotic family vacation’ was the key phrase this time.  However, given the constraints of time and place, the idea kept getting postponed till last November. And then, out of the blue, it went bang – Malaysia and Singapore was narrowed down very quickly. And the rest, as they say is history.

The past 10 days was immensely enjoyable and satisfying.

My professional work is quite interesting for most of the time. Part selling, Part consulting, Part business analysis – the work is a combination of things I am really passionate about and I enjoy it very thoroughly. However, there are certain times when you feel bored and the work is pretty monotonous.

The trip made all that monotonous work seem very miniscule in comparison.

Money for me, is only a means to an end. I have no intentions to hoard huge amounts of money and die rich. Neither do I have any intentions of being extremely rich, having n private flights, x number of mansions etc. What I do want to do is travel around the world, talk to different people and atleast have little conversations with the localites in most parts of the world, if not knowing their cultures or ways of living in depth.

 I have been to the UK, US and now Malaysia and Singapore. Yeah, so ‘One small step for…’ kinds. Let’s see how far this goal gets fulfilled.

I will have a short travel post in the next couple of days. Assorting through the photographs currently.

There are some things in life which are extremely satisfying. When I do look back after 20, 30 or 40 years, this event of a first exotic family vacation will definitely remain high on the list.

It was the Labour day weekend in the US, and what better way to spend it, than in one of the best sporting adventures ever created – Whitewater Rafting.

Rafting or whitewater rafting is a challenging recreational activity utilizing a raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers. [source]

There are many places to raft in the US but one of the best places for rafting in this country seemingly is the Whitewater rafting in the Poconos. The Poconos is a mountain located in Pennsylvania (a 2hr drive off New Jersey). Many adventurers come to this place every year to raft in the whitewaters. In fact it is rated as the best place for rafting by the world’s best rafters, The waters here provide several thrills and spills and ergo, exciting adventure.

Although there are several agencies for rafting in Poconos, we went to the Whitewater challengers who had high ratings from the US government – and we came away mightily impressed. They were very organized – from inward parking to dropping us off – just perfect. Very professional and extremely committed. I would recommend them to anyone who would want to go rafting.

The actual rafting experience was simply awesome. The experience in whitewater rafting is totally unique every ride one makes because the water rapids are different each time. Our rafting was through the Lehigh River Gorge which has class I II and III rapids. The Poconos mountains in all its pristine glory overlooked the Leigh River gorge. The trip was about 7 hours (12 miles, approx 19km) on the river, a little overview of safety and what to expect, about a 20 minute school bus ride to the trail to walk down to the river and about a half mile to a mile hike down to the river. After about an hour of setup, intro and travel time we hopped in a raft and shoved of down the gorge. There were four people in the raft (three of my friends and myself), a bail bucket, a lunch bucket and of course we all had paddles and life jackets. This particular weekend was a dam release weekend which means they let a ton of water out of some dam upstream somewhere and there is enough water in the gorge to create some rapids and go rafting.

Our group on the raft was very interesting. Since this did not involve any Class IV rapids, there was no professional guiding us on the raft. Therefore, we four of us had to figure out the navigation of the raft for the entire 12 mile trip – and that is where the problem began. You understand ‘mutiny’ – this was even worse. Whosoever took the responsibility of guiding the direction of the raft came under a lot of flak, and nobody on the raft listened to him. Make no mistake, each of us took turns to ‘guide’ the rest in the right way, but to no avail. There was never a common understanding inspite of loud urges of ‘left, left, left’, ‘right, right, right’ and ‘All, All’ – people in the raft did what they pleased and what they thought to be the right way to guide the raft. Getting stuck on rocks, spinning through the initial rapids and in general, attracting attention due to our loud shouts – it was one helluva ride for 12 miles – interspersed by few periods of silence and brilliant rafting. It was fantastic fun at the end of the day when we finally reached the destination and people on the raft (including thyself) were taking credit for guiding the raft in the right manner – an illusion no one would be able to erase for a long time to come. The only casualty on the entire 12 mile trip was P dropping his raft into the river after we hit a rock at a wrong angle and with a bad velocity, about 4 miles from the end point. We however traversed through some difficult rapids among rocks and some swirling rapids inspite of the casualty very efficiently before reaching our destination. We were extremely lucky not to have run into injuries along our entire trip inspite of our ‘skilled’ rafting.

But, nobody gets it right the first time. We practise, we learn – and next time any of us are on any raft, I am sure this rafting experience would come in very handy. 7 hours in the blazing sun on a tricky river, paddling and shouting, was enough to pulp our muscles for the next two days. For anyone looking for an adventurous trip, I would definitely recommend Whitewater rafting – it is an experience which words cannot describe and an occurrence one would never forget.