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White water rafting in Seti River
Sat, February 28, 2009, 2:04 pm
Rafting
in Seti River. Picture:
Recentfusion.com
By Rup Narayan
Dhakal
The activities of Nepalese tourism are
mostly based on trekking and mountaineering but in recent decades the
new tourism products are being explored across the country.
It is
informally declared that the Pokhara is the touristy capital of Nepal
and it is also a gateway of world famous Annapurna Circuit Trek which
is threatened by roads in recent period. Trekking and road building are
two unlike factors that couldn't go hand in hand. So, the road building
is coming in such a way that the days of stay of the tourists in
Pokhara are being declined. But
there is saying that there is a silver lining inside every black cloud
so, in this regard, the Nepal's Tourism Ministry has opened the Upper
Seti for the water activities that could be hoped that the days of
tourists' stay will be lengthen because of that new product of
adventure tourism in Pokhara's Seti River. Rafting is a very popular in the sector of water
adventure sports. And, in the case of Seti River what we could say that
the river is very famous for white water rafting that one could feel
the warmness of water in this river. Rafters could see the natural
greeneries and high snowcapped mountains in the northern flank of
Pokhara while rafting and that could be taken as an amazing
configuration of nature. On the occasion of 29th world tourism day, Pokhara
Tourism Council which is the umbrella organization of eight different
institutions of Pokhara, had organized the Short and Sweet Rafting Trip
in this river on Sept 27, 2008. Many foreign tourists as well as Nepali
enjoyed that rafting very well. I was also one of the members of that
day. The river was roaring and it has sharp current. The trip was really unforgettable however it was not
my first experience in this river. I had also done my dī¿½but rafting in
this river last year. So it was easier for me than the last year.
Before getting on the raft boat, our guide told us about some orders
that he was going to give us while on the rafting. I knew some words regarding the
appropriate raft rowing and self defensive tasks. Right back,
left back, right forward, left forward, fast forward, hold down are
some of the commands that the main guide orders time to time to the
passengers. Some of my friends fallen into the river while rafting but
they were rescued by us immediately. We did the eight km long rafting within a period of
two hours. It is said that the Seti River rafting is the new product
for tourists in Pokhara. There is hardly could find such rafting
adventure within a small valley like Pokhara. The important thing is
that the Seti is the river originates from the lap of snowcapped
mountains and running down the mountains that Pokhara offers now as a
new taste of adventure activity. The
rafting agencies have not declared yet that how much one should pay for
the rafting package in the Seti River. So the Nepal Association of
Rafting Agents and other respective agencies should compose the package
of rafting in Seti and such package should be advertised across the
world community of tourism. Nepal
has dozens of perennial rivers that originate from the high mountains
and are feasible for water activities like rafting and kayaking.
According to a water guide Ramkrishna Subedi the government has opened
19 rivers for water activities so far and more than a dozen rivers have
been used for rafting in Nepal.
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