Change your mind

For some strange reason, when we are on holidays abroad we tend to do stupid things as if the rules of common sense do not work out of our country. Experiences like this should have changed my perception of danger, thought I'm still the same unaware traveler.

This story took place on an extremely warm summer. Too warm to think about existence beyond the walls of an air conditioned hostel room. 'Why don't we take one of those raft trips along the river?' Great idea. The best plans usually come out spontaniously -so the craziest-.

Half an hour later my fellow traveler and I were sit on a bus to Longjing river, in the Chinese region of Zhuang, with a few dozens of teenagers seeking fun. Fortunately, we were just in time for the last two seats and it took us about one hour and a half to get to the river.

The queue to the start point of the water adventure looked like a dragon's tale: long and irregular, just as every queue in a country of 1.367.820.000 population. Once there we realized that the concept of 'rafting' activity we got it mind was quite different from reality. The 'rafts' were closer to a beach mat than to a comfortable, consistent and safe inflatable boat. Despite the high temperatures, I started to feel the cold of panic under the skin. But one more rule of traveling abroad is that you may not show your fears to natives in order to feel one of them rather than a scary tourist. I tried to remember this fundamental principle during the first 500 meters of the way down on a wild river aboard a coloured piece of rubber meant to be a sporting raft. But after the first water jump -about six meter high- I lost the shame of being just one more scary western tourist... It was time to scream and take it all out.

My mate managed his fear in a different way. He thought that the best to do in a panic situation was to turn it into one of the funniest experiences ever. He took out his helmet and used it to throw water to the rest of the people who was participating in the descend. Suddenly the river became the scenery of a water war. The disadvantage of that kind of battles in China is that a couple of western tourists is an easy target...

When we finally arrived to the finish line there were loads of people waiting for revenge! I can hardly remember the bangs or the fear. But I will never forget the huge wave which welcomed us by the end of Longjing river. Danger is just a dim memory easily exchangeable!