Our last day at the rice terraces and we decided to do something different. White water rafting!

But first we wanted to get BoyBlues bite/sting checked. After a night of antihistamine it was still spreading. A quick chat with the hotel staff and it became clear that seeing a doctor or nurse was not gonna happen. Instead he checked it out and said he was pretty sure it was a wasp sting, local kids get them a fair bit. He gave us some local ointment and suggested we see what it’s like this evening.

Boy blue insisted it wasn’t bad and he wanted to raft, so we did. Spare clothes at the ready we drove about 1.5 hours to the raft site. After everything being shut down I was expecting a small outfit, but no the place was obviously set up for big groups. And slowly as we got closer to our departure time more and more people arrived. In total about 50 people, the most we had seen since leaving the airport but still a relatively small number if you considered the stacks of life vest piled up as an indicator to normal numbers.

Not really sure what to expect we boarded a bus that would take us to the launch point. I hadn’t really seen masses of water on any of the rivers we had hiked past so I was kinda expecting a slow meander down a river. Therefore I wasn’t too worried about the completely useless and oversized life jackets and helmets we had been given.

When we got off the bus there was a small path down to the river bed. Middle man kept asking if he could ride the shoot that the rafts were being sent down. He didn’t seem to believe me that the also vertical, metal, sideless shoot was not designed for humans.

At the bottom we each boarded a small 2man (or 3 if one was a small child) dingy and were pushed away from the edge. No skipper, no paddles just me, a hyper BoyBlue and nervous BBBoy.

BBboy has certainly changed over the last few months. He is what seems to be termed a preteen. He has become more independent, taking himself off all over Shanghai by himself on his bike, in taxis and public transport. He is spending more time with his friends and less as home (lockdown dependent of course). He even organises his own covid tests so he can access the places the cool kids hang out (Starbucks from what I can tell).

Along with sudden independence is some emotional changes. Eye rolls, mood swings and eating for England. He seems much aware of possible risks, overthinks situations and all of sudden worries about world peace and the environment. You could see the internal war of excitement and worry behind his eyes.

As we bumped into the other rafts that seemed to be being held back by a man made wall and a man with a big stick, his emotions soon became pure panic. At the front of the collection of rafts was a man made were, one at a time rafts were being guided to the top and quickly disappearing from view, with sounds of screams and laughter the only clue to what was about to happen.

Soon enough it was our turn, BBboy had his back to the shoot but BoyBlue and me had about 0.1 second to see the 5m long drop into whitewater. 0.5 seconds later we had bounced through and soaking wet. Both BoyBlue and myself were laughing and throughly enjoyed it. BBboy was convinced we almost died.

And so the next hour continued in a pattern of slowly floating down the surrounded by beautiful views, the suddenly whooshing down man made rapids that drenched you and threw you around the boat like a ragdoll! For me a throughly enjoyable experience.

About 1/2 way down BoyBlue decides he wants to go in the raft with Middle Man and the husband. We managed to swap him over in a calm part of the stream. No more than 5mins later I hear BoyBlue shouting MiddleMan fell out the boat! Husband had managed less than 5 mins before he lost a child 🤦‍♀️

Thankfully one of the (I suppose you call them) safety rafts picked him up and deposited him back in daddy’s raft a couple of mins later. Later when I asked middleman how it happened… he explained he was trying to standup as it went down one of the drops?!? Again I wonder how I am ever gonna keep this fearless free spirit (aka reckless) safe.

All in all a great outing, not at all what I expected but even BBboy said he actually enjoyed it in the end.

And for those of you wondering about the sting… it was still growing! After a quick chat with in-laws and Google we decided that if it wasn’t better by the morning we would go to the hospital on the way to the next town.