One of our excursions while in Thailand was river rafting. It was part of an adventure tour which included some sight seeing, Elephant Trekking, and ATV riding. When we booked the package it was really just for the opportunity to interact with and ride an elephant, but the river rafting ended up being a really fun surprise.
This is the beginning of the river. They control the flow of the river by opening and closing the valves. We had a good boatman who waited at the beginning for them to open up the valve so we would get a rush of water and not get stuck pushing off rocks with the low water level.
The strategy paid off and we raced down the river, passing up many of the boats who had to get out and walk the boat out of shallow water.
One of the fun parts was that as boats passed each other, they used the paddles to splash each other with water. This made for a party atmosphere at first, but as boats started to get closer and closer, I was scared that someone would get hit by a paddle being within arms length at times to the passing boats.
At one point we ran full speed into another boat that was marooned on a rock. This caused our boat to go vertical, one of the passengers flew into the air and fell into the other boat. Mia also fell out of our boat and landed between our boat and the other boat, holding on to avoid falling into the river. Fortunately one of the other passengers acted quickly, grabbed her by the vest, and pulled her back into our boat. The other boat sped off, leaving us one passenger down. The experience left everyone laughing.
This was a fun excursion. At points the river was rapid with many drops and plenty of water splashing us. I would definitely recommend doing this if you ever find yourself in Thailand.
Here are some videos from the excursion:
We booked all our tours through the Phuket Travel Company. I was a bit reserved about booking anything with my credit card ahead of time, but since their office was near our hotel I figured I could swing by and cause a ruckus if they jacked us. Fortunately everything went as planned and the company was able to accommodate some last minute changes.
Phuket Travel Company
http://www.phukettravelcompany.com
