Adrift part 2 of 2

The first half of our ninety-minute rafting trip we had the river to ourselves. Then we made the mistake of taking a short rest. Sham had us pull over to a wide rocky shore. We saw that a previous visitor had stacked some of the smooth river rocks. It looked fun and challenging. It turned what could have been and should have been a five-minute rest into a twenty minute stop. This gave all the other rafters that were behind us a chance to catch up.

Kota Kinabalu and Borneo are a popular tour destination –especially for Chinese tourists. It is popular among Japanese and Koreans as well, but they mainly fly in for the cheap golf. Our Chinese river rafters weren’t quite as enamored with stone stacking as we were and only stopped for two or three minutes –which meant they shoved off at the same time we did.

The second half of our river rafting trip we were surrounded by rafts full of Chinese tourists.

I am not sure who started it. I suspect it was one of the good-natured guides from one of the other rafts. Those blonde heads proved to be too irresistible. He gave our raft a playful splash. Before long the Chinese tourists were in on the action. Big laughs all the way around –well, except from me. We found ourselves in the midst of a spontaneous game of “Splash Whitey.” I noticed none of them were splashing each other, just us.

“Elise, don’t splash back. You'll only encourage them.”

As a bonus, this also gave them an opportunity to try out their two or three English phrases. Splash. “Hello!” Splash. “Nice to meet you!” Splash.

Ya, nice to meet you too buddy.

Ah, a bucolic day on the Liuli River.

Anybody have a towel they can hand me?