Kayaking is a great adventure, that doesn’t end with pulling your kayak out of the water – camping under a starlit sky, catching your dinner fresh from the river yourself, sharing stories with new friends around the campfire… kayaking is so much more than just paddling in the water! And nowhere is a better place to go kayaking than the Himalayas:

In Nepal you find incredibly diverse environment and ever-changing scenery on your kayaking trip. You will pass under bridges adorned with prayer flags, witness cremation ceremonies on the river banks, pass by small villages where you can see children play in the water, and your companions all the way the majestic peaks of the Himalayas. Kayaking is so popular in Nepal that the country even hosts the Himalayan Kayaking Championships, an annual event for all kayakers in the Himalayan countries to compete.

India boasts a range of quite different kayaking opportunities as well – how about paddling on the most sacred of all rivers, the Ganges? On the way you will encounter countless sacred shrines and temples even in remote jungles. Or maybe you would rather paddle the serene waters of lush and hot Kerala and spot a great variety of beautiful birds?

For experienced kayakers Bhutan offers a range of class III and IV rapids. Kayaking in the secluded Himalayan kingdom is a very special adventure, and only experienced by very few. Tibet also offers some kayaking possibilities, most of them best accessible between June and October.

Header image taken from Flickr CC, by freewine