Taking the 50 metre high leap

I was attending a meeting in Bali last year when Hiong, a friend who was with the Asean Secretariat asked me, “Aren’t you going to try out the bungy jumping? You can just walk to the Bali Bungy Jumping swimming pool, you know. It’s not that far.”

I was startled since behind the thick meeting file which was in view by others, I was actually reading the advertorial brochure by the very company. I looked up to him, “How did you know that I’m thinking about it?”

“I just knew it. You’re the kind who’s game for that kind of thing.”

No surprise there. Hiong knew all about my mountain climbing expeditions. Besides, during a tour after a meeting in Siemreap, Hiong accompanied me to climb the central tower of Angkor Wat up to the inner sanctuary found at the top when most guys stopped climbing as they reached the middle level. We chose to use the original handrails-free-and-ruined stairways to descend, instead of waiting in line to use the only stairways with handrails. Another colleague told me that she heard one Malay guy whispering ‘gila’ as he watched me descending but the pakcik-pakcik present there were more supportive, yelling words of encouragement.

So it came as no surprise to him to learn that I was indeed very interested in bungy jumping. Normally it would've costed USD 49, but the Bali Bungy co was having a promotion then and was offering the promotion pack at only IDR 350,000. Which was equivalent to about RM160 – quite cheap considering I was already there in Bali. No airfare to think about, no accommodation problem to worry about.

While most other colleagues were planning on shopping trips to Sanur and Sukawati or a sightseeing excursion to Tanah Lot or Ubud, there I was, seriously considering the pros and cons of taking a leap from a 45 metre high tower secured by a thick cord above a swimming pool.

Still, I had dreamed a different dream of bungy jumping – I’ve always visioned a bridge, at least 50 metres high, over a deep river surrounded by beautiful lush green forest . Or at least the jump is done from a tower close to a beach or a lagoon and surrounded by lush green. A swimming pool surrounded by fences in the middle of Kuta, Bali – hmm…somehow it wasn't quite what I had in mind all along. So, finally, after a long deliberation, I decided to give it a miss…

But the dream lives on.

Not all friends are in support of this dream though. One guy friend had had issues with me last year just because I love climbing mountains. He would have had a fit should I tell him about my dream of taking a bungy jump. Another close friend had this to say, “A.Z. tak payah la… Awak tu perempuan…”

Okay – so what’s wrong with a female bungy jumping anyway? It's not like I've never relied on a sturdy rope and harness. I’ve done rock climbing; I’ve done rappelling; I’ve done abseiling; I’ve even done the spider thingy – abseiling head down first from a high tower. And I've always wore proper clothing - long pants, long sleeved t-shirt, my tudung tucked in place. So, what is so wrong, so extreme, so dangerous about bungy-jumping? I’ve relied numerous times on some ropes and harnesses and alhamdulillah, survived.

"Bukannya bungy jumping tu accident free", my close friend continued. True. But then again, people die in car crashes daily, yet nobody warns "bukannya bawak kereta tu accident free" as you enter the car in the morning. Granted, there's been some accidents in bungy jumping, but they were the exceptions rather than the norm. It's not like I want to purposely hurt myself; it's not like I'm contemplating slashing my wrist or something like that. I've done a lot of thinking and I know I want to try a bungy jump at least once in my lifetime. Just once.

Now, I know that jumping from a high tower or bridge with rubber cords securedly tied to the ankles is not everyone’s idea of fun. But that’s exactly the point of bungy jumping. Not everyone will do it. Doing it means that one is able to do something different, something else. It takes a serious sense of adventure and lots of guts to risk experiencing a thrilling few-seconds moments that will scramble one’s mind and stay in one’s memory forever. Something that can change life; like how that spider-thingy abseilling experience helped in making me more confident to tackle things that I first thought I might not be able to handle.

I pray that someday, before I get too weak or too scared to give it a try, I’ll get to take a leap. Maybe that day'll arrive when I get to the point in my career when I’ll be asked to attend a meeting in Australia or New Zealand...

For now, I’ll content myself with trying out ice-skating first – and that’s another blog, another day.