SIA: bungee jumping in Macau

I need to invent some new adjectives. Incredible, amazing, and spectacular just don’t cut it anymore. Monday, the 20th of April, was a glife day (glorious + life = adjective; glorious, incorporating some or all of life’s best elements). For starters, I ate the best meal of my life at the World Peace Café (21 Tai Wont Street East, Wanchai). I made a brief visit to my agency to set a farewell lunch date for the next day, and then set off to explore.

I happened to be within a few meters of a bus stop and remembered that I had yet to take in the street view from a double-decker bus since returning to HK. The next bus was going to Central. I got off when the only other person on the nearly empty top level of the bus disembarked, and found myself quite close to the Central Ferry Piers. As I’ve mentioned before, I love a good ferry ride (the more old-school the ferry, the better). So, I headed down to the piers.

One of the signs for the piers read ‘to outlying islands,’ and, with the vague idea of scouting out a beach, given the favorable weather conditions, I followed the arrows to my left and down a flight of stairs, only to find myself confronted with the names of a bunch of places I didn’t recognize. I’d taken a few of these ferries, to Lamma and Lantau islands, but the beach on Lantau island is something I’d seen once and had no desire to see again; I wanted to go somewhere new! Unfortunately, having only anticipated stepping out for lunch, I’d left my map book at the apartment. I was pacing the pier, contemplating making a mad dash to Pacific Coffee to google ‘Hong Kong beaches,’ when it occurred to me that if only I could spot some other touristy-looking foreigners, somebody might be able to make a recommendation or lend me a peek at their guidebook.

One middle aged foreigner sat slouched on a nearby bench, morosely scanning the scene in front of him. Needless to say, his glum expression wasn’t encouraging. I kept looking and immediately spotted a group of four young backpack-toting guys standing around talking amongst themselves near a pier and looking (only to my trained eye, of course) very much like tourists. I was sure they must have a guidebook in one of those (3 of which were matching) backpacks.

“Excuse me, are you sightseeing?”

Indeed they were. When I explained my predicament they were kind enough to suggest Discovery Bay. “Or you could come bungee jumping with us,” one of them added.

Turns out the guys didn’t have a guidebook to lend, but they were meeting their friend from Hong Kong at the piers, and he was going to take them to Macau to jump off of the Macau Tower, which at 233m provides for the highest bungee jump off a building in the world.

This is where I do a blurb on goal-setting: I am a huge believer in setting goals. I find that once you’ve identified what it is you want to do, whenever opportunities arise that may lead towards that goal, you are perfectly equipped to take full advantage of them in a split second, without having to ask yourself , “what do I want?.” I knew I wanted to go bungee jumping, so off to Macau tower I went.

I doubt that Robert expected me to jump (no pun intended) at his offer, but once they realized that I was serious about joining them, the guys were all extremely friendly and easygoing about my joining them on their Macau adventure.

I’m not quite sure how to describe bungee jumping without making it sound extremely anticlimactic. I was shaking, terrified, desperate for something to hold on to up until the moment I jumped. I think the scariest part is standing on the edge of that platform getting ready to jump. I almost wish I’d stood there longer; I was more stoked and eager to jump than scared, but fear is part of the fun and those terrifying moments passed too quickly for my liking. “Five, four, three, two one!!!”

On April 20th, by a curious chain of events, I found myself bungee jumping from a height of 233m. It was a thrillastic (thrilling + fantastic = adjective; thrilling and fantastic) experience (and yes, I screamed). It was over so fast that I’d yet to touch the crash mat before I wanted to go up and jump again. Like getting tattooed, I can see how bungee jumping could be addictive, but I think I’ll make myself wait; first, I want to try something new. Any suggestions?