My experience with Bungy jumping.

It's been long that I wanted to take a jump from a suspension bridge into the Bhote Koshi, flowing 160m below at The Last Resort located in Sindhulpalchok district of my country Nepal. The jump most popularly known as Bungy jumping is the most adventurous thing to do in Nepal and also this is one of the top 10 longest free falls of the world. Ever since my engineering graduation, I wanted to feel this ultimate experience but all the shots gone in vain. Once I was on the way to Tatopani for my office work, stopped there to get a ticket to jump but due to huge no. of bookings that day, they did not let me do it. I even waited two hours to try convince people there but had to come back empty handed.

Edge of the bridge to jump for Bungy and Swing.

I had also planned many times to book the Bungy from Kathmandu with Basu and Kiran but due to different problems we backed up. One year before Kiran ji did it with this other friends, since then I was more excited to do it as soon as possible. Then the day came when Vasek (my friend from Czech Republic) and his brother Andre arrived to Nepal to be close to the nature and attend Kiran's wedding this February, a season for marriage. Though I had already made a plan to do Bungy with them but not in the first day of their Nepal entrance and how would I miss Basu - the man who always says yes to the trips I make, even in the last minute. And that happened this time too, I had called him if he would join us only at the last minute of the booking time in TLR office, Sagarmatha Bazar, Thamel.

So next day, It was me, Basu, Vasek, and Andre travelling to The Last Resort, passing the strict Kavre bandh (strike) called by opposition parties against the Maoist government. After weighing our weight and brief instructions for the Bungy/Swing, we were divided into two groups according to our weights. 40-79 were put in first group where as 80 to 89 were in the second group. Andre, Basu and me were in the first group and Vasek made it to the second group.

We already had one more person into our group with the "guffs" we had made during the bus ride to TLR (The Last Resort), Sagar- a computer engineer student  was so excited to be the first to do it as he was the lightest among the boys but they started from the heaviest one in the first group. Andre instantly changed his mind to do Swing and was the first one to do it for the day and there was another person for the first Bungy. To kill time for waiting in the bridge for his turn, Basu started playing prank on some girls and told them that one person died last month doing Bungy and I too supported his saying for fun. As I heard an Isreali girl's scary words with the stuffs Basu pranked, the TLR guys called me to prepare for next Bungy. I was seated on a chair in the middle of the suspension bridge and started putting the belts on my waist and body. Then the video guy started the shoot asking how do I feel. I really felt excited, somewhat scared too and that's what I said to him. After pulling the rope from below and video shoots from different angle, the TLR guy tied knot on my both legs and even tied it to the backup belt on my body. Then he slowly pulled me towards the edge like a scuffled prisoner and then I could hear some words from the ppl next to me but could not understand what they were saying.
I went absolutely blank, my piece of mind was empty that time, all I knew was not to look down, but to look straight and jump after the guy behind me calls 1 2 3. Then after his countdown, I made an instant jump from the edge into the air down to the Bhote Koshi. The most exciting moment was the one when you feel like flying with your arms wide open, and that lasted for just some few seconds. After the first jerk, the most scariest thing happened as every thing I see was going so round that I felt dizzy with it. Then I thought of closing my eyes but I did not for not wasting this chance to experience every bit of it. I too managed to cross my hands and put in the chest which the instruction guy told during the demo class. The thrills all started to slow down when I see a bamboo stick down in the side of the Bhote Koshi river and the rope was put down. After grabbing the stick, they pulled me to the side, laid me on a bed and untied everything on me. The view from the bed was more scary and it was hard to believe that I jumped from that high. I wanted to click a pic from there but I did not have anything on me, so I asked one guy to give me his mobile to take a picture which he did unwillingly saying its a complete waste. Told him to give me the picture with his blackberry (may be a Chinese "Khasa" one) when he would be up in TLR after finishing all the jumps. I after having some rest with Andre who was waiting there for me, started walking upwards through the stone paved way. On the way we shared the thrills/experience to the top along with another guy who did Bungy after me. After 30 minutes of walk from the river bank, we reached The Last Resort spot where Vasek was enjoying the sun. He showed me my Bungy jumping picture that he had taken with my camera which was quite awesome from the viewing point and my full expression was on it. Thanks to Vasek for this amazing picture.

And here is the video of my Bungy jump taken by TLR for the extra 1500 rupees along with a nice T-shirt.

Here is a picture of ours with the TLR Tshirt.

From Left to Right:  Vasek, Sagar, Basu, Andre and me