Bungy a Go Go!

There it is.........Macau tower. Home of the world's highest bungy jump.

five, four, three, two, ONE!

I couldn't even move. My feet were tied so tightly together that it was impossibe to take a proper step. So, bunny hoping and penguin walking til my toes pointed over the platform and into nothing but open air was... a scary feeling.

The jump master counted down... but I was still there. I was ready when he made it to 'one!' but not on my own accord. I expected that he'd give me a little push and then there'd be no turning back. I turned to the camera at my side and yelled "I'm terrified!". The kiwi jump master told me that eveything'd be fine. All I needed to do was stretch my arms out at my sides, look straight infront of me and let myself fall forward. But when you've got nothing but a 233metre drop in front of you, it's hard to just 'fall farward'.

haha...I asked for another countdown and on 'ONE!' I was on my merry way. I was so frieghtened waiting up there on the platform....looking down....but the instant I tipped forward I let out a big 'woooooooooo!!" and experienced the first free fall of my life and it was nothing but peacefull.

Ever since I was a kid I had been afraid of roller coasters and that sickly sinking feeling. It was only a few years ago that I really got my first taste of a roller coaster, when I was in China with friends and I loved it. I knew that bungy jumping would be the same but when I was up there waiting for my turn to plunge head first into a 233 metre fall, it's difficult to remember that you're there for fun.

Anyway, I'm really happy that I was so terrified before my first bungy jump (there will definately be more!). The fear of being up so high and going down so unbelieveably quickly made the jump more exciting and so complelely memorable.

After Irene, Josh and I finished up at Macau tower and thanked everyone that helped us with our jumps, we had a wonderful dinner at a cheap local place, wandered around and took the ferry home at ten. Immigration was a breeze yet again. Seeing as I've left the country three times this month they've never questioned my 'traveling' story. Piece of piss.

The three of us are planning on getting a big group together this summer, before Irene leaves for Germany, to do a load of jumps back to back. The first jump is pricey but the second and third are nearly half price...............and............the forth jump is FREE!!

So, the plan is to do three jumps each, one after another in a single day.

I'm excited already!

You've got to try it!

.hong kong harrington

Bungee Jump!

Tomorrow, I love you. I love you, tomorrow.

Tomorrow myself, Irene and Josh (and anyone else who cares to join the party) will be heading off to Macau.
I've been to Macau over ten times and I really never do much when I'm there, aside from photography and long leisurly walks.

HOWEVER!!!!!

This time the three of us are going to jump off the Macau tower, plunging 250 metres, experiencing five full seconds of free fall on the world's highest bungee jump.

I can't stop thinking about it.
We were planning on going the last sunday of the month, so I wasn't bothered to think about it all that much. But just last night I got a text from Irene saying that she didn't want to wait any longer, so why not do it tomorrow.
How could anyone possibly say no?!

Now,my head is completely full of fantasy images, trying hard to imagine what a 250m bungee jump could possiblyfeel like. I've been to Macau tower before, so I know how incredibly high up 250m really looks. I'm starting to get faint just thinking about it.

I told Rob this morning, on our way to work, that I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to do it once we three get up there. He made a pretty good point though. As long as I pay for the whole deal, then there's no way I can allow myself to back out of it. I'm not going to waste my money that way!
So, all I really need to do is pay for the jump BEFORE checking how ridiculously fucking high up I'll be.....

That's my plan. Pay before I look....and bring a spare pair of pants for when it's all over.

woooooooooooooo!!
bebs

Yang Shou

Let's get right too it.

China is awesome.

Dear China....yeah!

A compass, t-shirt, toy dog and a two hour long japanese massage is exactly what I got in Shenzhen yesterday. I woke up sunday morning with a tender stomach from saturday's lang kwai fong excursion. Before heading north to cross the hong kong border with china, I went south to causeway bay, where my passport with a double entry china visa was waiting for me. Getting into China is always easy. All I had to do was take the train to lo wu station, pass through the usual stages of the cheerful immigrations department on both sides of the border and I was set for the day. Getting back into Hong Kong was and often is my only worry in immediate life. The fright of deportation back to Canada didn't hamper my day at all. It was sunny, the skies were clear enough and I was in a fantastic mood. Even my stomach was in a good humour and didn't bother me with the moans and groans of nausia, once I gladly walked past the infamous lo wu shopping centre with it's aggressive hoards of locals selling everything from wedding portrait services to pirated dvd's and prostitution.

I had never explored Shenzhen before, even though I'd been there several times already. I was always apprehensive about being theived, getting lost or just couldn't be bothered to walk around solo. Though it wasn't much of an adventure, coupled with my daily bike riding to new unreached places, I've begun entertaining solo backpacking as a much desired and realistic possibility for my post hk future.

Not knowing anything about the city, I started out by walking in a straight line directly away from immigration. The sun was still strong and my backpack was heating me well, so after walking for some time I stepped into a familiar hk clothing shop, 2%, with it's Japanese flavour, multi patterned clothing, mostly for women and a decent t-shirt collection for the fella's. There were three cute gals working inside, all of whom gave a little giggle at the tattooed foreigner walking through the door. One stayed behind the counter while the other two hung around behind me giggling about something. The braver of the two tapped me on the arm and started quickly asking me questions in mandarin. I had no idea what she was saying and told her so in Cantonese. I was a little surprised when I noticed that between the two of them they knew almost zero english but with broken mandarin and canto we still managed to hold a conversation. In true asian fashion we took a couple of pictures together, laughing all along and I bought a toy dog key chain for my virgo astrological sign. One of the two asked me if I thought she was beautiful. I gave a good laugh and answerd easily through a smile. She was gorgeous! Taking steps to the main question she eventually asked if I had a girlfriend. When I said that I didn't she called me a liar. She was single as well and I still can't understand why. She was funny, friendly, phisically was fantastic and was playfully affectionate. I had to leave shortly to exchange some of my hk dollars for RMB to buy my toy dog and stayed a few minutes more before leaving for good. Her name from mandarin sounded like Ma Li and we gave eachother a hug and a kiss on the cheek when I left. Why ma li....!? Why can't we speak the same language. haha.

Walking again, I passed by an outdoor adventure shop, bought a compass and made an awesome new friend. Jennifer's english was really impressive. It caught me off guard after my funny conversation in 2%. Every weekend the shop owner and some locals go for an outing, hiking up some mountain or climbing another. All around the shop were beautiful photographs that the owner had taken from different spots in China. I was really impressed by everything I saw there. Later this month I'll join Jennifer, the owner and a group of others for a weekend expedition.

I went into way too much detail with that 2% business and now I'm short on time before today's final lesson. Today children, we're learning about phrasal verbs and comparing cultures. Is hong kong a melting pot or a mosaic?

Right, well.... sometime between walking and making friends I had a legitimate two hour long japanese massage for about 20 canadian dollars. It was freaking amazing! Then more walking. Immigration was a breeze. The guy before me was taken away for questioning. He looked nepalese. So, the officer I went to looked tres tired and simply stamped my passport without even looking at me. Three more months!

On wednesday I'm going to Gwailin and Yung sho with my two lovely local ladies, pat and jas.
woooooooooooooooooo!!!

see you all there!
bebs