What it feels like for a man (to jump down from 50 meters)

It feels horrible. Add a pair of paddings to your legs and a rope to them, the jump becomes adrenalin-pumping as well.

Yes, now I can finally erase bungy-jumping from my todo-list (although I certainly will do it again sometime ;) ). Me and Silja went to do a 50-meter bungy-jump here in Koh Samui near Chaweng beach. Silja had already jumped once back in Finland from as high as 155 meters. According to her the scarier it is the lower you jump. So I was now in for a treat.. The location was at a nice bar with a pool and a trampoline as well.

Silja did it first. She came down almost as soon as she got up so I was kinda unprepared for that.. I thought one would have to ponder and think of death at least for 2 minutes before doing the impossible decision of leaning forward and falling. And of course, the views up there are nice. The rope stretch was measured so that our heads or upper-bodies would dip into the pool of water, which was a nice extra bonus :).

When I became my ascent towards the peak of the crane with my legs tied together I was beginning to feel more and more tense as I realized just what the **** I was about to do. During the trip the instructor gave instructions: "do not grab the rope at any time, close your eyes when you get to the water, put your feet half-air half-platform when jumping, put your hands in a T-position and then just lean forward, do not jump". OK....

At the top then I moved to my position. I glanced around the sea and the island. The views were cool as you could see the coastline as it was depicted in the map. Then I looked down where Silja and a bunch of other people were glancing up, waiting for me to do the drop. I looked at the pool. It seemed as if I would hit the concrete slabs beside the pool if I would do the jump. I calmed myself by saying to myself "I have to trust the organizers, they have been doing this for years and they know if I would hit the concrete.. besides they said no one has been killed here yet". Then I felt calm. The idea of leaning forward was not still imprinted to my brains so I thought about just doing the critical small lean, so I would not have to worry about it anymore, the nature would take its course - either I'd die or survive. At the moment of starting to lean I felt calm. I felt calm when my body was in horizontal position. Maybe 200 milliseconds after my feet had detached from the platform I got a primal instinct going like a shock through my body like 400 kilovolts. It felt just terrifying to know I had jumped and the gravitation is pulling me down with an increasing speed (9.8 m/s every second). And I felt like falling towards the slab. I shouted and shouted as adrenalin was pumping through my veins and I felt like I needed to explode. I don't remember exactly the moments of the first fall but I remember dipping to the water with my eyes half-closed. It was relieving in a way to know you did not fall to the slab. I bounced up and had to continue shouting as the lifeforce was flowing through me and I felt so animal at the moment, my muscles definitely making their best efforts to protect me from the unknown danger.. I could just say few words like..unbelievable and something less polite. I had to let it out. The experience was beyond words.. Man you have got to try it! It's like saying: "I now release the fear of death and the fear of heights. I submit to my fate."

And this happened on Saturday - the day Silja arrived to Koh Samui. We spent a very nice evening down at the Chaweng beach, first laying on the beach and the wondering the night-life. Definitely one of the weirdest things there (for me I mean) was the transsexual-show. The ladyboys were doing a cabaree show for the (maybe bi- :D)curious audience. The beer was expensive but the show was quite interesting and fun to watch. They sang all kinds of classics with cool outfits. And they all were men without dicks. One could tell.. Or then they had it like Lieutenant Einhorn from Ace Ventura :P. We ate at a good Indian restaurant and ended up as well to a beach party but found it to be boring. Silja got properly wasted - I mediocrely. The last destination was "a reggae bar" with live music, wannabe-rastafaris were playing every song that is played in the clubs nowadays in guitar-pop way. Sounded cool. The bar was of course, as it is in every bar here, filled with Thai girls with daring outfits, trying to entrap western men with low self-esteem (:P). I don't know who knows it might be good times though.. When we were back at our bungalow - New Hut bungalows, right on Lamai beach - 01.30 we still watched for the oddly-shaped moon and the stars for some 30 minutes on my newly-bought sarong. And the two dogs that hang out there were playing with us :) They are funny chaps, biting always each other's necks and running around. At some point of the night I woke up to some American accent English and a definitely Thai English (male and female, respectively). No question it was a case which is quite common here. A western guy and a Thai female. After 15 minutes of aural agony it became silent. Sleep.

The bungalow is just like from a movie. Silja and me share a very simple hut, area of maybe 8-9 sq. meters. The usable area is smaller because of the shape of the roof. We lock it with our own padlock. Out of the door is the beach right in front of us. The bathroom is common for all of the inhabitants. It's a nice feeling brushing my tooth on a beach. Toilets are self-flush. It's hard to keep your eyes closed while trying to pour water from a bowl to the toilet :).

On Sunday we just chilled out and explored our beach surroundings and basked in the sun. Took a Thai massage and such.

Today, on Monday, we visited the Ang Thong national marine park - 1,5 hours from Koh Samui by boat. It is an area of 102 sq. kilometers with over forty islands and views that are breath-taking. Heard the Beach movie took inspiration from this area. We kayaked, saw a lagoon and trekked a very good trek up to a viewpoint where you could see so magnificent views that..whel I don't know what to even say! Lunch was plentiful and there was lot of Italian people on the boat for some reason. We swam, we sunbathed. It was the granniest trip maybe so far, but nevertheless enjoyable. With patience these trips are OK ;).

I came to Samui on Thursday. I accommodated myself after a veery sweaty search to Bophut beach where I heard it's like a compromise of peaceful and having parties. It was way too peaceful for my taste and there was not so many people. I ate lot of good Thai food there though. And bought some decorations for neck and wrist. I spent my nights in a fancy two bed room with a tv, a/c and a refrigerator. They even had a FHM-magazine on the table so everything was set. On Friday, I treated myself on my birthday with a zipline tour. We went with a 4x4 jeep to the jungle with two Germans, two Russians and one American. The ziplines were some 30 meters above the ground but the vegetation was quite dense you could hardly see the ground. Some of the ziplines were totally cool when they went fast. We had gloves in our hands to control the speed.

I booked all the travels I and Silja have made through a travel agency which was in the Bophut beach. It was called Fisherman's tours (I promised to advertize this :) ). The owners were Mrs. Good and Mr. Num. They have been married for 12 years and have one child. They were always very nice to me and gave me discounts from the prices mentioned in the tour-leaflets. I e.g. arranged my transfer from Bophut to Lamai beach for free when I promised to take some of the tours (which I was going to get anyway). The transfers between beaches here in Koh Samui are namely quite expensive. So, on Friday night Mr. Num invited me to drink with his friends to the beach and do some BBQ. We went to a market with Mr. Num's motorbike and bought some meat and vegetables. Then he said he would marinate the meat and make some sauces, after which he took me back to my hotel. In the evening then I went to the travel agency to wait for the go to the beach. And Mrs. Good started to tell me how she got hospitalized only two weeks ago by Mr. Num as they had had some arguments about him drinking too much with his friends and being "too friendly" with other girls. And it was bad for the business as he, according to her, could not get early enough to the office to open up places every day. Well I understood Mrs's concerns, it is bad for business if the other person does not do his duties. I also understood that Mr. Num apparently wants some kind of change in his life. I found it very weird she wants to stay with Mr. Num if he beats her. I guess the relationships here down south are based on other things as what we are used to in western countries. Anyways, we got hammered at the beach eating good food and I tasted also cows skin, which was very good. I also sat on the beach and watched the stars in the higher energy levels... Finally Mr. Num drove me back home. Nice experience by the locals.

Tomorrow we will go again to Chaweng beach to hang out. I will miss quite a lot there is to see here in Samui, but I guess I have seen on this journey quite a lot already. Silja is planning to do the island safari which includes all the stuff here like crocodile shows and waterfalls. Silja will travel back to Bangkok on Sunday and continue her journey from thereon until the mid-April'ish. Hope she gets her blog up n' running again ;).

I will end my journey at this time on Wednesday. I will fly from Koh Samui to Bangkok and then wait for the plane to Beijing. In Beijing I will wait for some hours and then finally return back to Finland only to live with my parents.