The day started out with a visit to the A-Ma temple. There were many people lighting candles and incense, and praying at the various stations. The architecture of the temple was beautiful, as were all of the different colors.
I bought my ticket up to the top of the tower and met a bungee instructor on the elevator going up. My stomach started getting jittery as the elevator with windows climbed to the top of the tower. I got out of the elevator, marched over to the desk, and paid for my jump. No turning back now, because they don’t give refunds! I signed my life away and they gave me a black shirt, signifying that I would be bungee jumping.
I was shown out to the deck where they put on my harness and as they were strapping the cord to my ankles and I saw the view, I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. I was SO high up! I was guided out onto what I considered was the equivalent of “walking the plank”. It was probably only 2 feet long, but it felt more like 2 miles. They counted down from 5 and at 3, I knew I would need another 5 second countdown. Haha. I looked around and saw the entire city below me. The wind was blowing, and I could not believe what I was doing. After the second countdown, I got up the courage to start leaning forward, and finally reached the point of no return…in a split second, I was free falling…eventually reaching over 200km/hr. 6 seconds and 233 meters later, I had done the tallest bungee jump in the world, and to say I was elated is an understatement. The feeling of falling was surprisingly not terrifying like I thought it would be. It was much more like skydiving than I had thought…no roller coaster stomach-in-your-heart feeling...that I can remember, at least! I couldn’t believe I did it, but I couldn’t imagine not having done it. It is incredible how scaredyou can be before you do something like that…but it really just took that one step of committing my body to the fall, and within a split second, I wasn’t scared anymore. I think Nike put it well when they said…”Just Do It.”
Anyway…the tower is too high for them to pull you back up, so they lower you down onto a big air-jump type of thing. I was only the second jumper of the day, and all of the tourists were talking at me in various Asian languages that I could not understand, but from what I gathered they were congratulating me. And naturally, they wanted to take pictures with me...I like to consider these peace sign-showing, picture enthusiasts as part of the Meagan Fan Club. After an impromptu photo shoot with half of mainland China, I made my way back up to the top of the tower to get my bag and to have lunch in the revolving restaurant, a nice treat with a breathtaking view after one of the coolest things I have ever done. All in all, a great first half of the day.
