#2. Sky diving -- I believe I can fly... I believe I can touch the sky...

April 2013

This one tops my bucket list. I'd been wanting to do this for 2 years now. Heard about this place in Dubai which is known to have one of the worlds best sky dive spots. Watched videos of 2 friends who did it and I tell you.... Just watching someone sky diving will give you enough adrenalin rush to want to do it. I wanted to.,. I crazy desperately wanted to sky dive. For 2 yrs, ever since I heard about it, the right time hadn't come. I had to plan up for this expensive dive (expensive, yes... but totally worth it for a lifetime experience). Finally 2013 was destined to be it !! The big 30s was already running... And I'm off to a flying start to the bucket list.

Skydive Dubai. http://www.skydivedubai.ae/

One of the worlds best location to sky dive because of the wonderful view of Palm Islands from up there. The booking was known to be always full for weekend slots up to 3 months and we had to really plan in advance. I decided a date for this super adventure - my birthday. So I looked up the website of skydive Dubai to book my spot and save the date. Gathered a few more friends who were interested - 6 of us booked this for April 2013. Now we all had to wait patiently for 3 whole months for the D-day. The word 'patience' is such a huge challenge for me in such times of excitement. Every second and every minute and every day of mine were only looking forward to my birthday tht year. Days went by, weeks went by and finally it was here. Yaaaayyyy... The most awaited day of the year!

Our slots were booked around 12 noon. I was busy preparing quick breakfast early that morning for us and friends who were joining us. 3 other friends were already enroute to the location. The general mood of that day was filled with hyper excitement from everyone. Amidst this morning buzz, I received THE call. THE devastating call of the day - due to sand storm in UAE, sky diving was cancelled. All of us were soooo heart broken - ME, the most! The team who were already enroute to Dubai reached the spot and double confirmed this news. We were being refunded :-(
The next available date was only after Sep as Sky diving over the Palm Islands was closed during summer (Jun-Aug) :-(( A heart broken ME shut off for the day with all the excitement broken to pieces.

September 2013.

As soon as the bookings reopened, we booked 4 slots (this time it was a group of 4) on the earliest convenient date for all - 29 Sep 2013 @ 2pm. Needless to say that this time I mellowed down and played it low on the excitement levels and hyper enthu. I don't think I had it in me to wait another 3 mths incase this time flopped as well. My patience is not that good. The day finally arrived. Clear summer skies seemed promising this time.

The 4 of us reached Skydive Dubai. The place was crowded. We submitted our registration and were told to wait for some more time as the previous batches were yet to finish. We wandered around the place, stepped out to look at some of the other divers floating in the sky in parachutes heading towards land. Watching all the excited faces having successfully completed the dive was fun. Eventually our turn came. Each of us had a tandem diver (expert diver to whom we would be stapped along with for the dive). These tandem divers did 5-6 dives each day, batch after batch, and dint seem to lose any energy nor excitement while gearing up with the next batch. Amazing body energy !!! Each of our tandem divers gave us our diving gears and strapped them on us. We all had our individual video/photographer who was shooting and clicking all our excitement as we were gearing up. Few quick instructions were told to us about the signals we make and hand/leg movements before and after jumping off jet. As it is impossible to speak when in that altitude against the high wind speed while diving, the only mode of communication to your tandem diver were through this hand/leg gestures, so it was important to understand these instructions and follow them exactly. Not very complicated though. We were all geared up, various straps all over and then taken in a buggy to our jet. The seating inside the jet was body mass wise, and I was the lowest in that group and thus made to sit in the fag end of the jet - which meant that my turn to dive would be the last. The tandem diver with me was a very sweet New Zealander lady who coped with my excitement shrills and reactions from time to time, and was speaking encouraging stuff to calm down the slight nervousness amidst all the excitement. She linked my straps with hers as we sat into the jet and waited for everyone to settle into the jet before it took off.

Adrenalin rushing faster and faster as the jet was going higher and higher with an open door. Looking at each others faces - the mixed emotions of fear & excitement as the moment was nearing - could only be empathized by those in that moment. As we reached 13,000 ft above, one by one started diving out of the jet with their own tandem diver & personal video/photographer (meaning, 3 people dive out of the jet at the same time). As I was seated at the very inside of the jet, I couldn't see much of the ones who dived before me. Quickly my turn came and as I was standing at the door with my tandem diver & video/photographer, I could see below me my friend who dived before me.... the speed in which he was free-falling below me gave me goose bumps. The view below while I held on to the door was breadth taking. I couldn't believe I was about to jump out of a plane from 13,000 ft. I dint have much time to think. Everything was happening fast. I was already at the door and the video/photographer was hanging outside the door in front of me with his camera focusing on me. My tandem diver swayed over the door and within seconds we had jumped out of the plane free falling.

The moment is undefinable. I don't know the exact word that can define my emotion at that moment. But if I could use a couple of words - overwhelming, breadth taking, thrilling, spine-tingling, heart stirring, exciting, amazing and hair-raising (literally!!).

 

During the free fall for a couple of seconds, I felt the wind slapping hard on my face (thank god for the goggles that allowed me to keep my eyes open and enjoy the view below). The view below was marvelous - right below me was the palm islands - such an amazing engineering!!!  (one can truly appreciate this only from THIS view, from the top). Little besides the palm was "the world islands" - only Dubai can think and do such engineering marvels!! On the other side was Dubai land - the skyline of Jumeirah, Sheikh Zayed road and the empty dessert beyond. Infact I felt like I could see the earth being a sphere when I tried to look to the farthest I could. Enjoying the moment. Experiencing every second of the free fall. The video/photographer had asked me to keep looking at him during the free fall so he could take some good clicks - however I had forgotten about him when I looked at the various views below. I was confused where to look - the palm, the world, Dubai skyline, empty dessert, the spherical ends or the video/photographer. I still managed to pose now & then during the free fall.

After a couple of seconds free-falling, my tandem diver signaled to me & the video/photographer and then released the parachute. The wind immediately took us higher while we parted with the video/photographer who quickly waved a bye and kept free-falling further down. Once the parachute was out, our speed decreased big time and we were soon floating in the air slowing descending towards the ground. My tandem diver did a quick check on me to see if everything was fine. The descend on the parachute took about 15 mins roughly. We chat up a bit. She swayed the parachute to make the descend a bit adventurous as we went in circles slowly with the move of the parachute. The view was still breath-taking as we got closer to the ground. My stomach was churning by this time and I felt weightless. I could finally see the others were landing below me. We were finally getting there too... as my feet touched the ground I saw the video/photographer waiting for us there clicking away pics.

Finally I did it !!!!!!!
I believe I can fly... I believe I can touch the sky.... - Song by R.Kelly - This has been my all-time fav inspirational song and that day I literally experienced it :-)
 

The next half hour was trying to get our heads back to reality - taking pics, catching up with the others on their experience, unloading the gears, breathing hard & drinking water. We waited for a few mins as our personalized video & photos were being processed into CDs. Saving the memories for a lifetime!! We then head back home.

Fear Rating: 5/5.
Only for the brave hearts! - highly recommended for a lifetime experience


Here is the video that has captured my experience to save it for lifetime....
The excitement is contagious.
http://youtu.be/IORVf0hZBjo

 

#1. Parasailing. Up... Up.... Up in the air!

June 2011.

I had just discovered the very famous deals website - groupon.com. What an amazing discovery (though a little late!). I just couldn't believe how much I had missed out in life until I got to know about this. I soon became an avid follower of all the deals around the city. That's how I came across a deal for PARASAILING - AED 99 per head. As usual, I quickly circulated an email to my small friends circle to check who else was interested to join me, bought the groupon and made the bookings.

It was an early Friday morning, weekend in this part of the world. Weekends are usually very lazy, and it was very unusual of me to wake up at 6am on a Friday. People who know me well probably can guess that I dint really sleep the previous night in the excitement of the day ahead. Three of us (accompanied by my daughter who was less than a year old) were into this venture. We had to drive an hour from home to the destination. It was a hot summer day and I was least bothered about a tan with the excitement rising within me every second we walked from the car park towards the beach (the spot we were asked to report to). The guy who was going to take us into the sea was waiting for us on the shore and gave us quick instructions - nothing much actually. He just told us that we had to walk a little further into the beach and get into a boat that would take us to the point where we can begin the parasailing. Since we would have to walk through the waves for about 20 steps, he asked us to remove any contents in our pant pockets and safe guard our mobiles. We'd have to go one at a time and of course my daughter had to take turns waiting in the boat with my husband or me, while it was not either of our turn. I was too excited to have any patience allowing the guy to complete his instructions. We quickly did some actions to acknowledge the instructions and started walking to the little boat.

 

Once we got settled into the boat, we were accompanied by 2 other groupon voucher holders and sped off into the waters. In about 10 mins we reached a point in the sea that had a lovely skyline view of Jumeriah beach, away from all the buzz. The boat guy asked who wanted to go first, and without giving anyone a chance to even think, I jumped up and walked towards the end of the boat that was setup with the parachute. The guy repeated some instructions asking not to carry anything heavy or hold anything in hand and to remove contents from pocket. Ooppssss.... I just then realized that I forgot to take my blackberry out of my pocket when we had to walk into the waves!!! The 3 month old BB was completely soaked in water and as I removed it out from my pocket and saw the water drip out... and I did the big mistake of switching on a wet mobile phone.... it obviously dint switch on. Watching the facial expression of my husband and friend that moment - priceless! Ooopssss.... but Lol!!! I was in full excitement mode that the BB conking off dint matter to me even for a sec (until a couple of hours later I realized how a groupon deal AED 99 eventually became an expensive one against the cost of the new BB!!... well the experience was priceless anyways :-D... that is convincing enough to me).

I sat on the small rope like thing shaped like a swing with the parachute just above my head like a umbrella. Held onto both the sides of the swing like rope and spread my legs out. I was starting to get a little nervous, but the excitement was just not letting go. The boat guy started releasing the pulley to which the rope from the parachute was rolled in. I slowly started flying up from the boat. I dint have any feel of the speed or movement from the pulley rolling, but I could see that I was going higher and higher, further away from the boat.

Posing for pics (which I never stop doing! Ready for a pose under any circumstances!), waving to my husband and friend in the boat and hearing my daughter's cry watching my fly away.... I was soon high above that I couldn't hear anything - pin drop silence. I could see a lot of hustle bustle on the beach shore, and quite a few beach activities, but couldn't hear a thing. The boat away now faaaar below me that I couldn't spot who was who from up there. Soooo calm and peaceful up there. The skyline of Jumeriah beach was wonderful and the one side view of palm islands was breadth taking! I felt like I was swinging in the sky with a marvelous view in front of me. Calmness, silence, beautiful view.... bliss!! Fifteen mins went by, and I slowly started hearing sounds of chirping and people talking. I looked below and realized I was getting back closer to the boat. In just about few mins, I was down in the boat and it was the next person's turn. Quick reaction to my friends to let them know that its absolutely nothing scary and such calmness up there.

And then it was photos... photos... photos. When it was my husband's turn, he dared to take the camera up with him inspite of the boat guy warning us that anything dropped or lost from up there was at our own risk. He took some pretty good shots of the skyline and view from above. Everybody had their turn and loved the experience.

Fear Rating 2/5:
Must try for those who want to start some adventures - not too scary, yet adventurous.

Up... Up... Up in the air... discover peace & calmness. It does give a different perspective in life to stay calm and look ahead of you... (and ignore the careless BB tragedy :-p).  

The list

I'm not very disciplined when it comes to writing or reading. So I've never really been a blogger. But I recently got this inspiration from some of my friends to start blogging. I've read some of their blogs and they are really lovely, most write very well and can get the reader hooked on to their page until they read blogs that goes back to many years. However, I've decided to blog on my life... the part of it that's taking the bucket list very seriously! Incase I have some memory issues down the lane, I could probably read through these blogs (that someone can guide me to :-p) and try to rejoice that I've lived up to some adventure & thrills at least!

Pardon my language, short forms, spelling, etc... this blog is not going to come out as a good impression on my English writing skills. I'm going to attempt bringing out my first-hand-feel-of-the-moment that I honestly felt while going through each of the items on my list.

Well, I'm starting off this blog a bit late... The first few tick-offs from the list have been done in the last 2 years... but I'm going to try and catch up writing on those, now that the memories are not too faded.

Like a lot of people, the very idea of wanting my very own 'bucket list' was an outcome of watching the movie THE BUCKET LIST (until then I had no clue of what this meant :-D) . I saw this movie in my mid 20s and the inspiration was immediate, from the time the movie finished.

I immediately started jotting down all that I wanted to do in life. Of course there were many many things that I could think of, and many things I had no clue of, and the list started growing bigger and bigger and at the end of 1 hour I thought the list was starting to get silly and probably made no sense at all. At that time in my life most of them seemed sooo impossible too. I decided to park this idea of "bucket list" and soon forgot about it with the routines of life.

One day, as life was passing by, I was awakened by that horrible feeling of realization that I was stepping into the 30s. What happened to the adventure in my life? Did my routines become adventure by themselves?? Oh My God... Where did the 20s go? Where is all the adventure to spice up life? I finally told myself, well, its not really late... 30s!!! watch out for some fun & thrills to spice up life.

Revised bucket list gets ready.
The list started off with the easy-to-do & available options...
.... add-ons with the not-so-difficult & easily available options...
to .... quite far off, but not impossible options...
and letting it remain open-ended with new add-ons from time to time.

My Life, My bucket List in pictures (from google images)....

PS: there is no specific order... whichever seems possible to happen first, gets done. 

Let's begin...