[travel] Extreme interlaken Pt 2: Bungee Jumping

The act of bungee jumping lasts only about 15 seconds or so. However, these fifteen seconds are the orgasmic moment at the crux of the several hours' preparation and reflection, the focal point of the day's conscious thought.

Because of this intense mental pressure and the massive sensory stimulation during the jump, my memory of the actual event was sketchy and had to be pieced together after the fact. The normal conscious thought processes broke down as my mind was overwhelmed with data. I was only able to piece together the experience in retrospect.

First, some background: The jump is around 400 ft high, about the same height as the Golden Gate Bridge. The jump is done over water, allowing the bungee operators to take risks with how close they get you to the water's surface. Based on your weight, the stopping heights of previous jumpers, and current wind conditions, they can roughly estimate what height your jump will end at. They can't guarantee a dunk, but they can try to get you as close as possible to the surface, leaving an element of surprise in place. Stories of people who survived suicide attempts off the Bridge often describe the last-minute revelations (usually a re-evaluation of their decision to commit suicide) of jumpers. This jump essentially allows you to experience the sort of thing these people go through (minus the expectation of death), with a life-saving deceleration at the end.

Here's what I experienced:

(countdown to 0)
T+0. I'm jumping backwards to heighten the experience. Thus, I'm facing the people in the cable lift as I push off into a backflip.
T+1 (-15ft) Mountains show up upside down, along with beautiful alpine lake above and the sky below. I'm screaming a nice primal scream The weightlessness and mounting rush of air as I'm disoriented and falling away from my field of view are intense. Prolonged weightlessness is a very unusual feeling, and it's something most of us (with the exception of skydivers) are not prepared to deal with. It's rare as an adult to get a completely new physical sensation.
T+2 (-60ft) Facing the water now. I stop screaming. Nothing's really under conscious control. This is interesting because I didn't scream on roller coasters, tandem skydives, or even my first bungee attempt. Going backwards is definitely more intense.
T+3 (-135ft) The smooth ripples of the wave equation happening below in the alpine lake are a nice aesthetically pleasing gooey spread of mathematically derived wrinkles. Huh. Time to start screaming again.
T+4 (-240ft) Wrinkles are growing fast. Might hit the water soon. I should get in position. Arms locked in a fist above the head. Face pointed toward the horizon so the top of the head hits the water instead of the face. Fists should break water first, then head. (Do not under any circumstances be looking at the water when you hit it. You'll look like a bunch of hoodlums beat you up)
T+5 (~-350ft) Really slowing down. Damn, looks like I won't touch the water. Not even close. I hear the a voice from the boat on the water surface radio “12 meters”. I'm going up.
T+6. (~-350ft). Gotta look at the cable car for the photographer to get a good photo. Tiny little cable car far away.
T+7-T+40 For the next several seconds I bounce up and down, and as planned, I use some of the momentum from the intermittent acceleration to get myself in a bit of a spin. Then the operators gradually lower the line until I've landed in the boat.

Everyone who had jumped was miraculously transformed into a relaxed, happy soup of endorphins. We all sat around making pleasant conversation.

Here's the one pic that actually came out well:


A couple of people actually dunked. I captured one on video. Here's what it looks like:

As I mentioned earlier, I was interested in reliving my jump experience from the summer of 1998 when I was 18.  Both jumps had a theme of power and purpose, but the experiences of the jumps were very different.  I've changed, and the jump has changed.  (The old 250ft jump I did was taken down in 2000 after a ride operator mistakenly used the wrong bungee and sent the jumper to their death.  The company offering the jumps went out of business but later reincorporated as Outdoor Interlaken.  To this day they do not offer bungee  jumping.)

Me in 1998:

[travel] Extreme interlaken Pt 3: Hang gliding

I did the last of the three extreme activities on a rough day that promised an afternoon thunderstorm. Because I had a train ticket out, I had to go with a morning hang gliding session in order to avoid possible storm delays.

I chose hang gliding as my last activity because it would provide the closest possible experience to flying. In a hang glider, you are suspended horizontally, Superman-style, next to your tandem pilot. There's no motor, so your experience of floating above the hills is completely quiet. Hang gliders have an incredibly simple control mechanism. They are completely fixed-wing; you dive, climb, and turn just by shifting your weight and thus the hang glider's center of gravity.

The takeoff was incredibly smooth. The pilot and I started running down a hill and quickly found ourselves airborne. I giddily looked around at the landscape opening up below me, trees pointing their pointy tips up at me. It was a fairly relaxing experience. I didn't get any fear of heights as I felt securely strapped in.  Because of the lack of thermals, the flight was fairly short, and the pilot only had time for a couple of steep diving turns before landing. I was hoping to do more, but conditions didn't allow for it. I did get to experience enough that I know I'd want to play more with hang gliding in the future.

I'm amused that it took me several hours to realize why the hauntingly beautiful song “Walking in the air” had been stuck in my head all day. Here's the original version from the Snowman cartoon, and the rather good goth/metal version done by Nightwish.

It was very pleasurable and serene to finally fly nearly unencumbered like I occasionally do in my dreams.

[travel] Happy cows do not come from California. They come from Switzerland.

Say what you will about the inefficiencies of government-subsidized small-scale alpine Swiss ranching efforts... these are the best conditions I've ever seen for any livestock.  The cheese is fantastic too.


Note the paraglider in the background... I had to squeeze in another Swiss cliche

[travel] I'm a long way from Vietnam these days

It's been an interesting four months.

[travel] Can the religious conservatives relax now?

This vending machine offers not just condoms but bumpy little sex toys as well.  I found it in the men's bathroom at Berlin's Schoenfeld airpport.  Clearly the presence of such things has not caused the horrible moral decay that religious conservatives in the US worry about.

[travel] London adventures

My fantastic hosts in London:


I'm actually holding the camera for this picture.  It's a group self-portrait.  Long arms are good.

We went to a party that had the ostensible purpose of watching a particularly important football match, but it appeared the host's primary aim was to cook a lot of good food and see that people ate it.  I did not complain.  I spent a lot of time at the party meeting a very interesting and diverse group of Londoners and dancing to what may have been the worst DJ ever -- a drunken partygoer who poked and prodded at the premade party playlist, often stopping songs halfway through when he got bored of them.

On the way to the party, we saw firsthand how big football is here as our bus passed by the stadium.  Many of the attendees were already sloshed.  We had a subway car full of them, singing their way to the game while wearing identical jerseys.

Look how happy the guy on the left is, and the game hasn't even started yet.  The guy on the right was extremely proud of his tattoos and likely won't be moving to a different part of England anytime soon.