The Jump of my life - Sky Dive at Chattanooga

My brother asked me what was that one thing that i really wanted to do in the US and I answered in a millisecond " I don't care if i don't go anywhere else, but i wanna sky dive!"  On the day of Rakshabandhan , I got a mail of my skydive reservation. Quite a gift, right?

A Night Before The Jump 

I wonder why people watch videos of other people skydive a day before they plan to jump. A real bad idea! Especially, for someone who could not sit on a roller coaster with a 300ft vertical fall, a 10000 ft sky dive was kinda something to worry about.

The Big Day

Well sky dive isn’t a big deal for a lot of people, but for a few like me it definitely is(bucket list item you see). So yes, as a tradition, on any important day my stomach gets upset (a lot of mixed feelings are a lil difficult to digest I guess) and Oct 19^th 2013 wasn’t less important. With those innumerable feelings of fear, excitement, happiness,impatience etc etc, we left home and drove to Chatanooga, Tennesse which is around 120miles from Atlanta. We as in my Dad, Sister, Brother, his friend and me.

More than anything else, that drive was something I would never forget. Three among the five of us were supposed to dive. To reduce the tension, we would laugh on silly stuff and there was at times a sudden silence after those giggles, the part when you say to yourself “Oh God! This is so not helping. But it’s okay, it’ll be fine.” 

Filling up the form

Edvaldo checking my equipment

As soon as we reached the Chattanooga Skydiving Company, they handed over a huge waiver form for us to fill, followed by some instructions. After which they called my name and I met my Brazilian instructor-Edvaldo.

 This was the time!! I wore my equipment and sat in the plane with Edvaldo and 4 other pairs, ready to jump off a 10,000 ft. At the height of some 5000ft Edvaldo asked me “have you ever felt that you’ve forgotten something after you leave the house? Coz that’s what I feel now!” That was definitely not something I wanted to hear at that time and height, even though I knew he was kidding.

All happy and excited before the jump

Ready to take off

As soon as the altimeter said 10,000, the shutter was opened and the first pair jumped. Oh God! That was the moment I could feel my heart pumping louder than ever. One, two, three and four down the plane. Now it was my turn. We stepped forward to the exit, he asked me to keep my feet behind and we jumped.

Wow! I screamed as loud as I could out of excitement. My eyes were wide open, I was so high up in the sky and I felt like I was flying. I could see the land so clear down there and the clouds and far off mountains right in front. It was surreal! I was falling and I couldn’t feel a thing, no butterflies in the stomach and not scared even a bit. Just that adrenaline rush and the air hitting my face, which was bearable. I was stunned!

Floating in the air

At some 5500ft, he pulled out the parachute. The free fall was just for 30 seconds but I lived it for a lot more.  Out of curiosity I asked him, " Why did you get into sky diving?"

He said " My dad was in the army.When I was small, I once saw him jump off the plane and I decided I wanna do this all my life." 

So there he was after some 10,000 jumps, jumping with me. I asked him if he still feels the thrill, to which he replied, " Yes ofcourse! every single time I jump"

That says it all..You can never get bored of something you truly love!
Edvaldo gave me the parachute controls for a while. Isn't that difficult. Another 3 minutes of floating in the air and we landed safe and sound. Damn, you wait for something for so long and then it ends in 5 min.

Feeling accomplished after the jump

With Edvaldo

This was it! I just sky dived! The jump was beautiful, the instructor was great and the pre and post jump was unforgettable. Next target- 18000ft ;)

Here's my skydive video -



For more information about the Chattanooga skydive company, 
visit http://chattanoogaskydivingcompany.com/index.html

To jump in one of the best places around the globe, 

visit http://offtrackplanet.com/magazine/articles/the-10-best-places-to-skydive-around-the-world

24 hours in New York City

People asked me “ How did The Big Apple treat you?”, and I couldn’t find the appropriate word. Well you gotta be there to know what its like. Coz how would you possibly describe this?

We stayed in Queens in LaGuardia Plaza Hotel, which was right next to the LaGuardia Airport. We reached at 2 in the afternoon and without wasting any time left our hotel to see New York. Frankly, you need a week to see New York and definitely more than that to actually know the city. The first place we went to was Grand Central.

Statue of Liberty

On the way to the Statue

9/11 Memorial

Grand Central

I hate to travel as a typical tourist, visit places that top the Google list and are always crowded with people. But I was happy being one this time. We visited all of those, but the two that topped my list were Top of the Rock and the all so famous Times square.

                                                    Top of the rock -

 It’s the top floor 
(70^th floor) of the Rockefeller centre.
We reached there around 5:30 pm. Since there was a long que , we had to stand for 15min and got our tickets for 6:40pm. Well what do I say about perfect timing!! Those buildings, the water, the bridges, the Empire State, the lights and the orange-blue sky.



We got to see New York in the day light and the glimmer of the night. Among the hundreds of photographers trying to capture their best shot, were a few people who were actually enjoying the place watching those uncountable stars on land. Quite romantic I would say ;) 

 

Times Square -

 Just after the depressing moment of departing from the Top of the Rock, we left for Times Square.One moment a bunch of school kids are dancing right on top of the stairs, the other moment there’s a couple getting clicked who landed there just after taking their wedding vows, the third moment there was a naked lady alluring people to take pictures with her just for 5$. So, you know what I mean.

This is one place where you’d find something interesting every second, to distract your attention from what you found to be surprisingly amazing the previous moment. It’s just like how you see in movies. The lights, the people, the noise, the taxis and the crazy stuff happening on the streets. Everything!!

I took some time to digest what i saw. Stayed there till 12:30am and then returned to the hotel in a NYC Taxi!! Okay, it isn’t that interesting to sit in a taxi, but i always wanted to sit in one of those Yellow taxis.So, I enjoyed that too :)

The next day we left in the morning and visited the Statue of Liberty. Got confused as to which ferry to take. But finally found the right one. The Statue was huge, didn't get time to get in the monument though. After the cruise ride, we went to the 9/11 Memorial and then straight to the Airport.


Important things to keep in mind-

Top of the Rock- Reach there atleast an hour before you wanna go to the top (if you don't have the city pass). Carry something warm.
Ticket-27$ onwards (adults)

Statue of Liberty-There are a lot of boats going there to different islands but only one takes you to the statue- Statue cruises. Its the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island cruise which you get from inside the Battery park. 
Ticket- 17 $ per person

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

 
Staying in a tree house, swimming in a huge lake, owning an island, climbing on to a car and picking fresh tamarinds, kayaking, dancing with a tribe and lying on a bamboo boat at midnight counting stars, sounds pretty much like a bucket list. Doesn’t it?

Well that was Parambikulam in brief. And yes, the core area of the tiger reserve is a restricted zone, so don’t expect to spot tigers anywhere around your cottage.

Day 1-We started early morning from Bangalore in our all so old Wagon R. Numerous lakes and bridges went by, but what caught our attention were a few Tamarind trees with fresh tamarind on them. And what better than climbing on to the car and picking hundreds of those fresh-sour-tickles, while the local people gave us stares.  We drove for some 8 hours, taking tiny chai or food breaks, or getting directions .The rest of the journey was more like a palette of greens

 and blues, something  I wish I could paint (sadly, I suck at painting) 

We were some 60km away from the forest, somewhere around the Ghats happily wailing away time, when this guy reveals that we need to enter the forest before 5pm. And it was already 4:15pm. Did we have an option but to rush? After reaching the Reserve, the guide led us to a lake, where a bamboo boat was waiting for us. We knew nothing as to where we were going, except that we were going to stay in a “Tree house” on an island. Exciting! Right?

We went rowing to the Bamboo island, watching the blur reflections of those mountains amidst that colorful sky, in the silence that was so magnificent. We got down at the tiny island which was all ours for a day (plus a few reserve staff). I felt like a celebrity having a personal island and a yacht (in this case, a bamboo boat :P ). 

As the night proceeded, it got colder and to give us company was hot tea and maggi for dinner. And that maggi would’ve been very difficult to eat, if not for those bamboo chopsticks and spoons the reserve guy made for us in a minute (Not that it was any better). After the dinner was our journey to the universe, like a star trail. Lying down on the boat, which was moving only an inch with the wind but without a sound, and gazing at those millions of stars right above. Wow!!  I didn’t even know there were so many stars in the sky. Being in that moment was like being in a dream, a fantasy.

Day2- Woke up to the music of chirping birds and sat next to the window trying to look across the fog, wondering how I ended up here. The next moment we went out and jumped into the foggy lake, swam for quite sometime (with life jackets on, or I would’ve drowned). While the guide was honing his photography skills with our cam, we were happily splashing water in that enormous lake and then left the island. 



In the evening, we were invited to a Tribal symphony, to which I couldn’t help but dance along. Plus there was a lot of Kerala rice and some carom-board with the locals. Knowing Malayalam is definitely an advantage if you want to spend some time with the simple soft-natured people there, or you would just end up playing dumb charades with them.

Day3-Early morning trek was definitely a good way to start the day. It was more like a nature trail though. We came across an age-old “Kannimara teak tree” and another weird-looking plant with a giant-sized bud, called to be from the Jurassic era. Later, we had tea with a German couple, took some rest and there was another surprise waiting for us.

Yet another island to be explored- the Veettikunnu Island Nest. But this time the island was huge and a lil scary, with a number of small islands around it. Dinner was the best part about staying there. We sat with the staff and prepared some sambhar and rice, which they served us with so much of warmth. To our luck, we spotted some wild elephants swimming across the islands. They were fast, like really fast. Thankfully, there was a fence around the hut, so we were pretty safe.

Day4-. The island was like a lonely planet, like we were lost in the wild, without a thought of going back to our routine life.  We kayaked back to the place we had parked our car, finished all the formalities and left for Bangalore, with a lot of memories and a wish to go there again.

Planning for the trip

Place - Parambikulam is located in Chitoor taluk of Palakkad district, Kerala, around 440km from Bangalore. You need the permission of the forest department to stay here.  A naturalist and some boatmen would be there to accompany you to the islands.

Route : Bangalore - Salem - Coimbatore - Pollachi - Parambikulam

Accomodation -

·         Tree house- around 4k

·         Other – starts 1k

Food- Prepared by the staff.  Groceries to be purchased from the Parambikulam village.

Options nearby -

·         Top slip

·         anamalai

·         athirapally waterfalls

For more details visit : www.parambikulam.org