Breathtaking Activities

For me, the best way to forget all about my existing worries is to do something which is more straineous and requires my full, absolute focus and concentration. On the first day, that activity was taking a ride in the cable car.


"What's so challenging about taking a cable car? It's not scary! It's just like taking a cable car up to Genting Highlands. Short trip. No fear!" I thought initially. After all, I do it all the time. I took the cable car up to Penang 's 'Bukit Bendera' once. I took another one up to Genting Highlands as well. I didn't know I was such a big boaster until I took the cable car.

Steep Cable Car

As the cable car inched upwards, I took in the view of the limestone mountains and the Andaman seas. From the Oriental Village, we rode in the 'gondola' for a distance of good, long 2.2 kilometres for what seemed like eternity.

The Oriental Village

Air Terjun Telaga Tujuh

Along the way, the Telaga Tujuh (Seven Wells) Waterfall was in full view for all to see. As soon as we approached the first stop at 652.5 m above mean sea level, we hopped out of the moving cable car and snapped pictures to our hearts' content. As soon as we were satisfied, we hopped in again and ventured higher up to guess the location of Thailand from the peak of the mountain.

The World's Longest Suspended Bridge - in Langkawi

Then, by chance, we noticed the world's longest suspended bridge on our right! Sara and Aisyah, lovers of Bollywood movies, eagerly narrated how Shah Rukh Khan, shot fighting scenes on this very bridge. "Jean! We must visit this bridge, ok? Just imagine! Shah Rukh Khan fought on this bridge! He even hung himself in mid air in one of the scenes!" Aisyah expressed.

"Wokeh!" I happily agreed. As soon as the cable car approached the last station, it made an eery, almost mechanical, crashing like sound, that everybody in the cable car shouted. Their screams piercing in the thin, cool mountain air. I thought my ear drums were going to burst. My heart almost stopped beating, thinking that it would drop at the speed of gravity acceleration any minute now. Thank God we arrived at the station, safe and sound.

The view from the bridge was enchanting. It is surrounded by mist, clouds, dark green trees and huge, black rocks. It seems as if there is sort of a magical atmosphere surrounding us. A mistical force if only one would calm the nerves, breathe in deeply, blocked out the sights, the sounds and take in only the cold, tranquil atmosphere, reflecting deeply into our very own soul. The very act of walking towards the end of the bridge was like walking to the land of Never, Never Land. Never to come back again. Lost , 'til the end of times.

As we emerge from the clouds, I am speechless. I never imagined that such a place existed in our very own country. For once, I am proud that I can finally see the beauty of my own country.

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Parasailing was also one of the activities that I took as one of my stress relievers. I figured that suspending myself on a bunch of 0.5" thick nylon strings , thousands of metres above the ground would pretty wring myself out of my nerves.

With Aisyah urging me on, I finally got the courage to put on the harness, and get myself hooked onto the parasails. Before I started, the parasail operator said, "Ok. I'm going to give you a little safety training here. When the boat starts pulling, you start running for your life. Hang onto the sides of the harness. Once you're up, you may release your hands. The boat will take you round the island for about 5 minutes. Then I want you to look down at the beach. Once I wave the red flag, you just grab this orange little flap here, and push the strings down. Push with all your might, as hard as you can. When I say release, you let go of the strings and flap your arms like a wild bird. Got it?"

A hah.. seems simple enough. I nodded my head.

"Oh! One more thing." the instructor adds. "There are many parasailing operators here. All of them will be waving the same red flag. Ours is the one at this brown tower, the last one on this stretch of the beach."

My!OH my! I thought. I had taken off my glasses. How am I going to spot a red flag, 2km above the ground? I can't even read words that are 300 m away from me, for God's sake. But hey, I guess colours are easier to distinguish compared to words. So, with that, the jet ski drives off so fast that I had not even had a chance to run 2 steps on the ground before I was lifted up into the sky.

I think it was fast. By the 30th second, I was at the peak height. I looked around me and saw little villages with pink roofs surrounded by dark, green green trees. My feet were dangling , bare footed, 2km above the vast blue ocean. Suspending myself on a bunch of threads and a plastic parasail. What was I thinking? My sheer, minute life depending on the reliability and safety of these strings and the maneuvering skills of the captain of the boat. What if the hook broke? What if the strings broke? What if the parasails failed? All these thoughts swirled through my mind as I swayed up there, in the sky.

It was then that I realized that we have to have faith in people. Trust in the operators, faith in God. Coherent understanding of the mechanisms and the theory of bouyancy elevates the trust and removes the fear.

As I sink deeper and deeper into my thoughts, I realize that we are nearing the beach. I look out for the red flag. First glance, it's still on the ground. So I stare straight ahead. When I look down again, the flag is up. I feel for the orange strings and push with all my might. However, me, being me, with no workout regimes, and much less muscles, pushed like a baby would. People on the ground thought I hadn't heard the instructions and shouted for me to drag the strings down. Little did they know that I had been exhausing all ways and methods of pushing the strings, from the front, back, left and right, and it didn't seem to work!

Finally, the guy on the ground yelled, "Lepas Lepas! (Release ! Release)" and I happily freed my hands from the strings! Relieve flooded every inch of my soul. My arms fell limped against both sides of my shoulders. Tired from all that energy consuming activity, I forgot to flap my arms like a wild, free bird.

Without realizing it, I soon landed on solid ground. Two guys were there to catch me and unhook me from the parasail and hook on the next 'victim'. Boy. was I glad to be standing on solid ground!

I thought I wouldn't be nervous. Yet, after the landing, my fingers were not shivering, but my heart was beating so fast that I thought it would pop out any moment. I don't think describing the feeling as 'scared' or 'excited' would be apt. Perhaps, the rush of adrenaline from the pumping veins all at once would be a more appropriate description. A sense of doing something that I love fuels me with exhilaration, from top to toe. My head was spinning, my voice quiverred. I am glad I did it at the age of 26 for the second time in my life.