Exploits in Thailand

My Skydiving Video


Performing with a band at Pattaya


Skydiving at Pattaya topped our list, when me and Ivan had earlier chosen Thailand as one of the countries to visit. Little wonder then that we chose Pattaya as our first destination and soon as we’d checked into our rooms we headed out to enrol for Skydiving for the following day. Once committed, we set out to explore the place. There are bars aplenty and, women inviting you for a drink is commonplace. For a reveller, Thailand is Utopia and I won’t delve into this in my blog, but, on our exceptional exploits. We spent our evening at one of the bars on Walking Street, a lane which is abuzz with neon glowsigns and flocking tourists, that leaves an impression that you are a part of some carnival.

Next morning we were picked up from our hotel and taken to the drop zone where the Thai Sky Adventures conduct tandem Skydiving. Skydiving, as anticipated was an absolute thriller, where they took us to about 13,000 feet in a porter pc6 aircraft and then we just lean out and take a plunge. The moment you are about to leap out gives you an exhilarating feeling like nothing else. During our instructions, I learnt that a glider (not a parachute) is deployed after about 45-50 seconds of free fall, and I informed my instructor Frank that I am a Club Pilot in Paragliding. When he was convinced, Frank handed me the brake toggles to steer us to the landing before he took over for the final approach. The Skydiving video is one of the videos (thanks to Pradeep, our camera man) which I’ll cherish forever.

Evening, we landed at Walking Street again to celebrate. We went to ‘Blue Sky’ where a Rock Band was performing to requests. Elated, as we were with our skydiving experience, we placed requests after request for our favourite tracks to be performed by the Band. When I was about 5 or 6 pegs of JD down, I had a sudden urge to sing and approached the band with the request if I could perform with them. They assented and the next moment I was up there on the stage lending vocals to the song ‘Creep’. Ivan could only manage to capture a small snippet for the video as the memory card in the camera got exhausted and could go no further. For me, this was the second thrilling experience of the day.

We stayed in Pattaya for three days before we headed to Bangkok for the final leg of our journey. The day we arrived in Bangkok, was spent in fun and frolic. The next day, we took off early in the morning for Kanchanaburi for the Tiger Sanctuary. By the time we reached the sanctuary, we could only manage to see the tigers at close quarters. If we’d have reached a couple of hours earlier, we would’ve got a chance to play the big cats. However, we found good friends in Jacek and Martyna from Poland on our way to Kanchanaburi. On our way back, we were delayed so much that we’d missed our last public transport from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok. And so, we were left with no alternative than to hitch-hike and fortunately we managed to hitch a ride in a pickup truck and the owner of the pickup was so helpful that, not only did he drop us off at the Kanchanaburi, but he ensured that we got an economical transport all the way to Bangkok. On reaching Bangkok, me, Ivan, Jacek and Martyna ganged up again to chill out for the rest of the evening.


Pandemonium on our way back.

We had only one day left for shopping for family and friends; we devoted the next day to it and, after all the rigmarole we decided to go ballistic that evening. We cleared our hotel bills, packed our travel bags in advance and set our alarms to 7am so that we could reach the airport the next day by 9am, for our flight was scheduled for 12. Needless to say, we were partying till the wee hours in the morning and I woke up to stare at glaring sunlight on my face. I panicked when I saw that the time was 9:10am. I battered Ivan till he was wide awake. We made good time as our cab reached us the airport at 10:45am and we managed to check in our luggage alright. While we were at the screening area for personal belongings, a lady constable accosted me and asked me to step aside. Much to my bewilderment, she emptied the contents of my waist-pouch on the table, and there popped out the empty cartridges of the fired bullet shells, we’d collected as mementos, from Vietnam. When I explained to the lady about the shells, she said that I could carry on, except the mementos would now adorn the trash can. It wasn’t an option presented to me and, my hangover notwithstanding I tried convincing her no avail. Finally I conceded and as I joined Ivan, he reprimanded me for being careless. He also refused to give me one of the mementos shells that he had in his baggage ‘checked in’. My loss coupled with the hangover was enough to get me morose and our connecting flight got us to Singapore where we had another four hours before we could board the flight to Mumbai.

The drama that ensued assumed gigantic proportions. I stepped out of the Singapore screening area while Ivan was now asked to step aside. Ivan had not ‘checked in’ the memento shells after all. While I was only confronted by a lady constable at Thailand for the blunder, Ivan was gheraoed and led to a cordoned off area. I tried explaining to one cop who wouldn’t let me in and though every cop seemed hostile in the beginning, they seemed more responsive when they realised it was only empty shells. The cop I had confronted earlier came back and informed me that it was only some formalities that required taken care of before Ivan could walk free. He pointed out to the lounge where I could wait for Ivan before he could join me within the hour, to which I retorted (understand this, I was still under the influence of alcohol or hangover, if it makes more sense) “Keep him for another three hours if need be” and to myself “while I catch up on some lost sleep”. Formalities done, Ivan walked scot-free and hammered me till I was wide awake. He proudly displayed the gum he’d been chewing all along while he was being questioned about the shells and I thought to myself “is he for ‘real’?” or is ‘he’ for real?” The rest of the trip from Singapore to Mumbai was all about reminiscing, hi-fi-ing and more Jim Beam on Singapore Airlines till we touched down.

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