Thursday, July 2, 2015

Travel memory: Thailand | The leap of faith...

When: Aug 2012
Where: Somewhere in the vicinity of Ko Phra Ngan/ Ko Tao, Thailand


We looked down from the cliff…the water was at least 30 feet down. To us  - it looked almost 60 feet down!
(swallowing gulps…) "Guys are we doing it?"
"Only if the rest are doing it and they survive…"
(Silent nods of agreement)…and we step back to allow the rest to take the leap first!

[Cut to - 10 mins before the above conversation]

We were on a day excursion from Ko Samui across the islands of Ko Phra Ngan and Ko Tao. It was an absolute tropical paradise with blue crystal waters, coral reefs in the water and loads of marine life!
We made a lunch stop at Ko Tao and had just finished a superbly assembled Thai lunch with all the delicacies you can think of; and was just about to stretch our legs and rest for a bit when suddenly the guide bounded towards us in general with fingers pointed and issues the challenge in his unique style;

Thai Guide (pointing at various people including our group): You man? You man?
We: (interpreting it to be an invitation to some kind of challenge to prove our manhood, kinda looking at each other in a bit of confusion and trying to apprehend what's coming next)
Thai guide (more emphatic and almost with a finger on our collective chests): You man-o-not? If you man, come-wi'-me...

Being brow-beaten into accepting the challenge, 3 of us khudirams (a close English approximation of this would refer to those fools who tread where angels fear) - Messrs Chatterjee, GuhaThakurta and I, quietly stood up to follow the guide to whatever it was we had to prove our manhood with or by. We turn around to the rest for a bit of moral support expecting them to join the ranks too…& this is what we got:
Chiki: Aami chhobi tulchhi toder ja korte cholchhish kor, tora jaa (I will click the photos of whatever you guys will be doing, you go ahead)
Vag (as a quiet undertone): aamio chhobi tulchhi…tora jaa jaa (I am clicking snaps too…go on, go on)
Bodhi: Already aamake diye snorkeling koriyechhish, byass ei t(r)ip'e aar adventure dorkar nei (already you made me do snorkelling, that's enough adventure for this trip for me)
Goba (leaning back with legs crossed over each other & rubbing his belly): ei just kheye uthlam boss….(I just ate…)
Pantu: (purposeful deadpan expression which effectively stalls any further querying upon his participation)

Proj (to me & Chatts in a super confident voice) - Chol to sala…aamra kori…! (Leave them, let us go do it!)

…and that is what brought us to the cliff-top!

[Cut to - the present]

Proj again (a marked decrease of bravado in the voice): Damn…it's high man
The Guide (gives a running start) - this is what you doooooo…..(one running leap into nothing…and splash!!)

We quickly run to the ledge - the man is already swimming towards one of the boat.

We quietly make way for the rest - and before long the first gent has jumped in! we check on him from over the edge…and we see this man has survived too and swimming towards shore! And that kind of opened the floodgates of the brave jumpers…one after another the small group jumped and some even came back for their 2nd dive, while the 3 of us continued to check out the safety aspects a bit more! ;-)

Suddenly the voice of the guide cuts across the group and finds us - You! Jump or not? Be a man?

Acutely conscious of not taking any insult to the manhood in front of this motley crowd (and especially when we had quite a bit of audience inclusive of beautiful women watching the action with interest) we start taking strides towards the cliff edge…and then a quick internal consultation:
Who's going first?
(Proj) - come on you guys…one of u start!
(Me): But you were the one who was most enthu…you brought us here!
(Proj): That was before I saw the height of the jump from up here…Abhi thoda phat gaya na! (essentially: scared shit a bit!)
(Chatts, me - with nods of agreement) - Me too. Me too.
(Guide, voice from a bit afar): Be-man…

Suddenly a scene from The Beach came up in my mind….while Di Caprio and the other guy (Etienne) argued over who would jump down the waterfall first, the girl (Francois) had taken a running jump - bisected them - and had jumped off the cliff into the waterfall…

Far from as dramatic, and with confidence that i didn't feel at all I heard myself say - OK…I am going first

With the life-jacket tightened, one last look down into the water to gauge the distance I need to jump to avoid the cliff-face, a running start and geronimo! I find legs flailing in thin air and then soaring and then the plummeting descent - the water surface getting closer and closer, my legs breaking the surface and then surrounded by  blue as you're 6 feet under!...and I survived!

My leap of faith...
 With a new vigor in my voice - Come on guys…it's super!!

I look up to see Chatts come to the edge of the cliff and almost making a pose to dive head first (yeah yeah, the mouth was still open)…
Shouts from all direction - Take a running start…
Chatts takes 2 steps back and suddenly he too is flying off the ledge…and quite a splash! Seconds later his head bobs out, mouth opens again with a smile on it - all's good!

Chatt's leap follows...
Last man standing - Proj. Go for it man…

Proj jumps (quite close to the cliff if we must say and almost feared for a second whether he's gonna hit the wall) and a splash later his head bobs up & we knew we survived to tell the tale!

Proj completes the leap-cycle
Almost like heroes we swam towards the shore (conveniently ignoring the fact that some of the over-enthu guys were making multiple jumps) and got onto the shore rocks!

To the guide: We man?
Guide (smiling) : You man!!

High-Fives all around…. :)

Public Photo














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Legend to the Buoys:
Proj a.k.a. Prajato Guha Thakurta
Chatts a.k.a. Arjun Chatterjee
Chiki a.k.a. Abhishek Sen
Vag a.k.a. Agniva Mookherjee
Bodhi a.k.a. Bodhisattva Banerjee
Goba a.k.a. Abilin Mukherjee
Pantu a.k.a. Parantap Basu

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I could really imagine what you have written with water beneath at 30 ft and you looking at it to take a leap, I mean just like that! Are you kidding me! I really loved the last image with the saying:) Very well written, do more of it Soumitree...