Malaysia

I went to Kuala Lumpur this summer to watch my friend Nick jump off of the KL Tower. The "2007 KL Tower International Jump" was a huge event, overwhelmingly publicized as part of Malaysia's 50th anniversary celebration, highlighting a theme of "Unity and Harmony" to promote Malaysia's cultural diversity.

Malays, Indians, Chinese and Arabs live side-by-side in Malaysia, using any number of languages to communicate with, bargaining and arguing but otherwise living peacefully. (I have my doubts that the peace wouldn't end with the strong economy, but that's the same everywhere.) Nick's sky-diving buddies were great and, although I settled into a cheap hostel the first day, I ended up staying on the couch at their hotel, which was right across the street from the KL Tower.

The KL Tower is the 4th largest communications tower in the world. It is also the only Tower to open itself to the sport of base jumping once a year; 100 jumpers from all over the world came to KL to spend a week jumping, shopping and drinking - fitting nicely with their tourism campaign of "Visit Malaysia" 2007. The only thing I didn't like about Malaysia was the hype. They have the most heinous tourism propaganda I've ever seen. "Malaysia - TRULY Asia" is their main slogan on TV advertisements. Of course China doesn't need that kind of propaganda. Everybody knows where the great wall is. Unfortunately, Malaysia is one of the least Asian countries I've ever seen. I ate a lot of great Indian food. I was harassed at the markets by the pushy Arabic sellers. (Not their fault - that's their selling style. Same in Egypt or anywhere else, except they're selling Hong Kong junk.)

The day before the jump we took a one hour taxi ride to an enormous tourist hub up on top of a mountain - an indoor mall with an amusement park and tons of other things, including a wind tunnel. Only $6 a minute or something like that which I'm told is a deal. I did allright, for having very little experience. I could keep myself stable...just couldn't really control where to go. The 2nd time around, I was getting tired and desperate - I couldn't get out by myself and there was no way to call for help! The experienced instructor grabbed me, spun me up and down and all around, and then tossed me through the door. Good man.

The first day of the Jump I picked up a Media pass that I held on tightly to for the remainder of the event, which allowed me full access to the building, to go up to the rooftop and strap on a harness and sit on the edge of the 980 foot platform the jumpers used to catapult themselves into space. At night we'd go for full bodied massages or bars. We went to a nice hotel buffet one night, with an open bar, and caused a ruckus - standing on tables and throwing sugar packets. (Not me of course).

It was nice to see Nick a part of something so big - jumpers were treated like VIP guests, star athletes, and cultural ambassadors. As they should be: BASE jumping is amazing...and dangerous. They have good gear, and they play safe, and they don't have a death wish, but when you've got only a few seconds before you hit the ground, anything unexpected can actually kill you. There were a few accidents, but nothing serious. More alarming to me was that people were jumping who only last week had broken an arm, a leg or a back. Hardcore.

But who am I to judge. They had a great time, I would try it too if I could get more skydives first.