Adventurous September?

When people like me are asked to develop a strategy for the development of adventure-tourism in a state – they often get lost in their own dream world. This is exactly what I am going through these days.

To be able to advise the government of Orissa, I need to know vatsap in the rest of India – and that means loads of secondary research (alright – Google). My only problem is that when I am say pondering over the possibility of including a rock-climbing schedule in a possible Orissa Adventure Tourism itinerary – I end up jotting up a plan to indulge in rock-climbing myself! Same goes for everything else – kayaking, rafting, cycling, para-sailing, para-gliding, sky-diving, scuba-diving and on and on. I think that by the time I prepare a draft Concept Note for Orissa, I would have another one ready simultaneously – titled – “Concept Note for Vatsap? for indulging in crazy adventure tourism activities without fucking up his job”.

While working on my note, I noticed that Tushar had shared a YouTube video showing him skydive in Houston. I checked out his video and was blown over by it. I decided to check out if such jumps happen in India as well. To my surprise, I stumbled across  skydivingindia that announced that registrations for skydiving were open. I forgot all about Orissa and straightaway registered for a Tandem jump on the 20th of September (yes it’s a Sunday) in Indore.

At 330 dollars this is definitely costly compared to what Tushar had to shell out in US (and given that I would have to shell out additional money just to reach Indore and then return to Bhubaneswar). But then I don’t want to wait till I go to US or NZ to sky-dive – it’s here in India and it’s happening and I am going for it. Anyone wanna join me? Logistics wise, it’s easiest for junta in Mumbai – so if you are in Mumbai and want to sky-dive, all I have to say is: DO IT!

The beautiful thing about September is that it is full of holidays (at least here in Orissa). I mean think of this: between 18th September to 4th October (i.e. 17 days), there are only six working days – isn’t that like insanely awesome? So I need to finalize plans on what else to do after I have sky-dived. So far, a biking (read: bicycle) trip from Srinagar to Leh sounds exciting. From Indore, I can catch an overnight train to Mumbai where I can then buy an MTB, get it packed and fly to Srinagar from where I can commence my journey to Leh. I need to figure out the intricasies of carrying bikes on planes and even before that which bike to buy – but then I have the rest of the day for that. Until then – happy Janmashtami!

PS: Given that September is going to be so hot for me – I might give the Kaveri Trail Marathon (that is on 13th) a miss (I have already registered for it). Can’t spend all my money in just one month – can I? 😛