Archive for the ‘East Timor’ tag
Some people really do have a death wish…….. 1 comment
Almost exactly ten years ago I found myself atop a cargo of live poultry, on a gaudily painted boat chugging across the Andaman sea. My destination was Krabi, a laid-back beach resort in south west Thailand. I needed a rest. (I had just been forced to flee the violence in East Timor. Australian UN troops arrived in armed helicopters. That was my cue to leave…… I shit you not).
Anyway, I was beginning to relax, and was delighted to see another westerner on board. He was tall, athletic looking and, as it turned out, German. I tried to strike up a conversation (auf Deutsch, naturlich….) but he was not interested. He kept staring at the large limestone things, that are a feature of those parts. He looked weird. It was about at this point I noticed he had two backpacks……
Large limestone 'things'
One was the usual, the other seemed more sort of technical. I questioned him (much as my grandfather might have questioned his grandfather after the battle of El Alamein) and he told me it was “his parachute” and that he was Deutschland’s nummer zwei BASE jumper, ja? In town to jump off a few cliffs with his parachute on. Wikipedia describes BASE jumping as:
BASE jumping is an activity that employs a parachute or the sequenced use of a wingsuit and parachute to jump from fixed objects–with the parachute unopened at the jump.
It turns out he was on his way back from Vietnam, where a convention of German BASE jumpers had taken place. He arrived there as Number 4 German BASE jumper, but, you’ve guessed it, a process of attrition moved him up the ladder. Apparently the former number 3 was his brother…….
At this maudlin turn of events, I wished him luck and went to sit in the bow of the boat where I consoled myself with a few swigs from my last bottle of Sang Thip (with added formaldehyde). I never saw him again, once we disembarked. I reckon he’s a gonner, though. He had that look about him.
Anyway, long way of introducing this rather special clip……
Only a idiot would try this at home.