I thought this is the silly idea for my life, but guess what? I can’t believe how much I love Skydiving!!!
Before I went to jump, there were two questions that everybody kept asking, are you crazy, and is it expensive?
(อ่านภาษาไทยที่นี่) It was very hard questions for me before jumping, for the 1st question “are you crazy?”
Well, this is Tim’s bucket list – I’m sure that he makes this so hard decision that’s why he took more than 50 years to do this!!!
But it wasn’t my bucket list at all! I’m NOT sure that I will make it alive, I was a little scared but I went to Google, they said that skydiving is safer than horse riding and American football. So why not?!?!?
There are 2 skydiving dropzones in Thailand, Thai Sky Adventures Pattaya and Bird’s Paradise Extreme Resort in Sakon Nakron, Isan (northeastern region of Thailand).
But we’re working in Bangkok which’s 1.5 hrs to Pattaya, so we picked to do our first skydiving at Thai Sky Adventures Pattaya.
For the second question, it’s about 9,500 baht or ($300) for the jump, but video and photos are another 4,500 baht. Yes, it’s expensive for me!!! But I don’t think every country has a DropZone (skydiving). So there’s one right here in Thailand, the Skydiving hub of Asia!
I can guarantee you that after jump, it’s absolutely worth it!!!
We made up our minds and set the trip to visit Pattaya and jump! Even we had our car but just to be able to write this blog, we rode with their van which came to pick up us and other jumpers in Pattaya area…
The van came to get us in time, and the worst part is that the van gathers people in different hotels (If I would do this again, I will get to there by my car) – especially today, there were 13 people to jump! But guess what, there is only ONE lady and it was ME!!!
The boring part is the video in the van, I expected to see more video from other jumpers but it was just a commercial of Skydiving, so the driver kept repeating the video until we arrived the Dropzone (25-30 mins away from Pattaya city and 80 mins from Bangkok Airport, Suvarnabhumi).
And when we arrived at that dropzone I was almost overwhelmed by the level of professionalism, I didn’t expect that.
The instructors were really friendly (especially, Peter the manager!) and took the time to give us the safety procedures and they even took the time to show us the landing of those who jumped before…YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BEING KILLED AT ALL!!!
It’s hard to plan the jump in rainy season but it was a good day today to jump – lucky us!!! Prepare at least half day for it, you might need to plan ahead if you need to check out of your hotel, it’s hard to control the time and the weather…
Today was crowded as it was big rain yesterday – once we got to the office, we needed to sign some papers – YOU WILL BE ALRIGHT BUT THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN…just common note as same as the other thrill activities agreements.
So, you can just jump or jump with photo and video (Like us!)
But for video and/or photo, you will have to wait for 2-3 hrs after the jump (maybe sooner…). As an option they can email or drop at by your hotel in Pattaya the day after if you cant wait…
Once we finished the paper, we all walked to see who was gonna be our instructors and the safety briefing (what to do, how to work…)
As I will get the photo and video, after they put the harness on me (by Doug who I will jump with..) then my video guy “Kevin” will start to make a real movie of me!
See? there are at least two men working for you – how worth it is that 450 bucks now?!?!?
OK…it’s time to be ready to board!!! Tim looks so excited!
But I still wasn’t sure!
It’s just 2 jumpers at a flight, so there were only 2 of us plus our instructors and camera guys But today, we also have a skydiving student who will jump alone and he jumped first!!!
Now it’s time for us (AM I READY???)
We jumped off the plane at ~13,500 feet (about 2.5 miles or 1,350 floors!)
It’s a good thing that I saw Tim and his instructor jump first because I saw his video guy jump with him.
It’s a great view, Tim and I have never seen anything this beautiful.
When my turn to jump, I was pale a little bit but I’m OK – my jump is kind of special as Doug looks more than professional, so he did summersault down with me. No doubt that I screamed too loud!!! I can’t tell how that felt, but when I was flying with him, it was amazing!!!
Oh I don’t know how Kevin, my video guy found me in that sky…it’s really cool – I like his job!
We were flying and hanging in the sky about 5-6 mins. Then we landed very beautifully (only me with funny hair!!!)
Now I can absolutely answer any questions about skydiving – but anytime I talked about it, I can just start with “I LOVE IT” …
Tandem skydiving is an easy jump, you don’t have to have any license or experience. Because you will be jumping with a licensed and experienced instructor!
But if it is your first time, pay a little more for the video and photo. The jump was so short, you can’t remember anything after the jump except that you made it!
The video and photo help!!! And they are very professional, I love every single minute in my video with nice music!!!
Try it – there were not too many Thais doing this, you will be the first few Thai people to get this experience… and then you will try to work harder, save more money for another jump!!!
But if you are a visitors, Pattaya is a great beach area – you can jump and then go to Sriracha zoo (10 mins away from dropzone) while you waiting your video and photo!
Treat yourself for a special occasion to jump off the plane like us!!!
