Goa Travel: Parasailing at Goa
Sports and me? No.
Adventure Sports and me? No, no, no!
Sports and I have never really got on well together. The only sport I have in me is being a spoilsport. The one time I participated in a badminton tournament at school, I went to practise in a long billowy skirt that controlled my agility, and I seemed to have been swatting a fly more than playing badminton. I used to be a topper in class, but at that opportune moment when I almost fell trying to manage my skirt and racquet at the same time, my favorite teacher looked at me with disbelief and asked me to stand aside. I did stand aside that day.
Years went by and I became a little more sporty (if I can say that). Don’t snigger under your breath!
Last week when I was in Goa, water sports took the better of me. If you have read my last post on ‘Beach Fun at Goa,’ by now, you already know that we were a big group for a quick New Year vacation at Goa. I wanted to do something different. And Parasailing it was. Parasailing is different. I wanted to do that. Parasail.
All six adults from our group were up for it and so were two kids aged five and eight. It was supposed to be fun. It was actually fun. We wanted to go to South Goa for a change of beach and settled on Majorda. We started a little late because the guys had a hangover from the night before. Lets not get into that. The drive from Central Goa to Majorda was pleasant. The roads were good, narrow, and winding, and well laid out. Almost the entire ride was picturesque with trees lining up the road and houses painted orange, pink, blue, green, and white popping their beautiful heads in the midst of the verdant green. What caught my eye was an elderly lady in yellow sitting on a yellow bench in a yellow house. I smiled and held my curious gaze on her for as long as the car allowed me to.
Finally we reached Majorda. The white sands immediately caught attention. Ryan sat down in the middle of nowhere with his sand toys ready to dig up the entire beach. I convinced him to move to a more civilized location that had sunbeds and umbrellas.
After a great lunch and a good swim, we decided to try out water sports, and then the sporty person in me showed up. I was ready to parasail.
The whole thing goes like this. You go and tell them you want to parasail. They say ok. They quote a price. You quote down. (Beware! not too down because your life is practically in their hands). They quote mid way. You agree. You parasail, and then do a happy dance when you land on safe ground. We settled at INR 800 per person for around 2 to 3 minutes of parasailing.
The parasailing guys brought jackets and strapped belts on us while a motor boat that was anchoring the parachute was almost ready to pull us up. When it was my turn, and when my belt was securely hooked to the parachute ropes, the speedboat far away suddenly started pulling me. I ran with the pull and suddenly realized that I had lost ground. Oh, and I was moving up, up, and up, and up, and I was high up! I was so high up that it was absolutely quiet around except for the consistent flapping of the chute. There was no human sound. Just pure carefree air, and the solitude of quietness.
It was ethereal. It was surreal. It was other-wordly. I felt like an exuberant kid stretching out her hands and taking in the tranquil air.
I looked down and saw a calm blue stretch, continuous and unending. Tiny waves swayed all over this stretch as if someone was shaking a jar full of water and causing small ripples in it. Feeling light as a bird, I looked straight at the beaming sun, and realized how close I was to it and to the sky.
I tried to look at the beach which was just a long line of white in sharp contrast to the wide blue. I felt the movement of the parachute in another direction and looked down. The speedboat was a speck; I could just feel the tug of the chute and saw that my line of vision was changing. I was moving to the right. Slowly, the white sandy beach was more in focus and I tried to spot the husband. It was absolutely impossible. The beach was just spotted with black dots. So I just waved my hands to show my happiness.
Gradually, I could see more of land, and hear vague noises. I was returning to mankind. Yes, I was, and the beach was more prominent. Soon enough, the black dots I had seen from above started to show bodies, and I was just touching land. And yes, I could see the man standing there clicking my photo. We had been instructed to run when we touched ground. I tried to but almost fell down with the impact. I got up immediately, and by then the speedboat in the water had stopped, the parachute deflated and fell flat on the sand.
Extremely euphoric at the experience, I tried to picture the same tranquility I was in a few minutes ago, and the calm blue flashed before me. I smiled unknowingly.
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Originally published at thesunnywindow.wordpress.com on January 6, 2016.
