Taking it to Edge, and Jumping Right Off
Just my luck that AJ Hackett, the lunatic who introduced bungee jumping to the world, decided it was time to really push the limits with the highest commercial bungee in the world. Right here in China’s gambling (shh, don’t mention gambling) Special Administrative Region of Macau. I hate bloody bungee jumping. It’s way too intense, too short, and too bloody bad for my knees, which start shaking and don’t seem to stop when even thinking about it. Of all the stupid crazy looks-like-fun things I do, I’m petrified of bungee jumping the most. I don’t know why - it’s as safe as playing with a yoyo - but the psychological impact of throwing oneself off a bridge is not the same as launching oneself out a plane, or sandboarding down an active volcano. Did I say bridge? What about a TV Tower, piercing the sky at 233m, a full 50m higher than the previous World’s Highest Bungee Jump from a Building, the kind of daredevil activity reserved exclusively for fruit-nut bars like Hackett. He held that record until breaking it with this one. So, here I am, of course, here I am, standing on the edge of Macau Tower, about to equal the Guinness Book record for the world’s highest bungee jump from a building. Shit Gonzo, talk about taking it to the edge, and then jumping right off the sonofabitch.
Before taking the hour-long ferry to Macau, I spent a few days in China’s other Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong. China has a “one country, two policies” mandate towards Hong Kong and Macau, which essentially means it allows Hong Kong to be a capitalist leviathan and Macau to be a gambling (shh, don’t mention gambling) behemoth just a few miles from the heavily controlled, Communist People’s Republic. The Kong’s stock exchange is the 7th largest in the world, generating over one trillion dollars, and Macau is the only place in China where it is legal to gamble (shh) and boy, Chinese love to gamble. Macau has surpassed Vegas as the world’s biggest gambling center, generating an incredible US$7.2 Billion in gaming receipts in 2006, compared to US$6.6 billion in Vegas. It’s a given that a fair percentage of that moola flows straight to Beijing, so if you’ve got two golden geese, who’s stupid enough to let a little thing like political ideology get in the way? Yes, it’s hypocritical and pokes a giant, beautifully corrupt hole in their entire system, but shut the fuck up and keep feeding the bird. Ooh, Vegas is investing $2 billion in another casino, come on birdy, lay that sweet shiny egg!
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