“Imagine a bridge 160 meters above a tropical gorge with the Bhote Kosi, one of Nepal’s wildest rivers raging below. Now Jump!” It is located within a reach of 3 hours outside Kathmandu and just 12 km away from the Tibet Border.

The Bungy Bridge happens to be the only privately owned bridge in Nepal. It has been specially designed for bungy jumping with a 4x-safety factor and has a loading factor of 41,500 kg or 4.5 tons according to Swiss measurements. The Bhote Kosi appeared a mere stream! One would have to be totally insane or suicidally twisted to jump off the remarkable 500-ft (160 m) drop into the Bhote Kosi river gorge.

As the Bungy Master nicknamed Rock advised the jumpers to ensure that pockets were empty and the girls had no loose jewelry coming in the way, nervous laughter erupted from the crowd when he strongly advised against taking intoxicants just before the jump. Adrenaline was beginning to show as each jumper’s weights were recorded, to use different cords for different categories of weights. The Green, Red and Black cords are used for the lightest, the heavier and the heavyweights accordingly. I volunteered and promised to take the perfect shot as my friends lined up on the bridge with the rest to jump. The first jumper was a foreigner weighing 110 kgs and his jump made the whole task look as simple as a piece of cake which, I noticed, slightly helped in easing the tension and fear amidst the rest of the jumpers. Watching my friends step off the bridge so smoothly intrigued me. It certainly looked like an easy task after all.