As the Macau Tower appeared closer and closer my heart started pounding frantically and I broke out in a nervous sweat. I could see the platform high, high up there where I was gonna jump from. 233 meter up in the air! How would I ever survive this, I thought to myself. Would I even dare to do it — especially considering my immense fear of heights?
Why On My Bucket List?
Now first let me just explain why bungee jump is on my bucket list. First off, yes, bungee jump is a life goal that very, very many has. However, for me, it has an extra dimension to it: Because I’ve always thought it looked fun, but when the chance came by 7 years ago in Hersonissos, in Greece, I was simply too afraid. I chickened out! That particular bungee jump at Star Beach was “only” about 60 meters tall — and the fact that some of my friends did it, couldn’t persuade me to do it. Therefore, I had to keep challenging myself and one day hopefully dare to jump.
Having drastically become more adventurous and thrill-seeking a few years down the road I finally felt ready to face my acrophobia (fear of heights). And I decided that I simply had to do the world’s highest bungee jump, located in Macau if I ever was gonna do a bungee jump at all. So that’s what I did!
What, Where, How?
The World’s Highest Bungy Jump at Macau Tower, run by AJ Hackett, will take you on a free fall at a speed of up to 200km/h! As you plunge from 233 meters you will experience about 4–5 seconds of free-fall, and as you “fly” through the air the bungee cord will be stretched around 4 times its length, making you rebound at about 30 meters before you hit the ground (that’s close enough!).
One of the first things that struck me was how on earth it was ensured that you didn’t simply smash into the tower itself in the case of wind or an “unlucky rebound”. I mean, normally you see bungee jumps from bridges or cranes, not a building! It turned out though that they use what they refer to a “guided cable system” so that your jump will be relatively straight and controlled. That was a major relief. What’s also good is that once you have experienced a few rebounds, you can pull a strap to flip you around — so you don’t have to hang upside down for ages!
By the way, if you think that bungee jump might be a bit too much, they also got some other really cool experiences. Let me tell you quickly about those:
- Skywalk. You walk around the outer perimeter of the tower at 233 m altitude (outside of the building of course) on a walkway that’s only 1.8 meters wide and there’s no handrail.
- Skyjump. A controlled decent experience from the same height as the bungee jump.
- Tower Climb. Now, this one I’m not sure if I’ll ever dare. You can climb the remaining 100 meters up the mast’s vertical ladder — reaching an altitude of 338 meters and Macau’s highest summit! Now the 360-degree views up there must be fantastic, but it definitely takes some guts to get up there.
You can check the various offers more in detail at their website.
For more information about prices and other important know-how for you, see the last section of this post.
Useful Resources:
Macau Tower | Macau Tower (The Official Website)
Highest Commercial Bungee Jump Facility | Guinness World Records
The Time Leading Up To the Big Leap
As I was studying in Hong Kong at the time, it was only an hour away by boat, but me and my friend Eike we did not want to arrive late for this, so we ended up in Macau wayyyy to early. And as we had plenty of time to kill we decided to simply walk from the pier and all the way to the Macau Tower and thus coincidentally also get the exhilarating feeling of seeing the tower appearing taller and taller as we got closer.
One of the first things we passed by on our walk to the tower was the Fisherman’s Wharf — which, to be honest, is not that much big of a deal, and kind of is “part theme park, part food quarter and part shopping mall”. Read, among others, this honest review about it. They do, however, have some decent architecture I must say — although I definitely appreciate the “authentic and ancient” structures as opposed to some mere “wannabes”
Besides the Fisherman’s Wharf, there was not that much to see on the road to the tower beside an ubiquitous amount of casinos. After all, that’s what Macau is all about.
Similar to Hong Kong, Macau is a “special administration region of China” . Not really a country, but not really China. But from a “monetization” standpoint Macau is essentially Las Vegas, for Chinese people. It boasts many of the same Casinos like the Venetian and the Wynn and actually takes in several times more gambling revenue on an annual basis than its U.S. counterpart. That’s wicked!
I’ll be covering more about travelling to — and staying in — Macau, as well as it’s history, gambling culture, and more in an upcoming travel post.
When we first came to the tower and I realised how tall it was, I started to shake. How would I ever go through with this when I couldn’t even do the 60 m bungee jump a few years ago. Oh well at least I was glad I had my buddy with me as that probably made me pretend to a certain extent that this was gonna be a piece of cake (…yeah right).
Hehe, I should probably not mention this, but thankfully they served beer at the top of the tower, which made me relax quite a bit during the 1 hr wait, to the point that I was not that afraid anymore!
Also, the fact that I was surrounded by people who wanted a photo also helped take the pressure away. Why did people take a photo of me? Well… I enjoy dressing up for fun once-in-a-lifetime activities like this. So I had decided to dress up like superman and jump out in the style — just how the superhero flies with one hard launched in front of the body.
Hehe, for a while I was considering wearing a chicken costume, which would’ve been fun as well. Maybe you’ll do a chicken costume jump in the future?
The Jump
For the jump, I’m gonna let the pictures and videos speak for itself. After all, they do say that a photo is worth a thousand words… and a video even more?
I did it! I was so proud afterwards. At the time this was definitely the scariest thing I had ever done, and it was way scarier than skydiving. At least for me personally, skydiving is so high up that the fear of height doesn’t really kick in — as it is simply too high to fully grasp. However, with a bungee jump of 233 meters where you fly closer and closer to the ground at an alarming pace — now that’s something.
Here are some videos of the jump!
Afterwards
To celebrate the achievement we then went to check out some casinos, and thereon, after losing some money on roulette, we headed for some drinks at a place called YOLO — which did fit well with the theme of the day.
Takeaway
Expensive. But worth it. It’s the world’s highest. As easy as that. For experiences like this, they generally charge a premium for photo/video — they know you wanna have some fabulous keepsakes for such a “YOLO”-experience. See prices below.
Ask for a discount. I always do this, and it almost always works. And so it did for the bungee jump. Just simply ask if you can have a discount, e.g., on email, (where you might bring up that your birthday is soon or that you’re a poor student?). It’s worth a shot!
Expect minor delays. That’s just a part of the game I guess. So give yourself a buffer.
Costumes. Many commercial bungee jump actors require you to wear some kind of generic suit. However, at AJ Hackett you can jump in the outfit of your choosing (as I did).
Book in advance. At least 24 hours before. You don’t want to miss out just because you didn’t book in advance!
E-mail. macau.reservations@ajhackett.com
Hotline. (853) 8988 8656. Same day booking is only available through their hotline.
Operating hours & prices.
[su_gmap address=”macau tower”]
What About You?
Have you ever bungee jumped and/or is it on your bucket list?!
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