Recently I was on a trip to Manali, Manali apart from being know for the beautiful valley and snowy mountains is also known for adventure sports like Trekking, paragliding, rafting, etc ... not to mention all the fun stuff you could do when it snows.

There was no snow in Manali and there wasn't enough water in the Bias river ... so skiing and rafting was ruled out. Trekking was ruled out as well as it needs time and great physical fitness, I decided to pass this as climbing at high altitudes is not easy. Just a few minutes’ walk will throw you out of breath and end up feeling like walking for hours ... 

That left me with the only one thing to do apart from going around this beautiful place, that is paragliding. I had three options for paragliding the short, medium and long rides, the short ride is about 5~10mins, medium is 10~20mins and long is 30~60mins. All the jumps start pretty close to the top of the 16,000ft mountain ... in the medium ride we jump from about 15,000ft to land at a point where the altitude is about 9000~10000ft, it takes approximately  about 10~20 mins to glide down depending on the wind conditions.

So, I reach the spot where the paragliding team is based, I was told that a pilot to handle the parachute would be with each rider and just need to follow his instructions. They took us to the spot from where we start the glide, and strapped us up to the parachute. We are strapped to the parachute which is still on the ground, for it to open we need to run down the hill and pull it against the wind. The scary part is the first few steps you are running free down -hill not knowing when the parachute will open ... it just took a couple of steps and we were airborne like birds ... I thought it would be a gut wrenching experience, but once we were in air it was just amazing the parachute glides smoothly and did not feel uneasy at all ... after a couple of mins into the ride, I sense my pilot is shivering, I wasn't sure if it was because of the cold wind or because something was wrong ... I looked up to check the strings of the parachute to make sure everything is ok and I did not see anything to worry about (my amateur eye could not find anything wrong J), I did not ask him if there was a problem because I did not want to sound scared :). I decided to let the pilot shiver (for whatever reason) and enjoy the view, it was breath taking ... after gliding for about 10 mins, we were close to the landing spot and pilot asked to make sure that my feet does not touch the ground before he is on his feet and I did as he said and the landing was perfect, as smooth as it could have been.

It was a terrific experience, it wasn't scary at all ... they haven't had any problem at all till date and the paragliding team is experienced and professional. So, next time if you are in Manali don't forget to try this. If you are scared of heights, try this you may lose the fear of heights after trying this :) ...

I just learnt how to fly, and luckily coming down wasn't such a hard thing ;)