10 Experiences More Thrilling Than Cage Diving

Traveling around the world comes with some of the best memories and some of the most thrilling. We decided to hold off on this blog post until we had safely been home for awhile so that our moms didn’t have to spend the rest of our trip freaking out about our safety. When we went cage diving with the Great Whites everyone told us to “BE CAREFUL!!”,  but it turns out cage diving was the least of our worries. Here’s our countdown of the 10 experiences more thrilling than cage diving! 

10-Jet Skiing in 5-6 foot Waves in Malaysia

Picture ramping over 5-6 foot waves in a 1995 jet ski with me hanging onto the back of Johnny for dear life when we almost tip over and our guide’s jet ski breaks down in the middle of the ocean. But hey, we made it back to land and got some good laughs out of it.

9-Strangling Yourself While Learning to Surf in Australia

While learning to surf in Byron Bay, I came crashing off of my board and tried to come up for air when I realized my leg strap was wrapped around my neck and quickly tightening as the waves took my board away. Despite my initial panic, my hulk like strength ripped that strap right off my neck and then it was back on the waves! Our instructor kindly told me that having that happen is just “really really bad luck”. Thanks.

8-Experiencing an Earthquake + Tsunami Warning in New Zealand

I think this one speaks for itself. Waking up to an earthquake in your hostel isn’t the best feeling ever.

7-Hiking Table Mountain in South Africa

We’ve done many hikes in our day and this one takes the cake. It has a ton of climbing and scrambling. There were many moments where we would hang onto a rock face and hope for the best as we made our way to the top. Luckily, we had our friends Jeff and Catherine with us for extra pushes, pulls, and pep talks.

6-Getting Lost in Fog While Ocean Kayaking in South Africa

Liloing and kayaking was one of our favorite activities in Tsitsikamma, South Africa, but things went south when made our way out of the river and into the ocean where we realized that we had passed our turn back to the docks and were surrounded by dense fog, big waves, and no landmarks. We quickly realized that our guide also had no idea which way to go, uh oh!  Luckily, after a few minutes of panic, another guide was able to catch up to us and get us back to the safety of land.

5-Wading Through a Cambodian Flood

Muddy rainwater + muddy/dirty streets + water up to our knees + fear of stepping on a rusty nail or broken glass = NO FUN.

4-Long Tail Boat Ride to Maya Bay in Thailand

Our long tail boat ride to Maya Bay was one of those situations where 50% of our mind was 100% certain the boat was going to capsize from the waves and the other 50% of our mind was 100% certain that these boats were made for these waters and we would be totally fine. During this activity, we had to trust in the locals and it paid off!

3-Dune Bashing in Dubai

Dune bashing was one of those things that seemed super awesome while reading about it online, pretty fun during, and absolutely idiotic in hindsight. The margin of error while tearing through the desert doing 360 turns and ramping off of dunes isn’t the greatest, but we managed to exit the vehicle unharmed except for a pair of headaches.

2-Ferry Ride From Georgetown to Langkawi in Malaysia

This was one of the only times I cried while we were gone. The day we made this ferry ride the waves were 9-11 feet high and we happened to be on the “smaller” ferry. Thus, we were stuck inside a boat with screaming and/or vomiting people for over 2 hours. I was convinced that we were going to crash and no one would ever find our bodies. I was also very upset that this was one of those situations that allllll of the travel blogs don’t warn you about. So, if you’re headed to Langkawi—THE FERRY RIDE WILL BE EXTREMELY ROUGH!! Again, we’re here to tell the tale!

1-Bus Rides in Laos

Enter the activity that actually scared Johnny. During all of the above, Johnny was pretty much cool as a cucumber and I was panicked, but our bus ride from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang in Laos sent Johnny over the edge. We’d heard transportation was wild in Laos and boy was that true! Our driver insisted on going over 100mph on windy, hilly, pothole filled, and sometimes dirt only roads. Oh, and he would pass every vehicle in front of us even if it meant playing a hardcore game of chicken with the oncoming traffic. The final straw was when he sped up to purposely kill a snake on the road. WTF. Right before we were about to exit the van to hitchhike back to LP (because that seemed safer than continuing this ride), we finally got a local in the van to explain to the driver that he needed to slow down. In reality, we’re sure the local told the driver that those American babies were freaking out, but whatever, it worked.

Honorable Mentions:

-Trying to cross the street through the millions of motorbikes in Hanoi, Vietnam

-Riding around India in a car or rickshaw while dodging 24 million people, cows, and stray dogs

-Driving a rental car in South Africa