Thrilling Jungle Adventure - Chaing Mai.
There are few people in Chiang Mai who haven’t heard of Flight of the Gibbon. The sheer amount of advertising; on the backs of songtaew, on the walls of every guesthouse, coffee shop and restaurant as well as in our own magazine assures their branding in our fickle memories.
In spite of all this, and even kind invitations by the Flight of the Gibbon crew, I had never braved the canopies and zip lines to check it out myself. But after a few months of exercise, and feeling adventurous after a few glasses of chardonnay one evening, it was decided that the time had come. I was feeling fit, their weight limit of 130 kilos meant that I felt secure enough to put my life on the wire, and a visiting friend in town was going, so we decided to make a day of it.
Gush alert: It was brilliant! One of the most amazing days I have had in recent years!
First off, the staff were impeccably professional. We were secured by harnesses at all times and the danger factor was non-existent. Not only were they well trained, spoke fluent English, Thai and even Hebrew (our group contained some Israeli backpackers...who had just finished their three years in the army, stationed in Gaza and other scary places, but interestinly looked a tad pale taking the first leap over an abyss). We were strapped up, watered down, given basic advice, told to use the rest rooms...as a Scottish friend said, “you cannae pee in the canopy.”
And off we went.
Flying through the air (the longest zipline was a mind-boggling and gravity-defying 800 metres long) over trees which were 40 or 50 metres high was simply exhilarating. The landing? Not so much. While three young Israeli girls would arrive at each station, landing like dainty and delicate fairies, I tended to careen towards and tumble upon the poor guide who kept his brave face on throughout and managed to buffer my inelegant crashes. There were short zips, bungy zips (where you jump off a ledge, bounce around rather unsexily for a few thrilling moments and fly on from there), abseiling (40 metres down the side of a tree), rickety (but perfectly safe due to our harnesses) wooden bridges and walk-ways, Swiss-family-Robinson style tree houses and spiral stairs, pretty gibbons to admire (from afar, I still have a scar from being bitten by one in my youth – it was trying to find lice on my head and must have been disappointed that I had none, the ten-needle 1980s rabbies vaccine was horrific), and a its-not-in-the-brochure trek of about 15 minutes (which I am sure was in fact about two hours...must check my watch!) which just about killed me. In all, there were probably about 25 or so zip lines and adventurous activities spanning the full three hours we were in the jungle. The foliage was lush and dripping with rain, in fact, when the thunder, lightning and rain came, half way through our adventure, it enhanced the entire experience.
Though their blurbs say that a 95 year old can participate, and I am sure there are 95 year olds who can, it was a pretty exhausting day in all...the adrenaline, the action, the its-not-in-the-brochure trek (yes, I am still grumbling about this!) and the constant zipping around. But worth every drop of sweat and defining of previously unknown muscles. If you haven’t been – GO! There are few experiences in Chiang Mai, or indeed anywhere, as amazing as this. Far from the madding crowd, you hear no cars, no planes, no construction noise, only the sounds of the jungle (which to be fair can be cacophonous), the wheeze of the zip, and the occasional scream of a thrilled flyer.
Best adventure I have had in Chiang Mai in absolute years. Marvellous!
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