OMG, what an incredible day! It was so much fun. I am still having a hard time believing all the things we did. Our guide Cashe was fantastic. He had a great sense of humor and went above and beyond to make our three hour trip through the jungle tree tops a great adventure. We were lucky enough to see one Gibbon high in a tree top but my camera zoom was not strong enough to capture a photo.
We were picked up at our hotel by an air conditioned van and were joined by a couple from Dubai, a family from Sydney and a young fellow from Shanghai. We then travelled approximately 1 hour out of Chiang Mai up into the mountains. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall and hiked in about 1km to the top, Most of the trail was steps made out of stone, so we were climbing in elevation quite quickly. I can't remember the last time I have climbed so many stairs. But the stream and waterfall were very peaceful and we were the only ones on the trail. The air quality greatly improved since we had left the city so that was a nice change.
After our hike we jumped back into the van and went back to the Gibbon office to sign our lives away and get fitted into our zip line gear. Not a flattering outfit but very safe, helmet and all. We were then taken by van to the starting point where our guide Chashe gave us three safety points:
1. don't hang onto to the zip line
2, keep your feet up when arriving at a platform
3. only the guides unclip your safety strap
Then we were off to our first of 18 rides. Kat, the gal from Dubai was pretty frightened, I think her boyfriend Rob had convinced her to come and when she saw what was going to happen, she was not impressed, he was cut off for the rest of their vacation. Anyway she was a good sport and the guides had fun teasing her through out our trip. We had two guides with us one at each end of the zip line platform. Cashe always went first and they caught each of us as we landed. The first one was just a short one to get everyone used to riding. The scenery was spectacular, we were almost at the tree tops riding through. Each ride was a little bit different, some were short, some were long. They have the longest ride in the world at 800 M in length, it was so long you couldn't see the landing. They put a different cartridge and extra safety straps on us for the 800 m ride and transferred the equipment back by a motorized pulley system. By this time they had figured out that I loved the thrill and was not afraid so the guide gave me an extra push off and I went flying down this line rotating around getting a 360 degree view. However they miss judged my speed and I came flying into the landing knocking over Cashe sending both of us flying into the safety net behind. It was a good thing I was coming in backwards and didn't see it coming or I may have shit my pants. I think my travel mates were a little shocked to say the least and Bill missed it all because I went first. But I wasn't hurt and all was good. I just thought it was a blast to free fall at that speed. (samples of our videos are on face book). Bill was a trooper, he didn't even scream like a girl as he flew through the jungle. As long as you didn't look down you didn't realize exactly how high up you were. At one point the guide missed me on the landing (on purpose) and I went sailing back down the line. The only way for me to get back was for Cashe to come and get me and pull me back by hand. He was working hard, I told him he should have chosen a lighter person to do this to, he just laughed.
About half way through we had to walk up the mountain about 1km straight up through switchbacks past a spirit house( this is where the Thai make their offerings to the good spirits to keep the
m safe) and up to the next series of zip lines. Cashe kept up the excitement, energy and fun throughout each ride making it thrilling every time. At one point they lowered me off the platform and swung me side to side before letting me go. This caused me to swing along the zip line narrowly missing trees and barely making the landing platform. But at no time did we feel unsafe. They were very professional and knew what they were doing. Near the end we had to repel down two different platforms to get to the bottom. The first one was 15ft and they hooked up some sort of a pulley system and lowered us down. We chose the speed. Fast is the only way to go. On the final repel, Bill and I were going to go done side by side as there were 2 ropes, they lowered Bill about 10 feet and he hung there waiting while they hooked me up. We had chose to free fall [fast as possible], but as they hooked me up, Cashe asked me if I wanted to go down head first. I said sure, thinking he was joking. Well the joke was on me. They let me go as Bill was hanging there with the camera running. Once down we were given a well deserved drink (beer or water), guess what we chose, too bad they didn't offer something stronger. We took some last pictures and then headed back to the office. We were then fed a wonderful Thai lunch and then transported back to Chiange Mai. It was an awesome adventure, one that we will never forget and have some incredible video to share with everyone.
We arrived back at the hotel a little tired and sore so decided to have a rest and then look for a place to eat. It was raining slightly so we decided to just walk around our guesthouse to see what we could find. We ended up at this wonderful little place that had great food. Needless to say we were in bed early, dreaming of zip lines.
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