Saturday, October 13, 2012

Flying Through the Jungles of Chiang Mai - Treetop Zipline Adventures



We were advised that there are 3 main (and legitimate) outfits in Chiang Mai operating a treetop jungle zip lining adventure with internationally approved safety equipment.  The most popular and also most expensive is The Flight of the Gibbons zip line tour at 3300 baht (~USD$110/pp).  They claim to fly through the jungle with the gibbons (type of ape).  The Jungle Flight offers 3 packages, A, B or C with A on the low-end having 22 platforms.  Cost for A is 1990 baht  (~USD$65).  For almost the same cost, Eagle Track offers a similar tour, but through rice paddies and other scenery.  All three offer front door pick-up and drop-off service; free t-shirt or something like that; water; and a meal.  Our hotel receptionist was saying that for some reason, for those who decide not to go with The Flight of the Gibbons, most Asians go with Eagle Track while westerners go with Jungle Flight.  Who knows. 

Although our $19/day hotel cost leaves us a lot of room for spending, we still didn't want to spend 3300 baht/pp so we went with the 1990 baht Jungle Flight and was not disappointed.  By the way, there were also plenty of Asians in our group.  :).  They picked us up promptly at 8 am and took about an hour of mountainous nausea-inducing drive to their home base.  We quickly got outfitted with the proper gear, including a very "attractive" pink net to wear over our hair before putting our helmet on.  After getting the waiver signed, we got a short briefing and we were on our way to the 22 different platforms.  Most of them were zip lines atop or amongst very tall trees.  The view was breathtaking.  We also crossed swinging bridges, went down spiral staircases built into the tall trees, and finished off with a 100-foot free falling rappel station that we had to jump off of.  We spent about 2.5-hours zip lining, just in time to hike back UP the mountainside for a lovely traditional Thai meal, buffet style.  We even got a commemorative t-shirt.  The staff were entertaining but professional and the whole experience felt safe.  We were back in our hotel, 6 hours later!

[photos and videos below]

Here are links to YouTube videos.