Flight of the Gibbon

For our last day in Chiang Mai, I signed us up for a zip lining course with a company called Flight of the Gibbon. Chiang Mai currently has three zip lining companies, but Flight of the Gibbon was the oldest, most reliable, and owned by an American. It probably shouldn’t have mattered, but Korn let me know that the other companies were owned by Thais. That in and of itself made it appealing, but after our experience with Chokchai, I decided we should go for safety quality, and that pretty much meant Flight of the Gibbon.

I have been zip lining before--in Jamaica--but Kinsey hadn’t been allowed to go then because she was too young at the time, so this experience was mostly for her.

At 9:30, the van showed up, and we met a motley crew of eight men. Four of them were traveling together from Hawaii, of which three of them were with a Hawaiian dance company.The rest of the guys were young traveler types, an assorted mix, mostly from Europe. The great thing about this group, though, was that everyone was uncommonly friendly.

After a 45 minute drive, we showed up at the Gibbon office to get fitted in our gear and meet our guides, one of whom was a real ham. True to reputation though, Flight of the Gibbon was the most professionally run company of any that we’d encountered in Thailand. The gear and safety were top-notch, the lunch was excellent, and the guides were exceedingly competent, so much so, that the lead guide carried around everybody’s cameras and took pictures as we zip lined. The zip lining itself was good, but I’ve never thought that zip lining was all that thrilling anyway, so for me it was just pleasant. Kinsey, though, had the best time from start to finish. It was a nice way to end Chiang Mai tours after the biking accident and the elephants.

After the zip lining, our group was informed we’d be going to see a waterfall. This was the “tack-on” experience to make people feel like they’d gotten more for their money, and we all joked about it on the way there. After a quick hike, we found the waterfall, and it was just another lovely little piece of Thailand. Not spectacular, but a good spot, and everyone had fun taking pictures.

No drama at zip lining. No really good stories. Some days are just like that.