Yes, we managed little adventures within the larger adventure of Thailand. The elephant ride was nothing compared to The Flight of the Gibbon, a zip line through the jungle, right outside Chiang Mai.
A van picked us up from a 7-11. By the way, looking for a business opportunity? To purchase a 7-11 franchise is very inexpensive at $300! It must be true as 7-11’s are spotted everywhere! By the way, as customers from the western culture, we appreciated each one we entered.
The scenic hour-long ride took us through hill and dale and up, up, up into the mountains! Wild poinsettias everywhere! Anticipating a zip line through the jungle, only heightened my anxiety with each mile. By the time our names were called in broken English and we were offered the harness with, “You want to put this on?” I had to answer, “I don’t know!” Perplexed, he replied, “What should I do?” Well, that did it! On it went and what a 2 kilometer ride it was!!
From the first step, high above the jungle floor, securely attached to the cable, we were instructed to move to the edge of the wooden platform, sit down and hold on…..not to touch the cable, etc. Deciding to focus on the ‘sitting down’ instruction instead of the jungle floor far below us, it was amazingly easy!! Honest!! One feels safe in such a sturdy harness attached to the thick cable. Anxiety was replaced by thrill and wonder as we left our first platform. Keeping the feet up, up, up to gracefully swing onto the next platform was the challenge. Seems there were 10 platforms and 3 repelling rope lines. It was a smooth as silk. We could hear the gibbons but they managed to hide behind the thick foliage of the rainforest. By the way, Hank and I broke records. They said the oldest ‘flyers’ thus far had been 70 years old. We beat them by 3 and 6 years! Yep, we know it, we ARE old.
Our guide offered to take our cameras so he could snap pictures throughout…….thus, on the swinging bridge, high above the jungle floor in Thailand, you witness… The Jungle Kiss.
A Thai lunch was included (Hank was already beginning to distance himself from rice as much as possible, why do you think he lost weight?) and also a lovely, peaceful walk along a path next to a gorgeous waterfall…..imagine Yosemite.
This wild adventure took place while Anders and Lori were at home, frantically studying for their exams in the Master’s Program. Surely, they appreciated the day of quietness from their month-long guests.
Yes, it was a memorable day, truly one to appreciate God’s perfectly wondrous, varied and breathtaking creation as we had never had opportunity to experience before.
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