"Adventure!"
by - Yoshihide, Tokyo, Japan
The Nation Flight of the Gibbon Review
The Nation, 9th February 2008
How’s the air up there?
Gliding through the towering forests of Chiang Mai on a sling and a prayer
According to biologists, we share 99 per cent of our DNA with chimpanzees. Yet, by some cruel twist of fate, the genetic material that gives them the power to fly from branch to branch didn’t make it to us.
What lousy luck. Then again, if we could while days away doing something as fun as that, civilisation would probably never have arrived.
Fortunately, we terrestrial primates still have the chance to swing from tree to tree without a care.
More than a decade ago, scientists in Central America developed a cable-and-pulley system that allows them to glide through the upper canopy of rainforests inaccessible from the ground. There they can investigate what goes on in the highest branches.
Of course, this proved far too much fun to keep to themselves, and the tourism industry quickly cottoned on to its potential.
Though still rare in Asia, an outfit in Laos called The Gibbon Experience set up shop about two years ago. But, getting to their site in the remote north of the country remains challenging for the casual tourist.
In the meantime, friendly, convenient, and richly forested Northern Thailand has forged ahead. Long famous for its wide array of outdoor adventure sports, Chiang Mai now boasts a thrilling jungle-canopy adventure, and it’s an easy, inexpensive day trip – only 45 minutes by road from the centre of town. An outfit called Tree Top Asia operates out of Mae Kompong, offering canopy adventures through old-growth forest, and cheap home stays and trekking through the lush jungle and forest.
Though Tree Top Asia™ has named its ride Flight of the Gibbon™, there are no actual gibbons in the area. The company chose the name because gibbons are uniquely evolved for travelling through the forest by swinging from branch to branch, and because the owners are involved in gibbon rehabilitation and donate 10 per cent of their profit to centres around the country.
It’s easier than you imagine. After donning a body harness, tour leader Brian from Sacramento gives our group of six “junglenauts” a brief set of pointers. Then, before you can say “me Tarzan”, we take turns flying across a ravine to a sturdy platform attached to a massive old tree.
To slow down we have been taught to use an angular piece of bamboo, pulling down on the cable above us as we approach the platform.
This can prove a little tricky for the beginner – press down too hard with the bamboo and you might not even make it to the platform.
The situation is easily remedied by the cheerful staff who haul you in.
As we progress through the course of 15 stations, it seems as if we’re climbing higher and higher into the trees.
Several times we’re obliged to rappel down enormous trees with the aid of friction ropes – this is exhilarating. Gliding above the ravines you get an idea of the immense scale of the vegetation, and then there are the unprecedented views.
When all is said and swung, the thing that stays with you is your surroundings. Though the excitement of swinging from platform to platform gets the adrenaline pumping, it’s the beauty of this high-altitude jungle that has one swooning in appreciation.
The last couple of stations are among the most impressive – a walk across a swaying wooden bridge, then a dramatic soar along the second-longest cable in the series to the highest tree platform of all, and finally, a long rappel back down.
Everyone giggles with glee as they remove their helmets and harnesses, but perhaps feel a little melancholy, too. We have literally come down to earth from a very natural high.
The Gibbon Experience in Laos provides visitors with bed and board in tree houses and the chance to cruise around the canopy all day.
Aside from my jungle adventure it was interesting to discover the cute village of Mae Kompong. Next time I’ll stay a few days to take advantage of the place before it too gets “discovered” and the inevitable elephant camps and five-star hotels put up stakes.
Furthermore, nothing cool in Thailand ever remains “un-cloned” for long. Before you know it, jungle-canopy adventures will be sprouting up everywhere. For now though, Flight of the Gibbon™ is truly one of a kind, and one guests and their prime mates won’t be able to stop whooping about.
Oliver Benjamin
Special to The Nation
CHIANG MAI
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