"Adventure!"
by - Yoshihide, Tokyo, Japan





"Fun, safe, great, adventurous, you name it. We spent a day at The Flight of The Gibbon and had a wonderful time...." Voyage Magazine
A SKAL Eco-tourism award winner in 2006, the stunning Pang Soong Nature Trails allow access to the pristine 30 sq. km community owned evergreen forest.
Located just 50 km east of Chiang Mai city and in cool clean mountain air some 1,000 meters above sea level. Carefully protected for the past 200 years by the Khon Muang (chaa mieng farmers) of Ban Mae Lai, it is widely acclaimed to be the best example of such forest in the North.
All the nature trails programmers on this model ecotourism development are led by knowledgeable English speaking guides and their local counterparts. All programs incorporate a biodiversity monitoring component to which visitors are invited to contribute.
You spend the night in the delightfully rustic Pang Soong Lodge Outdoor Education & Research Centre – hot showers, warm hospitality, cold drinks, and campfire conversations with our guides, interns and foreign outdoor education staff.
“Beautiful location… a lovely trip – would recommend without hesitation” Isabel Kershaw, Nov 2009
“Really enjoyed all aspects of the trip. Lodge accommodation was beautiful” Chris Bhandari, Nov 2009
Your guide and driver collect you from Chiang Mai and take you up into the Mae Lai valley – app. 45 minutes east of and 700 metres above the city.
Check into the Lodge, and then choose either:
(A) The Jungle & Waterfalls Trail (6hrs – Easy/Medium)
A jungle & waterfall hike deep into the heart of this stunning forest to two huge 45 metre high waterfalls never visited by outsiders before 2009.
- Or -
(B) The Original Nature Trail (3-4hrs – Easy)
An amazing environmental education activity, a guided walk along the Mae Lai & Mae Hawn streams on a well prepared trail with steps, bamboo bridges and railings in place to facilitate easy access over and around some 17 waterfalls.
After breakfast, choose either:
(C) The Stream & Mountain Trail (3-4hrs – Easy/Medium)
Set off on a 3-4 hour walk up the beautiful and biodiversity rich Mae Hawn stream and then over the low mountain that separates the Lodge from the next valley.
Enjoy the change of habitat and the panoramic views before arriving at the start of your Flight of the Gibbon™ experience – a 3 hour, 2 km air adventure employing zip lines and sky bridges to move through the forest canopy as easily as a gibbon would.(Category: Easy/Medium)
- Or -
(D) Birders Trail, Tea Planters Village, Royal Project Visit (3-4hrs – Easy)
You may embark on an optional 1 hour walk along a bird watchers trail before returning to check out of the lodge. Then set off along for a downhill walk through the village of Ban Mae Lai; visit the temple – and its one monk, followed by an exploration the Royal Project at Teen Tok where they teach villagers to grow vanilla and coffee.(Category: Easy)
Shortly thereafter, you rejoin the group in the village of Ban Mae Kampong to enjoy the exhilarating Flight of the Gibbon Adventure Tour – a 3hr adventure – through the forest canopy along zip wires and high above the valley floor below.
On completing your flight, our vehicle and guide transfers you and your luggage back to the city in the late afternoon.
Refer to Pg 16 of the PDF below for picnic box selection & Pg 19 for recommended equipment list.
Please note, there is a surcharge of 75 Baht for single occupancy rooms.
“Both our guides were excellent… the lodge is beautiful. It would be hard to ask for a more ideal setting” Aaron Schneider, Oct 2009
“Excellent, would recommend it to anyone” Kasey-Lee Amos, Sept 2009
“Great to see the ‘real’ Thailand!” Judy Smith, April 2009
(control-click to download)