Sunday 18 September 2011

I have wings!

Day #35 - Ziplining!

Our day started bright and early as we drove over an hour to the jungle-ish area outside of Chiang Mai with the company "Flight of the Gibbon"


Although many companies offer similar packages, this company is the first of its kind to create ziplining in the area.


According to their brochure, they have had a perfect record since starting however many years ago.


Our first couple lines were just practice ones, aka "the playground" according to my guides "big daddy" (who ironicallly was very short) and "T"


Unfortunately for me, its reallllly hard to take photos while ziplining. My stupid camera cant focus in time because we are moving too fast. Sucks.





Throughout the ziplining, we had to hike around quite a bit to get high enough in the mountain.


The view from the line was absolutely gorgeous

















This one in particular was kind of funny. Instead of harnassing you the normal way, they harness you like super man so you can fllllyyy. Then you become like spider man and climb the rope wall.


The safety on this tour was pretty good. As soon as you reach the platform, the guide hooks you onto the tree or platform immediately, even if theres minimal risk of falling. We were told that we are not allowed to unhook ourselves. If we do, each guide is fined 500baht for letting that happen..which is quite a bit of money for them.



They also have tandem ziplines. I wasnt a fan of these and neihter was coleman...they make the harness tighter for some reason. Especially in yhe lower region.


At some points we had to be lowered down a massive tree, which was kinda scary. It was much higher than this pic looks!


After being lowered down to safety, it was time for a break and lunch!


The ziplining was really fun, but my only complain was that there were too many people in our group, so it took forever to get through each zipline.


The food consisted of sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken and fried coriander. Dont like coriander, but surprsingly, the first two items were quite good. No stomach aches yet!


After lunch, they took us for a quick tour of a nearby waterfall...it was pretty, not ocho rios pretty, but still nice.








And, after a long day of zipping aroun the jungle, we drive back to the hotel for some relaxation. The view from our hotel is gorgeous...and thanks to the fact that its rainy season, the view was that much more spectacular with the clouds.



I have both had many days of asian, turkish and greek food but alas, i have been missing italian. Lucky for me there is a nice italian restaurant in our hotel, pricey, but nice.



Its rainy season it Chiang Mai, ie. Low season, so there were about four seated tables in the whole restaurant.


It was an open kitchen concept so you could see all food being made and plated..



To start, we had the funghi soup with stuffed tortellini,



and a procuitto, parm and rocket pizza. (in highsight, we prob shouldnt have ordered a main as an app). They were both great but that pizza was amazing. They werent skimpy on the toppings at all...the amount of procuitto on there could cover the pizza entirely, with massive slizes of delicious parm.

For the main, i had the butternut squash risotto with smoked cheese....


and coleman had the gargonzola gnocchi with candied walnuts.


Coleman won out for this meal, the gargonzola sauce was to die for.



I really wanted a dessert but unfortunately we ate enough for four so dessert was a no-go :( the meal was super pricy for local thai standards...it ended up being around $55cad so really, not bad considering the great quality ingredients they used in our meal. Definitlely satisfied my italian craving. Yum!

Another awesome day on my trip. Fun times and delicious food. Next day? Hitting the river!

Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand

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