18.03.2008 Chiang Mai

Flight of the Gibbon

I love Chiang Mai and it's a great place to be. The only thing I can't deal with are the mosquitos. I must have been bitten a thousand times by now and K just laughed and said "look, I got ONE too". So far I've had rather bad nights being itchy on every inch of my skin. I actually had a mosquito repellent with me (the best on the market, according to my uncle Felix) but it didn't seem to do the trick. Yesterday I've finally come up with the idea of buying a different one - quick thinking Fabienne! ;) - and this morning I woke up all relaxed for the first time since we got up here.

Today, I was to experience an adventure I wanted to do for a long time. During the tour called "Flight of the Gibbon" we'd climb up on trees and swing from one platform to the other hocked on a wire-rope. K didn't want to join and therefore I decided to do the tour alone because I really didn’t want to miss this adventure. This was to be the very first day in Thailand I would spend without his company. Feeling very comfortable with the Thai culture and being totally fluent in Thai by now *lying* that should be no problem.

They picked me up at 8.15 am. After we had gone round Chiang Mai to pick up all the others we drove into the beautiful rainforest for about an hour. At the camp we were equipped with the necessary gear and got a helmet. While one of the girls still wondered what she was doing there I was so ready for this.

We walked to the first platform where we got instructions and then it was time to get started. Whereas some were rather scared I was really excited and couldn't wait to get started. The first two or three swings on the zip line felt a bit unsecure until we got the hang of it and then it was just pure joy. We flew through different layers of the rainforest canopy, walked across sky bridges and did a bit of abseiling every now and then. The whole top tree adventure lasted about three hours. I so so much enjoyed flying through the trees looking down and seeing the beautiful rainforest from above. I totally recommend this trip to everyone who's not scared of heights. It's so much fun!

After a bite to eat we did a one hour walk and looked at a waterfall. It didn't carry much water at this time of the year so I wasn't that impressed but it was still beautiful and I enjoyed the walk.

When I got back to the home stay in the afternoon K was not around, but he returned only about five minutes after me. He had spent the last afternoon here in town buying souvenirs for family and friends.

Since we had to check out by noon we didn't have a room anymore and went to the Daily Delight, where we spent the time until we had to get our luggage at the home stay and catch our flight in the evening.

When we got to Bangkok K accompanied me to my backpacker, waited until I had checked and then we said good bye. All the things on our schedule were done, our two weeks of traveling were over. I got to my room and all of a sudden I was ALONE.

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Part of trip: Round-the-World Trip Part I

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