Day 10: Rainforest Zip-lining and the Zoo

I woke up at 5:30 and grabbed some snacks from a 7-11 for our 1 hour and 30 minute van ride to Chon Buri.  Nine of us went and we were picked up right on Thanon Rang Nam in a spacious 11 person van.  I slept most of the way there.  When I woke up, we were in a mountainous, heavily forested area.  A few wooden buildings constituted the Flight of the Gibbon base station.  Here, we paid 2600 baht ($86 US) for the zip-lining, a t-shirt, and the rest of the described activities, including the trek to and from Bangkok.

Then our driver drove us further up in the mountains to an open wooden shelter where we put on our harnesses.  They fit onto our legs, came over our shoulders and included a pulley that attached to each of the zip lines.  They were surprisingly comfortable.  We met our two guides, Alvin and Donatello, (we suspected he made up that name earlier in the day) who gave us our safely briefing.  They told us not to touch any of the carabiners or equipment.  They also showed us where to attach our cameras to our harnesses so we could safely take pictures.  Alvin took one of our cameras for the whole trip and took some great pictures of us.  We then began hiking up through the rainforest to the beginning of the course.  This was about a third of a mile hike, but was on a rather steep incline.

We finally came to the first platform.  We climbed a flight of stairs and zipped about 50 feet to a nearby tree.  This seemed to calm the nerves of some of the people in our group who with a fear of heights.  The guides did a great job of keeping us and themselves clipped into a safety line at all times.  The next platform looked pretty cool.

Most of the platforms looked like this.  They were somehow precariously perched 100 feet or more in the air.

I worked at a YMCA day camp with a zip line for two summers but never got to try it.  That always looked like fun, but this was just amazing.  The total tour is over 3 km (1.9 miles) long, with 26 platforms, and one of the zip lines is over 300m (964 feet) long.  Most of them were a few hundred feet long.  After about 5 zip lines, our guides clipped us into a pulley and lowered us 25m (82 feet) to a lower platform.  Here is a photo from the top of it.

That was a lot of fun.

We stopped after a few more platforms on this larger platform to drink some water.

Rachael, Judy, Nidia, and me

On this platform, we saw a gecko on a rafter.

The views from the tree tops were breathtaking.  Because the zip lines zigged and zagged across the jungle, it was impossible to keep track of where we were in reference to anything else.

This is an example of how the zip lines and safety cables were attached to the trees.

These caterpillars were on almost every tree.

This is some video I took while I was zip-lining.

About halfway through, the guides heard a faint but steady noise from far away.  They told us the rain was coming and put all of our cameras in a dry bag.  About a minute later it just started pouring.  It was very hot before this and the rain felt great.  We all got soaked so I did not take any pictures after this.  Short bridges connected two sets of platforms.  I got some of the shots Alvin took and all of the following are his.

I particularly like this photo because it looks like I have a mustache. 

The last zip line was the long one I mentioned earlier.  Alvin took a video while he was on it.

To get back to the ground, our guides lowered us on another pulley.

We took off our harnesses, rested, and drank some water for a few minutes.  Our driver then took us to an open area where some staff there served us lunch.  On the way there, this group of monkeys was just walking down the road.  The baby one was being held in it's mother's lap and would periodically get rambunctious and fall out onto the ground where it would quickly run back for protection.

For lunch, they served us a fried egg with rice, fruit, steamed vegetables, and chicken and pea soup.  Also, note the large cloth napkin.  Every other restaurant I have been to in Thailand gives you about a 2x6 inch paper thin napkin.  These large ones were a luxury.

After lunch, our driver took us over to the zoo where I saw the following animals.

Everyone knows hippos hate cigarettes.

After the zoo, we loaded up in the van and arrived at VP Tower by three o'clock.  I took a nap.  Later in the evening, nine of us ate at B-Resto, a modern restaurant with a western and Thai menu.  I ordered garlic bread and barbecued fish with sweet and sour sauce.  A whole fish.

I destroyed that fish.

After dinner, we set about our grueling nightclub assignment.  Some members of our group went to find a bar near a university in hopes of meeting some young Thais.  Their cab driver could not find what they were looking for so they just met us on Khaosan street.  We went to a few different bars there but found mostly farang everywhere we went.  We had a good time but decided we need to go somewhere with more Thais next time.