Topics: The Jungle

September 2010
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I beat my alarm and woke up at 4:15, already packed for my early morning flight to Chang Mai, almost as far north as you can get in Thailand (near the Burmese and Laotion borders). A short flight later I found myself looking for my ride to the hotel. I’ve made a bad habit this trip of having too little information when I need it, and in this case I had no idea what hotel I was staying at, or who was picking me up.

Over the last few days, I’ve heard Lek on the phone speaking Thai, and every once in a while I heard my name. I’d ask her what it was about and all she’d say was the she was calling some people she knew in Chang Mai.

After about 20 minutes and several phone calls I finally met up with my ride, and saw the the van was property of the Dusit D2 hotel. So while we drove, I looked it up in my travel guide. It was going to be a very nice hotel stay. It seems that Lek’s old friend owns the hotel. Lek arranged for me to have a room. It’s spectacular.

Unfortunately I only had 45 minutes to enjoy it before meeting my guide, Marut, in the lobby (another piece of Lek’s planning — Marut was an old family friend of Lek’s). The plan was for Marut to spend a couple days with me and show me around Chang Mai. But he told me he couldn’t spend today with me due to work responsibilities, and said instead that he was leaving me with the driver, Mr. T. Normally I would instantly think that such a name was a takeoff on the real star, but in this case it seemed in the realm of possibility that the real Mr. T. was a van driver in Chang Mai. To my momentary dismay I discovered that I was spending my day with Mr. Tee, a gentleman who spoke zero English. 5 minutes with him and we were on the same page. I did have to come up with some interesting hand gestures for items such as “I need to go to the bathroom” but ultimately we got past the language barrier.

Marut had planned out my day, so off I went with Mr. Tee to the Maetaman Elephant Camp, about one hour outside Chang Mai. The plan was to take an elephant ride, then an oxen ride, have lunch, watch a show (elephant tricks) and end with a bamboo raft tour down the river. With the exception of the oxen ride, the day was an absolute blast. Elephants are somehow the ugliest and the cutest of animals both at the same time! These are huge animals, but they have no problem negotiating narrow turns with rocks and ruts peppering steep inclines and declines. At one point my elephant driver pulled over, put me on the neck of the beast, and took photos of me. I’m not quite sure how I felt about the elephant show — an elephant kicking a soccer ball just doesn’t seem natural.

Now I’m not an expert on elephants, but I do know that my elephant was the best elephant that ever was. His name was Be Po, but if you went by the comments of everyone we passed along the route, you’d call him Ferrari. He was incredibly fast. At points we were overtaking a dozen other elephants in incredibly narrow paths within minutes.

The raft ride, with two Thai drivers fore and aft, had a hint of Heart of Darkness. The river cuts right through the jungle. There is animal life everywhere creating “expected” sounds.

After the elephant camp we headed back, but stopped at an umbrella factory. The talent of the ladies and men creating umbrellas, scarves, etc. was impressive. I handed one woman my wallet and she painted a dragon on it within 2 minutes. I gave her 3 dollars for the effort and she was really very happy. I hope the design lasts until I get home.

When we returned to the hotel there was time for a quick workout and shower, then I was off to the Chang Mai Cultural Center for dinner and a display of traditional Thai/Chang Mai dance. To my pleasant surprise Marut showed up, and I enjoyed his company for several hours. He’s a very interesting guy. He looks 33, but in fact is half a year older than me. He is married with 3 girls. When I asked if he would still try for a boy, he replied “every night.” He is the Administrator for a technical school for over 500 people. I didn’t take my camera to the dancing, I just wanted to relax and enjoy it.

This very long day has left me exhausted and ready for bed. I have an early morning — Mr. Tee is taking me to the tallest mountain in Thailand for a climb, and afterwards I will meet up with Marut.

Some of the people my speedy elephant passed!!!

Taming the beast!

Lie down. Play dead.

Ronoldo!

Mr. Tee

The horror! The horror!

The art of umbrella making

I’ve been looking forward to this day for months! I wasn’t let down at all.

Flight of the Gibbon Tours picked me up at the hotel at 8:15am after I had just finished breakfast trying to get rid of a red wine hangover. We made two more stops, first picking up Annika and her daughter Petra, Swedish but living in Thailand for 3 years while Annika’s husband works for the Swedish Embassy, and next Stacy and Paul from Manchester, England who are on vacation. 50 minutes later after a very bumpy ride (not good for the hangover) we arrived at the facility in the middle of the jungle. Driving through the jungle is quite an experience, narrow and very curvy roads, huts all over the place, and animals crossing the road wherever they want.

Flight of the Gibbon is a very safe operation. The harnesses we used were checked and double checked, helmets were fitted, and we were on our way. There are 18 platforms at varying levels built into the trees, and lines strung between. There were a couple of bridges, and 3 straight down drops to platforms underneath. Safety on the platforms was always the first thought, and there was never a moment that both my main clip and backup clip weren’t connected to something. The highest platform was 120 meters from the jungle floor, and the longest zip line was 100 meters long.

We had 2 guides: Serious Sam and North. One would zip to the next platform to catch us, and the other would stay and send us off. They were also happy to take photos of us mid flight. These are very funny guys, they kept us laughing while never sacrificing safety.

A few of the zips required us to use a bamboo v-shaped brake to slow our approach to the next platform. We were encouraged to fly free form, arms spread. They had me take the final descent straight down head first — that was a trip.

We heard gibbons and a lot of birds, but didn’t see any. The jungle is an incredible environment, and photos cannot do justice to the depth. Under the tree canopy the temperature was very comfortable. It was definitely a good idea to wear jeans and to spray my arms to keep the mosquitos away.

After the zip lines, we had lunch and then were taken for a short hike up a waterfall. Good exercise and very beautiful there.

At the last minute I decided not to take my regular camera, instead taking my digital elph. That turned out to be a good idea, I don’t know that I would have been able to manage with the larger one. The tradeoff is photo quality, but that’s ok.

I’m back at the hotel, and although I had to check out earlier I’m hanging out in the lobby for a few hours until I leave for the airport. Back to Bangkok tonight, then on to the next adventure tomorrow!!