



Also, this expedition happened the day before the elephant excursion. I wanted to do it after because I thought there'd be so many mo

Anyhoo. Today was the day we signed up to take ziplines through the canopy of the jungle. Which, if you know me, you probably think is an odd choice, being that I'm afraid of heights and all. But, I told myself that a lot of Thailand is jungle and I want to experience it...and there's no way in hell I'm walking through it. What with Thailand having snakes and me being more afraid of those things than heights, the idea of me zipping above those little buggers sounded just fine to me.

We got up at 6.00am, which felt early to me by this time in the trip, and were outside waiting for the minivan, and they came pretty promptly. We were the first pick-up. It was mostly a quiet ride out to the mountains outside of Chiang Mai. Then we reached the mountains and the curvy roads. By then the sun was up and everyone had shaken off their sleep and were getting excited to do some ziplines.
The people in our van were all really

We ended up splitting up leaving our group to be Dinah and I, the English and the Irish. And it was a fun group. The group is English man (Damien), Me, Dinah, Irish woman, Irish Man (John), English woman (H, I believe), and our two guides. This was taken afterwards when we'd started cracking beers and were pretty comfortable with everyone.
But back to the beginning of the story (see, the Tarantino theme continues), so, you can see from the beginning pictures that they got us in harnesses


In addition to the ziplines, there were rope bridges (which were kind of fun in an odd way) and repels (where they actually just lowered you straight down, so it wasn't at all

And for a couple of the ziplines, you got to partner up. The trip had been going so well that Dinah and I decided to partner with each other. The sign of a good honeymoon, I guess.
After the ziplines (and there are videos at the bottom of the page!), but before lunch (which I was really wanting) we walked up a steep incline and looked at a waterfall. It was beautiful, sure, but it was fucking steep. And the steps, well, they weren't uniform. And while I loved getting to the top, I was so tired and unhappy from the walk, I didn't probably stay long enough to really enjoy it. I'm not usually one to wish nature had escalators, but this is one of the rare occasions where that sentiment seems perfectly natural.
In the truck ride to and from the beginning of the path to the waterfall, we got into a great conversation with our European passenger-friends

And they weren't the only ones. It seemed everywhere we went, whether we said we were from America or Chicago, people would say "Barack" or "Obama" with a great big smile. It wasn't shocking or anything, but it was cool.
The Videos:
First, let me say this was when we figured out our camera could take videos. Which completely explains the first video. I didn't know this was going to be memorialized in any way. But here you go:
See. I'm kind of an idiot.
The next two:
I like my "documentary" video. Except that you can see my hand for the last half or so. And you may notice that I was not wearing my regular wedding ring. I was so worried about losing it in the ocean (my inlaws can't keep rings on their fingers in bodies of water, it's worrisome) that I didn't take it. Instead Dinah and I both got $15.00 stainless steel bands at Southridge Mall in Des Moines over Christmas.
Anyway, our next stop was Karabe town, which was our first chance to head south to the more touristy locales...and also where Dinah almost killed herself for the first time on the trip.
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