Thailand...Stop 4....Chiang Mai Part III: ZIPLINES!

It has come to my attention that I've numbered the Chiang Mai stop number 3, which you may have noticed was also the number of the Sukhothai stop. Meaning, I can't count. Chiang Mai was stop number 4. I'm not gonna correct it elsewhere, but realize that I know I cannot count.


Also, this expedition happened the day before the elephant excursion. I wanted to do it after because I thought there'd be so many more pictures and videos and it was gonna take me a little more time to get them together and figure out what I wanted to say. And I think this is how Quentin Tarantino would put it together if this were his blog.
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 nice. It was Dinah and I, a lady whose husband worked for the State Department (and who lived and loved Bangkok, though she admitted that having the help of her nanny and never having to go anywhere they didn't speak English, and living in a huge apartment where mostly officials from the Indian government worked was pretty nice. Grrr.), a quiet couple who didn't speak enough for us to know if they were Japanese or Chinese, another quiet couple from Ireland, and a very gregarious couple from Manchester.
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 for safety and it made us take goofy pictures. I think that's natural, but I don't know. What you may be wondering is why are they holding that stick? Well, I'm glad I asked myself for you. The stick is made of bamboo and it was our brake. I knew bamboo was a strong substance (it's wood right, for some reason it doesn't seem right to call it wood), but this was a bit bothersome. And I should mention, the helmets may look cool (uhh) and sturdy (ehhh), but they aren't even as strong as a good batting helmet, so, yeah. My goal quickly became not to fall and not to collide with any trees.
Of course then I got up there. It was a perfect day. It was cooler in the mountains so we were chilly in the beginning, but as we got into it, the chill drifted away. The sun was shining and coming through the trees, it was gorgeous. After the first zip, there was no hesitation anymore and it was just great fun. And it was really easy. Just sit and go. No pushing, minimal or no braking. Just Zip. That morning went by really quickly.
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 dangerous, but still pretty fun cause they'd let you drop for a good while).

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 about America. Remember this was before the Obama inauguration, and everyone was really excited for America. It was odd. I'd heard and believed all the comments about how America had lost it's standing in the eyes of Europe (and you can give a shit about that or not, I guess. But I think it's, you know, kind of important.), but it didn't really strike me that people in Europe were really paying attention. They knew a lot about what was going on (more than I think I did at that point) and they were excited about the new start.

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.