chiang mai - "but i brought the economist..."

after koh chang, cathy and i traveled to the north of thailand. we stopped for a few days in chiang mai where, much to my surprise, cathy took an immediate interest in something entitled, "jungle flight: the best adventure in chiang mai."

as i've mentioned in previous posts, i am decidedly a land-person. (i would say land-lover or land-dweller, but those things make me think of pirates, and while pirates are hilarious, it undermines the seriousness of my assertion.) i don't really like the water - an unfortunate fact for someone who grew up on the coast of florida - and i don't particularly enjoy being high off the ground, either. i am embarrassed to say how many times i had to be rescued from the rope ladder at shamu's happy play land as a kid before i accepted facts.

the "best adventure in chiang mai" was fine by me though. i had faith that it would be pretty, a bit cooler than in the city, and best of all, i had found the new copy of THE ECONOMIST. i love magazines with a passion. they're portable, full of fascinating articles you can read without high levels of investment, and in chiang mai, you can get them in ENGLISH. this is particularly special since in thailand they like to print the covers of magazines in english for some reason. this leads you to think, "ohhhhh, a magazine, yay," only to have your hopes dashed when you pick it up and realize the inside is in thai. needlless to say, i considered this akin to the find of the century. i figured i'd just go along for the ride, enjoy the scenery, and get in some reading.

however once we got there, and i made my plans known, the serious peer pressure from the other zippers started. "but i brought the economist...," wasn't even the beginning of a valid excuse and before i knew it, i was strapped into a harness, had a helmet on my head and was headed up a path for the first tree.

cathy zipping.

we had to zip to this contraption, climb down those windy stairs and then cross the longest rocky wooden bridge i've ever seen. it took a good twenty minutes for my stomach to recover.

this was how we were attached to the tree (once we made it there). apparently it was up to "french standards." i question those standards.