Flying high in Chiang Mai
Travelling to the northern city in the off-season has its advantages, including short waits for the Flight of the Gibbon, which takes the adventurous on a zipline tour above the wilderness canopy
Published: 25/07/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Brunch
The rain and high humidity in the monsoon season keep a lot of tourists away from Chiang Mai, while others find it a good time to avoid the crowds and chill out as the northern province is more relaxing at this time of year.
But relaxing was definitely not on the immediate agenda of the girl on a high platform surrounded by the dense jungle of Ban Mae Kampong in Mae On subdistrict. Grasping her harness tight and holding her breath, she jumped off the platform and flew over the green canopy on a wire cable, yelling all the way until she reached another platform on the next tree.
Her friends followed her, with even louder yells. When they had all made it safely to the other platform the entire jungle valley was filled with laughter.
It’s a sure thing they’ll never forget the Flight of the Gibbon, an exciting zipline ride through the 1,500-year-old rainforest outside of Chiang Mai. Via cables and hanging bridges that link the platforms together, tourists can travel high along a two kilometre route above the wilderness canopy.
During the tourist high season the activity is so popular that visitors may need to wait for hours for their turn, particularly during the cool season when mountain breezes blow through the forest. In the rainy season the queue is much shorter, and with a little luck you may not have to wait at all.
While most tourists plan their visit to Chiang Mai in the cool season, I find Chiang Mai in the rainy season equally impressive, and a bonus is that the jungle landscape takes on a more vivid green. Furthermore, fewer tourists make it much easier to get around and enjoy the destination.
One morning I made my way on Highway 1096, the mountain road that links Chiang Mai city with Samoeng, a calm district in the embrace of the mountains. The road was rather empty, so I drove slowly, enjoying the picturesque landscape until I reached my destination - the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden.
The huge botanical garden covers 1,052 hectares and has an astounding variety of plant life. The highlights for me were the rare plants in various glasshouses at the heart of the park. What amazed me most was one very large glasshouse that encompassed tropical trees and a small waterfall.
There were only a handful of visitors roaming the vast garden, exploring the glasshouses and admiring and taking pictures of the beautiful flowers and plants as they wished.
A bit further north in Mae Taeng district is Elephant Nature Park, an elephant sanctuary where abused elephants rescued nationwide are kept.
The park is the headquarters of the Elephant Nature Foundation. Unlike other camps where the elephants are chained awaiting riders or their next performance, these elephants roam freely and may be seen grazing in the vast fields or at the river taking a dip or playing in the mud.
After a long day I scooted back to the city and made my way to the back lawn of Viang Joom On, the famous tea house on a bank of the Mae Ping River. During the dry season at the end of the day this place is always packed with tourists in search of a romantic setting to experience the demise of the day and the birth of the evening. Now there was no problem finding a table along the calmly flowing river, where I sipped fragrant tea and listened to soft music. I noticed that the smattering of customers joining me on the back lawn all seemed equally impressed with the easy atmosphere of Chiang Mai in the off-season.
PHOTOS: PEERAWAT JARIYASOMBAT
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*Bron: Bangkok Post / www.bangkokpost.com *