by Scott Coates

I met David Allardice, a native of New Zealand, in March 2007. He was behind the bar at The Last Resort, a tented camp not far from the Nepal-Tibet border, which he conceived, built and owns. It’s a real oasis of relaxation with an interesting twist – to get in you must cross a small suspension bridge that dangles 160m above a raging river. When David leased the land to build his Resort there was one small problem – how to get across?

Quite a construction

A white water paddling pioneer and all around adventure man a bridge seemed to be the solution. Buy how to get the first piece of rope across an almost 200m gorge? The solution – he made a contest for local kids to see who could get a piece of thread across. One boy used a kite, successfully won the prize and larger pieces of string, rope and steel were moved across. The result is not only an awesome bridge to a cool resort, but a foot expressway that has cut local villagers’ commute time down by four hours. Now having such a tall bridge David decided all that was missing was a bungee jump and he built that too (he was the first to jump). It remains one of the world’s great bungee jumps.

Fast forward to 2008 – David was telling me about a new venture he was putting together in Thailand. It would be the first of its kind in the region but that’s all he could tell me. Flight of the Gibbon, by Tree Top Asia opened

Going in for a landing

their Chiang Mai, Thailand location soon thereafter and introduced canopy adventures to the kingdom. I met David at the location, had a go and was impressed. Not only was it thrilling to zip from tree-to-tree, in the thick of the canopy, but it’s an eco friendly outing. This attraction quickly shot to the top of must do lists on travel sites like Trip Advisor. Knowing they were on to a good thing, Tree Top Asia recently opened their second location midway between Bangkok and the seaside resort of Pattaya.

Located in Khao Kiew National Park, I’m guessing this Flight of the Gibbon location is everything David and his team wanted the experience to be after making the Chiang Mai one and learning from their first go. While fun, the northern zipline is not terribly long and would be a bit of a disappointment to someone who has done large ziplines in other parts of the world. The Khao

The journey down at the end

Kiew location is large – very large. Set amongst lush jungle atop the mountain, this course takes about three full hours to run. The longest line is 300m and a combination of sky bridges, abseiling locations and lots and lots of spectacular ziplines make this a seriously fun outing. It’s so nice to see nature become the attraction in a country that too often focuses on jet skis, ATVs and 4×4 adventures.

The Smiling Albino Office Team thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Flight of the Gibbon, Khao Kiew. If you’re looking for something different, fun and with great views to get you out of the big city for a day, drop us an email and we’ll make it happen.