Thailand Jungle Adventure

The word jungle is derived from the Sanskrit word jangula which means `impenetrable bush'. Most people associate jungle with tropical rain forest. Actually, though, rain forest is not that impenetrable at all. Because of the thick canopy, only two percent of daylight will reach the forest floor, not enough for a lush vegetation to develop. In fact Thailand doesn’t actually have a true “rainforest” due to the fact there is a brief dry period at certain times of the year. 

There are two main types of forest in Thailand, the evergreen forest and the deciduous forest. The evergreen forest is subdivided into the tropical evergreen forest, the pine forest, the mangrove forest and the beach forest. About 28.4 percent of Thailand is covered by forest - a significant decrease since 1945 when just over 60% of the country was forested.  Like most countries of the world, the main cause of deforestation in Thailand is the rapid increase in population.

 There is a gibbon just visible in the centre of this photo.

A cream coloured gibbon swings through the canopy.

 The Government of Thailand is aware of the problem and has encouraged reforestation programs and since 1989, has banned all commercial logging. The government has invested the equivalent of millions in reforestation and preservation activities around the country. The government has recognized that well-planned forest-based activities have the potential for alleviating poverty in rural areas. This concept is usually referred to as community (or social) forestry.






Community forestry centres on the idea of people's participation -- getting local populations to plan and execute their own projects on a self-help basis. One such project, community ecotourism, was initiated in the mountain village of Mae Kampong, about an hour east of Chiang Mai, in 1999. It was developed with assistance from external organizations, in response to the decline of demand for fermented tea production and as an alternative source of income for local villagers.  The ecotourism activities included village sightseeing, cultural shows and homestays.

The tour operators stressed safety.

Due to its terrain, Mae Kampong is surrounded by mainly hill evergreen forest, a sub-group of the tropical evergreen forest. With this type of forest, the area has a high diversity of tree species, plants (like wild orchids) and wild animals, like gibbons. It was near this village that our jungle adventure, the Flight of the Gibbon™, took place.

The national flower of Thailand is orchid. This flower is predominant in all regions of Thailand, and gives a special meaning to the scenery that a traveler encounters in Thailand. There are almost thirty thousand types of orchid in Thailand.

Walking to the starting platform.

We were drawn to the Flight of the Gibbon™ tour because of their stated commitment to minimizing the impact of bringing tourists to the jungle and to encourage the establishment of a stable, healthy, functioning ecosystem. 

The guides were very experienced and made
us feel safe.

There are 2 sky bridges. Crossing these was harder 

than the zip-lining. I felt like I was in Raiders of

the Lost Ark.

 Beginning July, 2008 the ‘Gibbon’ organization contributed to the village’s ‘community ecotourism’ project by working with the local villagers and the forest service to plant trees in a deforested and overused area near the tour site. They created a nursery so they are in a position to sustain and increase the reforestation efforts year after year.

Paul zips to the next platform.  The lines varied in length from under a hundred metres to over a hundred, for a total or over 5 kilometres of zip lines.

I try it. I think I was holding on a little more tightly than most of the

others in our group!

The organization has invested profit and volunteer resources in working with local tribes, the Thai forest service, the APSARA Authority, and Chiang Mai University for forest restoration and rehabilitation.

Paul landing - sometimes a tricky business. Luckily the 'Skyrangers' were there to catch us. There are 33 landing platforms on the course.

There are 2 abseil descents (the controlled descent down using a rope) on the course, like the picture on the left.

It was a long way down.

Gibbons are rare, small, slender, long-armed apes who are arboreal, i.e., they spend most of their lives in trees. They differ from other apes like chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, in their small size and that they do not make nests. They more closely resemble monkeys and also display pair-bonding, unlike most of the great apes.

Gibbons have senses very similar to humans, including hearing, sight,

smell, taste, and touch.

Gibbons are omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in the forests during the day, eating fruit (which constitutes about 75% of their diet), leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, and tender plant shoots. They also eat insects, spiders, bird eggs, and small birds

They drink water, often by dipping a furry hand into the water or rubbing a hand on wet leaves, and then slurping up the water from their fur often while dangling above the water from a thin tree branch.


Gibbons cannot swim and avoid the water. When on the ground (which is rare), they walk on two legs.

Flight of the Gibbon and the Thai government recently cooperated to start the Gibbon Rehabilitation and Release program. Flight of the Gibbon is committed to re-establishing the Gibbon population in its natural habitat. 

They are very nimble while moving in the trees, so almost no predators can catch them,
but they are an endangered species because of the rapid deforestation of their habitats.

The Mae Kampong falls are divided into seven levels. An access trail has been developed to reach all levels of the waterfall.

This time, it was a long way up! Well worth it though - beautiful.