Day 40: Zip Lining to TH 1

Our little team has surprised me. Just a few hours ago we were terrorized by the night creatures, and our treehouse 5 toilet was still full of wasps. However, just after sunrise, when the zzzzzziiiippppp sound of coffee and tea arriving got everyone else up, it almost seemed that nothing had happened. I half expected a mutiny but even Beth greeted me with a kiss, smile and "good morning!". Wow.

As soon as we were up and had a tea, the girls, the Dutch couple and I got our harnesses on and zipped out of the treehouse. I'm not sure why Beth didn't want to go - it was either because she wanted to do some extra house keeping or because she was scared shitless (unfortunately not literally, you know, because of the wasps!) of the crazy mode of departure from our Popsicle shaped house in the sky.

After coming back into the treehouse we got a flying delivery of breakfast. It was fantastic! There's something about being in the fresh air - it makes food taste so good. We recalled other moments like this -trekking in Myanmar, rafting in Nepal, camping and more - hmmm... This breakfast was good!

After breakfast, we packed up and were off. The girls and I did one more out and in circuit of the zip 

lines, then it was time to get Beth hooked up. With a little push, she zipped down to the relative safety of the forest (that also features snakes and leopards) - she was terrified of this one, but she is a trooper (and terrible at scaling down 100 foot tall trees with no branches).

We started on the walk back towards Treehouse 1 (I still feel like writing "townhouse" instead of "treehouse" as Beth kept calling them throughout the 3 days - I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day with that one!). We did two of the longest zip lines which were stupendous. Bungleung even took these videos of the girls as they zip lined...

Here's Abby...

We crossed paths with the other group (that was heading to Treehouse 5) and it sounded like they'd had a quieter night than us, with perhaps better bathroom accommodations. Fingers crossed.

Our guides took us for brief stops at Treehouse 3 and Treehouse 7 - both with amazing views and tons of wind. At this point we were really hot and sweaty and feeling a bit of wind was heavenly. 

Luckily throughout the trip we had clean running water as they had rigged up a system of pumping fresh river water into a cistern on top of a mountain that pressurized the water pipes to the tree houses. We tried to keep well hydrated, but it was always going to be a losing battle.

We got to Treehouse 1 at about 1:00pm, just in time for lunch. We were famished! The girls and I had done 18 zip lines so far and we'd had a great, though exhausting morning. Lunch was another delicious meal.

After lunch we all paired off and chilled. Beth and I laid on a mattress and just sat and talked... And then sat and stared into the trees.... And then slept. It was so chill. I woke up in the same position some time later.

Abby came up and gestured for me to come with her down to the main floor of the treehouse, and presented me with this for Father's Day:

Then we had an awesome group chill in the same spot which was the best gift I could have...

Townhouse 1 was luxury compared to #5 - the toilet was waspless, the shower was a little bit colder, the area was more spacious (three levels) and it was a little cooler as we were inside a massive tree. We played a lot of cards that afternoon - even our second guide who was a local hill tribesman and who didn't speak a lick of English joined us at cards, and he was quite good!

I took a little video at dusk to capture some of the sounds.