Zipline Adventure at Flying Hanuman, Phuket!

Hello, everyone!

Wayne and I recently challenged ourselves and leaped far outside of our comfort zones. We did a zipline adventure at Flying Hanuman in Phuket, Thailand!

Both of us are pretty nervous about heights. And that nervousness increases with each foot we climb! So for us, this was a big push mentally to do.

But we did it! And we’re sort of proud we did 🙂 It was fun, anyway!

Flying Hanuman advertises as an eco-tour. They were very careful when constructing it to not disturb the environment, and apparently it’s pretty much the same now as it was before the tour was built. It sure seems like they did a good job.

We did the 32-platform tour which we purchased through this company. This tour included both shorter and longer zip lines (the longest we did was 300m), and skywalks and abseil points and spiral staircases (up the trees) and one dual zipline! Whew!

We got picked up at our hotel by a large air-conditioned van and were returned the same way; we were also the only passengers both ways, which was nice!

When we arrived we were greeted and had to sign a waiver, and were offered plenty of upgrades (photos, videographer, etc) which we refused. Then we were left to wander a bit until the time when our guides were to meet us. 

The place is really pretty and very, very touristy – it’s obviously catering to (or meant to cater to) high-end tourists (which we’re not!) – it’s extremely well maintained and clean. Lots of landscaping and bamboo, it’s really incredible to see. Hopefully these photos give some idea of the workmanship:

Our guides came promptly and suited us up in our bandanas, helmets and harnesses: Smexy!

We were the only two customers on this tour! Lucky us!

After we were suited up, we hopped onto the back of a truck and were driven up a long hill. When we stopped, we were led up, up, up a path into the jungle. 

We’d insert a photo here except we were busy resting and catching our breath.

Then we climbed a tree! Well, we climbed a spiral ladder that went up, up, up around a tree. Again, no pics…afraid of heights, remember, and not stopping on a wobbly rope ladder with people climbing ahead and behind us to take pics! Even though we were hooked to the tree with a carabiner and cable. Wayne caught it on video, though!

So at the top we reached the first platform, and there it was…the whole jungle below us. Far, far below us.

Our harness got hooked to a zip line with a big carabiner. We listened very carefully to the safety instructions!

I made Wayne go first, and in the beginning, it was pretty scary:

Our first few rides we had a death-grip on the rope, and a bit of a fetal-curl thing going on…

But we got a little braver with each line…

And after maybe 3 we were leaning back and no longer hanging on for dear life! We were flying!

Sometimes it was a straight zipline to zipline from the same tree, at other times we walked on plank-and-rope platforms between one tree to another. The first ariel walkways had a rope “rail” on both sides, but later they only had a “rail” on one side! 

Sometimes between platforms we were lowered from a higher platform down to another (still high!) platform, to another zipline! These are the abseil points.

We were amazed at how quickly we lost our fear! Guess it was either that or be stuck up in the forest canopy.

We always felt surprisingly safe, (if you ignore the instinctual fear of heights in the beginning). The harnesses and lines and safety system seemed really robust, and our guides were young and fun but obviously experienced and careful. They obviously really loved their jobs!

We had 2 guides plus a photographer (and yes, we were upsold again on the photos later, and yes, we bought them!)

Anyway, the whole hour we were in the forest is pretty much a blur of ziplines and ariel walkways. We took videos as best we could, and took some photos, but most of the photos here came from the photographer who went with us. When we saw his shots, Nikki insisted on getting them!

Summary of this trip: we had a blast! We pushed ourselves, overcame some fears, and felt pretty darn brave and happy at the end!

If you’re ever in Phuket and looking to push your boundaries, get some unbelievable views and have a really fun time, we heartily and truly recommend Flying Hanuman Ziplines!

How have you challenged yourself lately? Drop a comment below!