Glimpsing Gibbons in Laos

December 21, 2007 ·  

Looking down at my shoes, I can’t help but notice that the wooden platform beneath them appears less than sturdy. Fine cracks run the length of a few boards. The nails attaching the platform to the tree seem ridiculously small. If anything breaks, there’s a good eighty-feet between me and the forest floor.

I stay calm. I breathe. And then I jump.

I don’t, of course, leap into emptiness; the cables connecting me to the zip-line hold firm, and I surrender to the feeling of free flight. The wire hums... [Read more]