Phuket Lifestyle: Cables and canopies

PHUKET: Zipping along with the sea on one side and forest on the other is something residents and visitors do everyday on the roads interlinking Phuket’s beaches.

Now they can do the same thing while flying over 40 meters in the air, propelled by nothing more than gravity. The island’s newest adventure attraction opens a door into Phuket’s often overlooked forested hillsides and delivers a guided tour that is as exciting as it is beautiful.

Flying Hanuman officially opened on December 27, but the course itself has been painstakingly prepared for over six months on a 50 rai (80,000 square meter) plot of land near the Kathu Waterfall. The attraction’s head guides played a pivotal role in designing the layout and then constructing each platform and the zip lines or games that connect them.

The guides are trained professionals who specialize in activities high above ground and are masters of the equipment at their disposal.

Every group (maximum nine people) will have a minimum of two guides with them, even if there is only one guest. One guide will send guests from one platform to his partner guide waiting at the next platform. Even if you need to be rescued from the middle of a zipline, our guides make it fun.

Guests are welcomed in the purpose built reception area, which features a classy open-air design with thatched roofs. After registration and a refreshing welcome drink, a short introduction and safety video are shown before guides help with harnesses and equipment, all of which are sourced from Petzl, a premier French manufacturer of specialized work-at-height gear. After a final safety brief by the guides on a small zip line mock-up, guests embark on a short trek to the first platform.

Zip lines are definitely the focus of Flying Hanuman but the excitement and pacing is suitably varied by other ways of moving through the treetops. There are two sky bridges, three spiral staircases, two abseil points, a skateboard style gimmick called a “Sky-Rail” and a dual zip line. Two of the biggest highlights come in the latter half of the journey, when guests are launched down a 400mtr zip line that moves them across the whole site in 45 seconds. Speeds exceed 60 kilometers per hour at over 40 meters above ground. Then right before the end, a 40 meter abseil provides one last adrenaline spike before customers can relax in the sitting area with refreshments and a complimentary t-shirt.

Flying Hanuman is located near the Kathu Waterfall on Wichitsongkram road in Kathu. For more information visit flyinghanuman.com or call 0819792332.