monkey see, monkey desperate to do

I am going to kill them.

I am going to kill each and everyone person who insisted that this was the absolute, must-do, never-miss-in-a-million-years adventure of a lifetime.

I can barely hear the guide's instructions over my hyperventilating panic. My heart is not stuck in my throat, it's long since vacated my body, along with my brain and any common sense that may have been lodged in little corners of my head.

Closing my eyes and praying to any divine creatures that may exist, including leprechauns and pixies, I throw myself off the wooden ledge. A scream escapes, loud and high-pitched, and I cling to the wire as though my life depends on it. Which, ironically, it does.

I barely muster the courage to open my eyes before I reach the next narrow platform. My Laotian guide can't even fit on the half way point; he's up in the branches like the monkeys were are searching for. With a guiding hand he helps me secure my safety line, move the clip to the next wire, and push off for my next flight along the top of the jungle.

We are in the Bokeo Nature Reserve with our Laotian guides from the Gibbon Experience, trekking deep into the jungle. In order to preserve some of the habitat, zip lines have been installed across the canopy, with wires ranging from 10 to 500 metres. Other members of our group are flying along – clearly I am the only one aware of my own mortality!

Our guides are monkeys, barely holding on as they zip from tree to tree.

I, on the other hand, am desperately trying to forget that it there is only one little clip between me from the forest floor.

Breathing hard, I reach the final platform and quickly grip the trunk, shaking so hard I can barely lock my clip onto the safety line. I yell out to other end that all is clear, but my voice is so hoarse from screaming I'm not sure they can hear me.

After a few hours of trekking and zipping, we arrive at our home for the evening – a basic but quaint tree house overlooking several valleys. Watching the purples and pinks of dusk play out over the jungle, we desperately search the trees for gibbons or other wildlife, but my panicked yelps must have scared them all off for today. Maybe I'll be calmer tomorrow...