The Gibbon Experience

Hi all,

A lot as happened since our last entry. Lets start at our border crossing from Chiang Khong, Thailand to Huay Xia, Laos. Stayed at a guesthouse in Thailand overlooking the Mekong River and Huay Xia. Derek and I enjoyed a surprisingly good mexican food dinner in Thailand overlooking Laos that night. The next morning we caught the 30 second ferry crossing over the Mekong and into Laos.



On the 5th we headed to The Gibbon Experience head office and met the other eleven travellers doing the same trip as we were called " the Classic Experience." Hopped on a truck for a couple hours and enjoyed the scenery of villages, local Lao people's every day activities, dogs chasing pigs and chickens waiting to cross the road. We stopped at a little town called Baan Donchai which had a gas station consisting of barrels of gas with some sort of manual pump, three little stores and 1 guess house with two rooms for rent. Truck ride took another 1 hour to reach the main village at the beginning of the Bokeo Nature Reserve.



After a 1 hour trek in the reserve we finally reached our very first zip line to reach treehouse one. Had a quick briefing and a quick snack, divided ourselves into 3 groups of 2, 6 and 5 people. We were the group of 6 people who stayed in treehouse one for the first night and treehouse three the second night. Our group consisted of an Irish couple who are super funny, an English man who reminded us of Tarzan or George of the Jungle, a Canadian guy and us.

We had an interesting first night where it started to thunder with a little bit of lightening and strong wind. At 2am one of the guides on the ground had shouted "come down, no good" and signalled us to evacuate immediately and with no hesitation we put on our harnesses and zipped down to safety in pitch black darkness. We stayed in the kitchen shelter where the guides sleep and cook our meals. We shared the shelter with a monkey and an asian baby black bear. After 15 minutes the storm had passed and we were able to return to our treehouse. This was a bonding experience for us all.




The Gibbon Experience is by far one of the most unique, exciting and well worth it experience Derek and have shared in our lives. The trekking often made me question why i was doing this especially the trek after visiting treehouse 5. By far the most strenuous trek walking directly up hill for almost an hour. Visiting treehouse 5 is a must, as it is the newest, most remote and has a great view of the reserve. You also get to zip the longest line of 400m. Zipping down from treehouse 5 however was the most scary as it is a steep drop down.

We are now in Luang Prabang and will possibly stay here for a week. Blog you then.

- Uriah...

p.s Yesterday was our 1 Year wedding Anniversary. So happy anniversary to us. We spent it in a 4 dollar guesthouse and on a 9 hour slow boat ride. How luxurious.