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Published: July 24th 2008
The view on our walk
This was looking out from the top of one of the many hills we climbed.The Gibbon Experience
What an experience!! We caught the bus from Chiang Rai to the border at Chiang Kong. We caught a "ferry" across to Laos, got our visa and then it was off to find a guesthouse in Huay Xai. Once checked in we went to register for the Gibbon Experience. At this point we were advised it was the rainy season and the van could no longer cross the river and we would have to walk an extra 4 hours to the village. Not a problem we thought. She also advised us to buy some sexy plastic shoes with studs on the bottom and some gloves for the zipping. So off shopping we went.
The next morning we met the group and watched a safety video before jumping in a van to begin our very long day of walking. There were some amazing views but also some amazingly steep hills. On our way it began raining and didn't stop for the next three days until we were back in Huay Xai. We eventually made it to the village four hours later to begin the walk into the jungle to the kitchen, from here we decided on
The village
This was the village along the way where we had a much need rest stop. treehouse groups and were given a harness each ready for our zipping. By this stage we were really ready to see some zip lines and the treehouse having walked about six hours.
Our walk to our first tree house was about half an hour with several amazing zip lines. They would have been over 100m long and 100m high. There were four of us in our treehouse plus the guide, they provided us with kinda clean bedding and towels. The bathroom was a experience in itself.
The second day we woke to everything being wet including all our money and clothes - but at least it wasn't cold. Breakfast arrived about 10am along with another couple from a different treehouse. We all headed to a new treehouse which was about an hour walk and again included some very awsome ziplines.
Once we arrived at our treehouse the guides left and said lunch would arrive between 12 and 1. Gary and I were on the second story of the treehouse where it was nice and dry. We could do whatever we liked. Gary did a few more zips and the rest of us relaxed. Eventually someone zipped along
Our first treehouse
This is in the morning before leaving our first treehouse. As you can see everything is out to dry. and delivered us some lunch and then zipped out again. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, playing cards and trying out the two zips by our treehouse.
Day 3 was the day to head back to Huay Xai. Today we spent 7 hours walking including through some streams and had a few visitors - leeches. One guy had about 5 in his sock sucking blood, yuk. It was amazing to see how much the streams had risen during our time in the forrest. So much water has fallen this wet season and has resulted in some of the villages downstream being washed away.
That night we had a hot shower and some air conditioning. It was so nice being dry and clean again. Everything we took was smelly and muddy. Overall it was an enjoyable trip and knowing what we know now we still would have gone.
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