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Published: April 19th 2007
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Shhhh! Quai-it
These are roaming buffalo that we bumped into while trying to relieve ourselves before we had reached the Gibbon Experience. She was very protective of her baby. I had to ask her politely if I could use her toilet.
I was lucky enough to try out the Gibbon Experience. This experience has nothing to do with Gibbons, although they will be heard and if your lucky seen. This experience challenged my fears, it opened up my eyes, it tested my nerves, it taught my things about myself that I never knew. Sounds great, right? Oh Yeah, and here is why.
This year my girlfriend (Ning) and I decided to get "real loco" and head to the Gibbon Experience. For those of you who don't know what a Gibbon is, it is a big monkey with real long arms. They love to swing from branches, while singing a melody with a very unique tune. The black Gibbon was thought to be extinct until they were found in the Bokeo Forest, in Laos.
Wow! What an experience, not because of the Gibbons, but because we were able to visit the Gibbon's backyard. I don't know where to begin, so how about the beginning. We started our adventure in a tiny village in Laos. This village was so far away from any outside exposure. Some of the people in this village are guides for the Gibbon Experience, but literally know
Where Are We?
This was the village below the gibbon exp. I love little villages. In my opinion this one was real special and authentic. nothing about the outside world. Ning could speak Lao with them. She quickly found out how little they knew. She had to explain what a Tsunami was, what had happened in Thailand a couple of years ago. They were amazed! We asked them where we were in Laos. They had no clue. The only map they had ever seen was the one of their village. As Ning put it "they don't know anything about anything".
We started by hiking up a mountain for about an hour. We had no idea what to expect. We knew we would be doing some zip lining and sleeping in a tree house. It was better to only know a little, because when we finally saw the first gigantic tree house in a tree about 400 meters away the smiles and excitement instantly bubbled out of our bodies. The tree was well over a half of a football field tall. Tree house 1 had three stories and the only way to and from it was on a zip line. Woooohoooo! A playground in the jungle!
Throughout this forest there was an extensive network of zip lines. Some well over 500 meters long. For
Holy Tree House!
After treking up about 1500 meters we finally caught a glimpse of what we were dealing. Needless to say, we liked what we saw. three days we zipped around the canopy of this untouched forest. I've seen birds in canopies, but always looking up. For once in my life, birds were looking up at me.
This was a spectacular experience. However, there were some memories that I'll never forget for the wrong reasons. Ning and I stayed in Tree House 2, A.K.A the honeymoon tree house. The name is very deceptive. There is no such thing as a honeymoon of any kind in the Lao jungle, so don't get any ideas. In order to get to our house we had to zip and hike our way through the dense jungle. It took about a half an hour to get there from tree house 1. We thought it would be cool to stay there with no guides. Besides, what could possible go wrong? Unfortunately, we forgot about someone named Mother Nature.
The guides had told us that if a big storm came we'd need to evacuate the tree house. We didn't think too much of it. At the time (daylight was still blessing us) zip lining in the dark sounded kind of fun.
Darkness came along with thunder, lighting, and wind. At
She's Off and Zipping!
The decent to Tree House #1. first we thought the storm may not come. Wishful thinking! It came and it came with authority. Before we could even pack up anything the storm was on top of us. To put it lightly, being in a 100 foot high tree while having monsoonal rains, thunder, lighting and wind beat down on a tree house gave me a helpless feeling.
We only had a small light on my phone which just reflected off the huge rain drops and made the drops look much more dramatic. After a struggle in the dark we were able to strap our harnesses on and grab a couple of candles. We then strapped ourselves onto the cable. That was the moment that I literally almost started to cry. Ning and I we're standing on a little platform 100 feet off the ground staring into blackness. I take that back; it wasn't completely dark. Lighting would light things up for a brief moment.
Just before we were about to jump into darkness I started whining to Ning and telling her in a perfect Thai accent that I didn't want to go (it's the only time my accent has been perfect.) Ning wasn't having
Morning View
This is the view from our tree house in the morning. It had me hoppin' out of bed at the crack of dawn. it. For those of you who know Ning, she can get real frustrated with me when she disagrees with something. This was one of those times. She smacked some sense back into me and then we jumped into a black whole.
The next part happened so fast. We landed sliding to a stop in the dirt. At least I did, Ning was a little more composed and was able to land perfectly. We detached from the cable and ran for shelter. Actually, all the shelter consisted of was some bamboo leaves on half built structure, but there was a fire pit which was key.
I had gained some of my composure back and I attempted to build a fire. I didn't have too much success. Dad, I hate to break it to you, but my Indian Guide training didn't come in very useful. Ning was already angry at me for acting like a little baby; when she had to step up and light the fire she completely wrote me off as being the next Tarzan. The fire was essential. It helped protect us from the jungle animals. You might be asking what's in the Lao jungle? Nothing too
5 Star Jungle Dinner
My girlfriend is just preparing the final touches on an elegant 5 course dinner. scary, just Asiatic Bears and Tigers. When we heard things rustling in the bushes outside our makeshift shelter I immediately ran and grabbed a stick. Once again, I was out done. Ning grabbed a big saw. I couldn't use the excuse that "I hadn't seen the saw." It was one of the first things I saw when we reached the shelter.
We stuck it out in the shelter for about an hour until all of the dry wood had been burnt. The stars finally came out and it was time to hike up a little ways and zip line back to the tree house. We thought the storm was had passed. About an hour later, we heard that dreaded sound of thunder again. This time I wasn't going anywhere. I told Ning that I was perfecly comfortable taking my chances in the tree house. The storm came and went; more importantly we were still in one piece.
The next night we insisted that two guides sleep in our tree house. We even gathered more wood before nightfall in case we had to evacuate and light a fire again. Once again, a storm rolled in. Once again, we evacuated.
Here Comes A Storm!
One of many storms that rolled in and left it's stamp on the Bokeo Jungle However this time it was kind of fun. It's amazing what having a guide did for my confidence. It also helped that we didn't wait to evacuate until the storm was right on top of us.
I've dove off cliffs, jumped through rings of fire, bungi jumped off Victoria Falls, I've even fell out of a tree, but nothing compares to how scared I was that night in the Bokeo forest. That being said, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I'd label the gibbon experience as a "must do in Laos" just be ready for an "experience" of some sort.
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