Blogs from Bokèo Nature Reserve, West, Laos, Asia
May 1st 2012
After finding a crocodile sized gecko (named Greegsy) in our bathroom we managed to get a good nights sleep and wake up early to start 'The Gibbon Experience'. After visiting the crazy sandwich lady to get sandwiches, juice, crisps and oreos we heading to the gibbon office to start our journey to the Bokeo Nature Reserve. After a bumpy ride throught small villages we reached a river which the truck then drove through to enter the nature reserve. After what felt like a rollercoaster through the jungle on the back of a pick up truck avoiding being whacked by branches we got to the start off point of our trek. Climbing through the forest at the hottest part of the day was a bit of a challenge, especially when it was up hill but about 2 ... read more
March 19th 2012
"The Gibbon Experience" will fall into the category of things I’ll probably remember forever. I got into Huay Xai around 5pm exhausted and hungry after my trip up from Chiang Mai and I knew that The Gibbon Experience office closed at 7pm so I spent no time messing around looking for a guest house and just headed for the first one at the top of the list in the guide book - Friendship Guest House - 70,000KIP (7 Euros) for a private room and access to the great view of the Mekong River from its rooftop terrace. I pretty much just threw my things down on the floor and went straight to the Animo Office - the tour group that organises The Gibbon Experience. There are two tours available - Classic or Waterfall and they set ... read more
January 15th 2012
Feedback from friends who had done this trip before us and suggestions from our guidebook told us that the Gibbon Experience in northern Laos was a ‘must-do’. We had been attempting to book a tour through email, but having had to spend one more day than planned in Chiang Mai in order to experience the Elephant Nature Park ended up throwing our plans out of whack. Because of this, our travel day taking us north from Chiang Mai to the Laos border had an air of glumness as we were fixated on a missed opportunity. We arrived in the border town of Huay Xai at 5pm and decided to check at the Gibbon office to see if any spots had opened up. Because Huay Xai is a somewhat difficult spot to reach due to the border ... read more
The Gibbon Experience - "We got leeched"
Published: December 16th 2010Asia » Laos » West » Bokèo Nature Reserve
December 16th 2010
After some very relaxing days in Luang Prabang, we took the night bus (14 hours, seats no. 1 and 2) to the Bokeo Nature Reserve (Huay Xai - border town next to Thailand, you only can stay there for just a few hours because there is nothing to do). In the morning we went to the office of the Gibbon Experience, got to know our group members and had to sign a paper saying more or less: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING - and not the gibbon Experience is responsible, e.g. the cable breaks, the tree house burns, you fall of the cable or things get stolen..., nevertheless the Gibbon Experience was SOOO friendly to give us at least some safety instruction on how to use the zipplines. Our group consisted of 2 Dutchies and 4 ... read more
December 16th 2010
Not The Least Bit "Laos-y" “Seung, Mae Nam! Seung!,” yelled our Mahout. Obediently, Mae Nam bent her massive tree-trunk sized leg, creating a step up to allow her trainer to climb aboard. “Your turn,” said the Mahout. “Seung!” I beamed. The elephant obliged and I was able to climb onto the massive animal. A grin settled onto my face. Bareback riding an Asian elephant in the middle of the Laotian mountains is definitely something to write home about. Laos is a country of smiling people, tangerine cloaked monks and French colonial architecture. While ‘The Land of a Million Elephants’ is one of the poorest and most undeveloped countries in the world, it is also a land full of picturesque landscapes where farms outnumber buildings and kids chase foreigners for a smile and a wave. The 21st ... read more
June 19th 2010
After our last dive of a place we found a nice clean guest house, albeit the woman was a bit quirky, but she was fun and Greg had an easy time flirting with her! Sometimes it works, other times not so much! After heading for orientation morning - all of one dusty dusty road we found the Gibbon office to try and book our trip. We met a nice Dutch couple Kevin and Cate who were also thinking about it, after working out prices etc they decided they couldn't do it, but we had a great afternoon getting to know them, and a few beers in the evening. Tuesday morning up bright and early ready for the Jungle! We had a nice group there were five of us, Pascal and two girls joined us straight from ... read more
In the jungle...the mighty jungle...
Published: June 19th 2010Asia » Laos » West » Bokèo Nature Reserve
June 2nd 2010
We crossed into Laos at the Houei Xai border crossing. This consisted of taking a motorized canoe for a two minute ride acrooss the Mekhong. We got our Lao visas without incident, aside from having to pay $1 extra for "over time" and Matt being called an alcoholic by the guy working at the border (because he's English!) We settled in at BAP guesthouse which was described in our book as having a "hard as nails" landlady with a "wiley sense of humor." That was pretty spot on, she was hilarious! The main reason for crossing at Houei Xai was because we'd been set for quite some time on doing The Gibbon Experience and this is where they're based. So, we went about finding their office and managed to walk right past it and not realize ... read more
April 7th 2010
tags darauf ging es schon los zur gibbon experience (http://www.gibbonx.org/index.php), wo man 3 tage durch ein reservat zippen kann, in baumhäusern übernachtet und mit ganz viel glück auch gibbons sieht. zuerst aber muss man mal 2 stunden mit dem bus und weitere 2 stunden zu fuß in den tiefsten dschungel bis man zur ersten zippline kommt. dann heisst es "safety first" (unser insider für die nächsten tage *g) und ab gehts über die erste zippline. nach und nach wird man immer sicherer und das einhaken ist kein problem mehr und man kann den atemberaubenden ausblick genießen, wenn man hunderte meter über den baumwipfel dahingleitet. es gibt 7 baumhäuser, wovon die nr. 7 das beste sein soll (bis dahin hab ich es nie geschafft), wir waren im treehouse nr. 5 und das war sicherlich das, mit der ... read more
