http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos , West , Bokeo Nature Reserve en-us Tue, 08 Dec 09 18:35:21 +0000 Tue, 08 Dec 09 18:35:21 +0000 Have you ever had the dream to live in a tree house when you were young Thanks to the Gibbon Experience this dream has come true for me during the past 3 days. It was by far one of the craziest and at the same time toughest experiences I have ever hadOn Wednesday Morning our group of 13 people left Houay Xai in a jeep in order to drive to the Bokeo National Reservoir close to the Thai border. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-429196.html Day 348 Friday 12th June Crossing over the Mekong into LaosToday I am crossing over the border into Laos. Despite looking into both the border crossing formalities and whether I can get Laos currency on the other side of the border I am none the wiser. Some sources say you canrsquot get a visa on arrival most say you can but the length varies between 1530 days. Similarly I find a few int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-411448.html The bloody staff cancelled our bloody booking We said we'd be in the office 'first thing'. Dom went there at 7.30 and they were closed so went back at 8.10 and was apparently 10 minutes late and the bookings had been given to other people What the hell So anyway we had to wait till the next day which wasn't so bad. Hoi Xiay the town on the Thai border spelt differently on every signpost doe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-382452.html Ce je bilo 12 stopinj kriza kaj porecete na OSEM PA sem sla menda v tople kraje ...skratka vceraj zvecer sem se zagrebla za dve deki ker ena pac ni nobena cetudi sem imela svojo spalko in povem vam se na ISlandiji ni bilo tako mrzlo BOgi Andrej je imel samo eno deko in zmrzoval ...Mimogrede vsi sprasujete kdo je on. NAceloma pisem o sebi na tem blogu zato ga ne bom prevec izpost http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-363362.html Kikirikanje se je zacelo ze ob 4h zjutraj Christian I think we should have eaten more chicks for dinner ... ampak bolj kot to je bil problem MRAZ. KDo bi si mislil da je zima v Aziji dejansko zima Tako da me je kar malo zeblo ponoci kljub svoji spalki ...Zajtrk noodle soup Sicer iz vrecke jebiga tudi LAos je ze moderniziran ocitno fried egg deep fried banana je razlika med fri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-363358.html V guesthouseu smo rabili vse drugo kot mrezo za komarje kajti Andrejeva allinone naprava je kazala da je bilo ponoci vse tja do piclih 12 stopinj Torej komarji ne sploh mraz zelo ja Ali jebiga desi se.Ob petju petelinov smo najprej placali sobo model ni imel 10 tisoc kip za vrniti tako revni so tu potem se je nasa cetica odpravila na zajtrk. Svicarja sta jedla spet noodle soup midva p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-363351.html Wow what an amazing experience that was The name 'gibbon experience' may be a bit misleading though......our guide hadn't seen one for 10 months.......perhaps they should call it the 'zipwiring experience' instead. It was fab though..... despite the lack of monkeys.... and I'd definitely recommend it but book ahead because there's rarely a space last minute.I wasn't exactly sure what I'd sign http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-357763.html Hi everyonePaiSo the next day we headed off to Pai. The minibus took 35 hours to get there but the road was really nice as it was thru a beautiful mountainious terrain. We got some advice about where to stay and so booked ourselves into a small bamboo hut along the Pai river. After we had some dinner we explored the town centre and settled down for some Cupa Libres at a place where they were pla http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-345261.html See for yourselvesps there is another movie of me zipping on my hyves. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-345256.html Filling in some gaps left Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai where I spent one night then boosted straight for Houayxay the first town across the border in Laos.Jumping on a bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong I got talking to a British couple sorry Jasmine last I heard we included Wales in that statement They were headed to Houayxay too but were going north from there to live in the jungle fo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-343555.html After 2 days on a slow boat from Luang Prabang I was definitely ready for some action. We spent the night in Huay Xai which is a pretty sleepy town on the ThaiLao border on the mighty Mekong River. The lights were definitely brighter on the other side as we had a couple of beers with the crew who we had shared the last two sleepy days with. Beer Lao was again my trusty companion as soon as the su http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-336529.html Sorry it took so long to get this entry up.I left you guys in the north of thailand. From there I took a bus ride to the border of thailand and laos jumped on a boat crossed the Mekong and arrived in Laos.I spent 3 days in the jungle trekking and living in treehouses accessed via zipline. It seemed like every childs dream...minus the leetches spiders mosquitos and french canadian couple I wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-335024.html Much of Today was spent preparing ourselves mentally for the journey ahead and relaxing before a long bus ride. As 4 o clock rolled around we discovered that there was nobody around to take our payment for the last 6 or so days or to give us our bus tickets. We waoted for a ittle while and then counted up our bill and bar tab and left the money for them luckily we also searched the desk and fou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-298358.html So after a good ish night's sleep we piled into the back of a pick up truck with our other intrepid explorers and headed off on the 2 hour journey to Boeko nature reserve. We'd heard so much about the Gibbon Experience living in the trees lots of trekking zipwiring from tree to tree and the very slim possibility of seeing real live black gibbons that we we couldn't wait to get stuck in. Ar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-284969.html Laos and The Gibbon Experience Huay XaiHeading north from Chiang Mai I made my way to the ThaiLaos border. Once I left the Thai town of Chang Khom I entered Laos at Huay Xai. The Mekong river creates a natural border between Thailand and Laos so basically all you need to do to cross is obtain your exit stamp in Thailand hire a boat to take you across and obtain your entry stamp at the pier http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-284967.html At 5.50am we awoke to the sound of our villager guide. Apparently he meant 6am and not 7.30. After a rapid dressing and harnessing session later we zipped down to meet him. He took us into the bamboo section of the jungle where we saw movement and heard the calls of the Gibbons in the canopy. The 'AM' sound track to the jungle was even more amazing then the night times with the gibbon orchestra jo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-276919.html This has to be the most scary thing we have done so far in the trip A power cut in town meant no safety video could be shown and our new group of 9 climbed into the 4x4 a bit unsure what to expect. we headed off on a 2hr drive to reach the Laos rain forest. After a brief stop we turned off road and drove through a river and up a dusty unsealed road for another hour and a half and eventually into http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-266962.html Standing naked 80m up in the air feeling cool spring water trickle over your skin and looking out over the valleys and ridges of Bokeo Nature Reserve at sunset is the most amazing shower you will ever have.The Gibbon Experience was an intense and at times unexpected experience. Our first morning included a 2hour drive squished in the back of a converted Land Rover and encountering some very frazz http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-265337.html Following a short detour through the tourist hub of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and some impromptue cooking lessons with Kim our cheery chirpy 'Thai wife' and another Duncan who became known as 'lady number 2' For those who haven't been to Thailand you probably don't want to know what 'lady number 2' means.We headed further North in a vain and sweaty attempt to avoid the heat. To be honest http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-264872.html Hello againOn the 16th we set off on what was going to be the most amazing experience of our trip so far and we both were nervous but excited... we were off on the 'Gibbon Experience'. Now alot of you already know what it is about but for those that don't here is a brief rundown.... What is the Gibbon Experience The Gibbon Experience is set in the Bokeo Nature Reserve in Laos about a 3 hour d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Bokeo-Nature-Reserve/blog-247432.html