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Published: March 24th 2008
Sitting in the treehouse
Treehouse number 5 at the Gibbon Experience, and me about to take off on another zip.At the little hill tribe villages the kids kept asking me to sing them a song. I couldn’t think of any except for the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, “West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days…” Sad, but you can tell the things my brain is cluttered with.
Anyway, we made it to Huay Xai in Laos without incident. We checked in for the Gibbon Experience and we were all set to go. That night there was a huge thunderstorm and mid way through the power went out. D and I were still awake and started wandering around the deserted guesthouse. The entire city of Huay Xai, the whole one street, was completely black. We took a look across the river, and Thailand looked like Las Vegas. It was a reminder that we were back in a developing nation.
We woke up the next morning, jumped in the back of a truck with the other people in our party and were on our way to the Gibbon Experience. We drove for an hour along a nice paved road (surprisingly most of the roads are nicely paved,
Treehouse #4
This is from halfway across the zip where I pulled myself across. courtesy of the Chinese government) before turning down a mountainous country road. Another hour and we were at the trailhead village. We hiked two hours to a small waterfall and relaxed for a bit before the fun started. As I mentioned in the last blog, we booked this reservation several months ago and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. I was extremely excited and anxious and, I’m pleased to say that the trip didn’t disappoint in the least. We threw on our harnesses and jumped on the first of many zip lines we would take in the next few days. I clipped my safety cord and rollers onto the wire and jumped, hoping that this precarious contraption in the middle of the jungle worked better than the electricity in the city the night before. I shot along for the first few seconds flying past the trees and gradually raising through the canopy layers as the trees fell along the valley wall below me. Eventually I reached the top of the canopy and shot into the open valley with a spectacular view to both sides and the floor hundreds of meters below. It was the biggest
adrenaline rush I can remember. This particular zip line stretched about 400 meters (that’s about a quarter of a mile) and looked down upon one of the tree houses (Tree house 4), which itself was a few hundred meters off the ground. It was indescribable.
We spent the next three days doing the same. We walked a few hours each day, enjoying the jungle, listening for the gibbon monkey’s song in the morning (we finally heard them on the third day) and doing quite a few zips over the jungle floor and through the canopy. The tree houses we stayed in are marvelous. They are a bit scary at first; you have to get used to sitting on a few boards nailed to a tree well above the other trees at the top of a jungle canopy. However, this has to be the most advanced a tree house gets, with running water, a bathroom with a working shower and toilet (squat of course), sleeping room for eight (complete with mosquito nets), and a kitchen. The locals bring you food and let you spend the afternoons as you wish. As I mentioned, I spent most of the afternoons taking in
Ratanball
One of our guides playing ratan ball, a common game that is a mix of volleyball and soccer. various zip lines, most like the one I described above. I just couldn’t get tired of this adult playground of enormous proportions no matter how much I tried. The most intense zip was going out of our second tree house. The walk to the start was well over an hour, however, the guides said you could strap from the end in the tree house and pull yourself backwards (i.e. uphill and inverted) to the start in about ten minutes. There is a big difference between shooting along the cord going downhill and hanging suspended over the valley relying on your own power to pull yourself up and across to the other side. Halfway across I had to stop and get some photos dangling mid air and think to myself, “What the hell am I doing and where am I? How did I end up going from a cushy job in healthcare software project management to being covered in dirt suspended hundreds of meters above the ground between an enormous tree house and a jungle valley wall in the middle of Laos in a matter of two months?” Anyway, words can’t do the experience justice; at the moment I can’t think
of a more memorable or more exciting experience in my life. Check out the picks, google Gibbon Experience and there are a bunch of other people’s videos to check out on YouTube, and take a look at www.gibbonx.org for more information on what they do and how they give back to the communities (they have a very eco-conscious business plan which I find inspirational for developing nation tourism).
The people on our trip were fantastic. We had two people from London, three Aussies and a German. We got along with them very well and are hoping to run into them again somewhere along our journey (most likely after Darren leaves and I am in London or South America). Another interesting thing to note, more for those from the good ole’ Fox Cities, is that our guides and the villages in the area were Hmong! Finally, I understand and know where all the Asian immigrants in the area where I grew up come from. Everyone always thinks that Wisconsin lacks diversity, which it painfully does, but when I would mention that we had one of the largest Hmong populations in the U.S., they would ask, “Who?” and “Where are they
Hill tibe village
Just a random view of a hill tribe village to give you an idea of where Darren and I have been spending our time. from?” I never knew the answers, until now. Of course our guides who had never been in a city bigger than Huay Xai, which amounts to a few thousand people, were unbelievably surprised when I said I knew Hmongs in the U.S. Why in the world would a small hill tribe from the jungles of northern Laos move to northeastern Wisconsin? I do know it wasn’t because the weather and natural landscape reminded them of home.
On another note, we were batting fifty percent through the first three meals in Laos at restaurants. We keep ordering things off the menu and they come out not exactly (i.e., no where near) as we expected. E.g., I ordered a chocolate pancake and got a full on chocolate cake with fudge layering. The first meal was the most ridiculous; but I have to take full blame (credit, really). I pointed to something random on the menu and ordered it with the only guidance being that it was Lao food from the waiter. A few minutes later four waiters are carrying out a full barbeque with charcoals blazing, a serving of pork, one of chicken, and one of steak, a tray of vegetables,
Sunset over the Nam Ha
This was at the first village we stayed at in Luang Nam Tha. a bowl of soup broth, and, last but not least, a half dozen small bowls of spices. It was insane, and everyone that walked into the restaurant was staring at me and asking what I ordered; seriously, I couldn’t respond because I did not know. It was preposterous. But, my meal was only $3.75 so I wasn’t complaining.
Well, after the Gibbon Experience we made it up to the Luang Nam Tha province of northern Laos. The city of Luang Nam Tha is a nice little city, only a few thousand people with a single main street. The area is known for its excellent trekking, environmentally conscious hill tribe community visits, and river sports. D and I signed up for a two-day hike and one-day kayak trip on our first full day in the city. The rest of that day we spent recovering from the last few hikes. Doing nothing was a very welcomed break from all the activities. I did some Spanish work, Darren worked on CPA stuff, we spent some time reading and writing in our journals. Also, the room came with HBO, so we zoned out on the BBC World News and caught some of the
best movies I’ve seen in ages (there was a heavy does of sarcasm on that “best” comment). We had the pleasure of watching Nannie McFee, which is about some witch/nanny that casts spells on kids to make them behave, and Click, which was Adam Sandler’s attempted comedy-with-a-cause of showing the negative impact of living life too fast without enjoying those around you. I don’t think I’ve seen a more predictable movie; luckily we only caught then end of it. We also watched Bowfinger and Daddy Day Care. Ugh. Seriously, Eddie Murphy amazes me; he was the funniest man alive when he released Delirious, Raw, Beverly Hills Cop and, one of my all-time favorites, Coming to America. And now we get Bowfinger, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, and Norbit? What happened there? Where did the jokes about Bill Cosby, family barbeques, and Mr. T (Lookin’ mighty cute in dem jeans boy) go? Anyway, Darren was amazed by my ability to find even an ounce of pleasure in those films while he tried to read. However, the movies were so bad he couldn’t take his eyes off them.
On our second day in Luang Nam Tha we went for a bike ride around the area. We checked out a few of the countryside temples and a waterfall that is in the area. None of the destinations were as spectacular as the simple bike ride itself. The countryside is just astounding. Large mountains jutting up covered in forests with vast valley floors covered in rice paddies. Everywhere you go there is a small stream crawling through the landscape and people gathered around these small water centers fishing, bathing, and simply enjoying life. It was a beautiful time. And, it provided me the opportunity I’ve been looking for to get a picture of this domesticated bird I keep seeing in the countryside of southeast Asia. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been spending a lot of time in small towns and villages and you always see some farm animals about the houses in these areas. Well, there is one bird that has just enthralled me cause I’ve never seen it before and it looks as ridiculous as a platypus (only the Dogma fans out there, probably just my brother Ryan, just got that joke). The bird has the body of a duck, the plumage of a turkey and the head (specifically the red excess skin, sorry I can’t remember the name) of a rooster. It is a completely crossbred animal and they are everywhere. So, I’ve come up with a theory. (On a side note, Darren and I have started naming all our ridiculous ideas “Well you know what it is…” theories in honor of our father. Our dad comes up with the most asinine explanations for things and then states them as facts, but he always begins them with, “Well you know what it is…” making it easy to shut your ears before the next lines of BS come out.) Anyway, my theory regarding the bird is that this is the infamous Tur-duck-en that John Madden always talks about, part turkey, part duck, part chicken. I think Madden got the Asian farmers to start breading these things. This way, he can have something kind of interesting to blather about during the Thanksgiving Detroit Lions games, as we all know even listening to Madden is (slightly) better (i.e. less torturous) than watching the Lions play. (Uncle Tom, Bill, cousin Brent, sorry I can’t watch the off season news, but what wide receiver are you going waste your number one pick on this year?)
The last few days we spent on a two-day trek and a one day kayak. The surroundings were beautiful mountains and valleys and the hiking was pretty intense, about as extreme as we have seen this far. It was just Darren and I on the trek with the guide, so we were able to move at our pace, which was fantastic. We were able to get to our villages in the early afternoon, relax on the riverside and meet some of the locals. Several locals would eat meals with us and it gave us a very intimate opportunity to get to understand their culture. It also meant taking several shots of moonshine “Happy Water” with some of the men in the village over dinner. It wasn’t the tastiest of liquor, to say the least. It was pretty reassuring to hear our guide, Sai, mention that Americans are typically the best individuals to take on hikes. Finally someone was actually glad that we were Americans! I was even happier to hear him say that Israelis are the worst people to take on the treks. It had the potential for so any Jewish jokes; I pondered it for the remainder of the hike. However, I decided that as this blog is a public forum, most people wouldn’t understand that jokes about Jews being bad tippers, unathletic, or the biggest complainers as I am considered by many to be an honorary Jew. There are few goys that deserve the title like I do, what with my larger than average nose and the fact that with friends such as Bronstein, Loewenstein, Stien, Rosenthal, Rosenblatt and Schwach I am always confused as Jewish. So yeah, decided that Jewish jokes would be of bad taste. Humorously, it is probably those previously mentioned that enjoyed this paragraph the most and everyone else that is wondering if it is okay to laugh, with the notable exception of Schwach’s girlfriend Stacy (Ginger) who most frequently confused me for being Jewish. She is a Sconnie through and through, so much so that when they started dating she had to buy the book “What is a Jew”. (Sorry Ginge, but that story is just too good! And speaking of gingers, everyone please go to www.gingerkids.org and inform yourself of the horrible disease of gingervitis. It might just be my favorite website.)
Anyway, Darren and I head down to the big three Lao tourist cities of Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientienne in that order starting tomorrow. Only five weeks left in South East Asia, and then off to India! It is amazing how the time has flown by. As always, hope you and yours are doing well and we will talk to you soon.
(I also noticed that the number of individuals insulted in the blog was pretty high: Eddie Murphy, platypus enthusiasts, my father, Lion’s fans, five percent of Jews (95% have a great sense of humor, which is what sustained them as a people through the desert and along their beautiful history from Moses to Sandy Kofax), and red heads. I’ll try to keep it more to traveling next time around!)
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Carissa
non-member comment
getting comfortable
You are clearly getting comfortable in your life as the traveler... or maybe you're just very comfortable in Laos... Though all your blog entries have been great, you show the true essence of Kyle in this one! I am sure all the gingers, jews, lion's fans, platypuses, Eddie Murphy and even your father are feeling the love right now. ~Carissa