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Published: February 12th 2007
The Treehouse
Taken from one of the zip linesOne of the things I love about backpacking is the absence of planning, you can pretty much decide whatever you want to by each day and can happily rely on recommendations by all the fellow travellers you meet. One recommendation that was constantly recurring with gusto was this thing called 'The Gibbon Experience' in northern Laos. This is the brainchild of a european who set up the projest as a way to protect the rainforest from poaching and logging which was very prevalent here. The idea is that you go and live in treehouses 'flying' through and above the forest on a series of zip lines in search of the black gibbon monkey - once thought extinct untill they were rediscovered in 1997 (dont say you dont learn anything on this blog). The reality is that everyone goes for the zip lining and the living in treehouses experience (not as catchy a name though). Thats what pulled me to it as the chances of actually seeing a gibbon monkey are incredibly slim, so I was told.
There are 2 ways of getting to the Bokeo province where the meeting point is situated; the 2-day slow boat or the speed boat,
Waiting to get on the speedboat
As flimsy as they look, they held. both accross the mekong river. By that piece of information the choice looks an easy one, who wants to spend two days on a boat when they can whizz across on the speedboat? Well, plenty. All the conversations about the gibbon experience also included the astonishment and the danger of the, now legendary it seemed, speedboat. I hadnt spoken to anyone who had chosen the speedboat through fear because of all the stories of crashes that were attached to it. According to my trusty handbook; "Serious accidents, sometimes including fatalities, involving these speedboats seem to occur on an almost weekly basis. Usually they involve a boat striking a hidden rock or tree limb, although occasionally contact with a standing wave is sufficient to capsize the light craft at high speed..... Our own observation is that the accident risk for this type of boat outweighs the potential savings in time they may represent over slower boat alternatives". Simple choice then. It was of course until time forced my hand; because of an annoying day delay in traveling I would now have to put my life in the speedboat's hands. To be honest I wasnt that unhappy about it, as scary as
it sounded, the curiosity was killing me, espcially as I hadnt met anyone yet who had done it yet. I'm not a particularly brave person, cowardice does get the better of me at times I'm ashamed to say, but when confronted with something like this the potential adrennaline factor was very appealing. Plus I'd be saving a whole day in traveling, I'd certainly be showing up those slow boat losers!
I caught a tuk tuk at 7am down to the small pier from where the boat descends and bought my ticket. I was told the boat would leave at 7:30am but, as mentioned before, times dont mean anything etc. With the case of the boat, I'd have to wait till more tickets were purchased. No that long suprisingly and soon enough we were handed our life jackets and crash helmets whilst being directed down towards to the boats. I'll admit to being a little unnerved at the sight of my crash helmet and the fact the buckles were missing on my life jacket, something that I couldnt explain through the language barrier. I tied it up with string and hoped for the best. We were then led onto the
surpringly small boats, very light looking also. As with everything they try to load as many people possible into the smallest spaces (6 people to each) and the room given to sit was very unaccomodating. You have to sit with your knees rammed into your chest and are reminded that comfort is not one of wood's strong points. One of things I wasnt particularly happy about was that my backpack was put on a different boat and that no-one on my boat were going to the same place as me, the boatsman nods thats its fine. We set off down the river on a particularly cold morning and after 10mins our boat stopped with another and I was asked to change to the boat that my backpack is on and, I discover, to an even less comfortable boat. There's only locals on this boat but conversation isnt possible anyway because of the incredible loudness of the engine, I wish I'd brought ear plugs. The actual journey itself is pretty uncomfortable, espcially before the sun came out. At first You do get a bit nervous for every wave you hit and you are looking around for possible rocks in front, (not
that you could make a difference anyway) but travelling at that such a speed is a laugh and its fun to wave at the slow boats as we pass. There's 2 stops in 6 hours so strategic water consumption is a must again, but at the end of the journey I decided that although it was very uncomfortable, it was still fun and I'll definitely be heading back on the speedboat. Showed those slow boaters.
Huay Xai in the Bokeo province is a very small village and we have to meet at the nature reserve early the next morning. They have little books outlining the different things we could see in the next 3 days, mainly about bats and snakes, this is also where we sign the disclaimers absolving them of responsibilty for anything. Nice. Twelve people in total, we get into the minibus and undertake the 3 hour journey up to the start of our forest trek. This is also a fun journey as we are witness to things I didnt know minibuses could do and to some very tired suspension. After an hour's hike into the forest we arrive at a hut in the middle of the
forest. Outside the hut, we are met by two energetic and, without wanting to use the phrase, cheeky monkeys. They are jumping all over us trying to nick our camara's and things from our pockets. One of them jumped on my head and used my nose as its stabilising point, couldnt blame him for that but he did leave some annoying scratches. Good thing I've had my jabs. We are ushered into the hut quickly so that the monkeys cant get in but find that nothing is truely monkey proof and they're again causing a bit of havoc inside the hut which is the main kitchen area for the staff. We are greeted by Marion, a Claudia Shiffer lookalike who unfortunately wont be joining us, who is holding a very small Gibbon monkey in a pouch wrapped around her. Normally we wouldnt see one but this one was ill from pnuemonia and they nursing it to recovery. Gibbon monkey spotted and box ticked. She outlines what the experience is all about and warns us about the local bear that does sometimes approach people on this experience. Its not fully grown (thank God) she says and although it looks very cute,
it does play rough so caution is advised. I think I'll stay well clear of the bear if I see it.
After a 3-hour trek further in the rain forest, we are spilt into groups of six and set about to our treehouses. This is where we come across our first zip lines. The zip lines in general are very long and about 30-40m up from the ground, some seem higher. They are as much fun as I had been told and after the first few I'm totally hooked. I can quite happily zip line all day long being hit by the occasional branch here and there. Its easy to get cocky after a while and I did have slam a tree with my feet at the end as a result of my 'no braking' policy. You are given a harnass, a clip to hook onto part of a bicycle wheel(also can act as brake) and the line, plus a safety clip to hook on. Hook on, take a run up and then glide with speed along the line and take in the incredible view. I never got bored of this. The treehouses themselves are quite the achievements. They
are about 100ft high and hold six people with 3 beds (only downside being that I had to share a bed with a grumpy Croat). On the first one, nearest the waterfall, the toilet is a circular hole on the side and protocal is meant to be that everyone turns their back on the person using the toilet. No-one actually favoured this toilet despite discussions about how long it would take for the shit to hit the ground. No, when staying at this treehouse you would go to the toilet in the woods. Not very glamourous I know, you feel extremely vulnerable when you have your jeans at your ankles in the middle of the rainforest, and you cant help but wonder what an inconvenient time this would be to meet that bear. Luckily one of our group had the foresight to bring toilet paper with him, we all thought it would be provided.
As this is 'The Waterfall Experience' option, we head down to the waterfall to cool off. Or, more appropriately, freeze off. This would involve stripping off, walking to the a rock jumping point, looking uneasy about how cold the water is, jumping in, and then
screaming profanities as you desparately swim back to the edge to get out. This happened with all six of us, each looking more nervous than the last. Cold was something we had to get used to when the sun went down though, it was absolutely freezing and despite wearing 4 layers and having 2 quilts, I was still cold. That showed me for smuggly thinking I'd dodged winter by leaving England.
The days would involve a bit of trekking but mostly we'd be having fun on the ziplines all day, although I had to experience some of the more unchartered areas of the forest when I managed to drop my clip and had to head down into the unknown to look for it. Its funny, you go from being on top of the world on the zip line to feeling quite vulnerable trying squeze in between bamboo and plants whilst constantly brushing the insect inhabitants off you. It looked like a pretty arduous task trying to relocate the clip in the forest but luckily some slippery mud landed me on my arse home alone style and I slid right down to exactly where the clip was amazingly.
Christmas
Day was a 6 hour hike to the pickup point of the van. Not as hard as it sounds except for the 8 rivers we had to cross. Particularly tricky since my feet still felt surprisingly tender from Koh Pha Ngan weeks before and the slippery stones constantly reminded me of that. Still, didnt get my trainers wet which I felt pretty smug about. It was pretty serial treking through the forest with the sun beating down on our backs listening to 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland' sung in Danish by one of the group (he's actually Danish too, not just showing off). Christmas lunch consisted of rice wrapped in leaves and some bread, no sign of turkey anywhere but after trekking for 4 hours, it seemed a lot more tasty. Made it back to the van which took us to the village where we could spend Christmas night drinking beer and winding up those who were waiting to go on the Gibbon Experience. An amazing Christmas and I'll now be on the lookout for accomodation with zip lining potential from now on.....
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fran
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I want to go zip lining.........if I sell the kids, I might just be able to manage it.......