I arrived in Huay Xai or however the hell you want to spell it, (I think I've seen six different ways so far,) and got ready to do the Gibbon Experience! My friend Evan traveled this part of the world a few years ago and recommended this trip. While I usually don't take advice from Evan as it often comes with a dose of the clap, he was spot on this time!
We all hopped in a van and after about a half hour of driving we arrived at a native village where we were introduced to our guide "Thom."
The trek begins. After about two hours of hiking between rice fields and through rivers we arrived in another village of a remote hill tribe.
The people here are extremely poor and besides environmental conservation, "The Gibbon Experience's" main goal is to promote sustainable development among the people living in the region. This entails quite a bit of work, everything from stopping slash and burn farming to giving the hill tribes employment as guides comes into play.
Luckily it wasn't raining that day, we were hiking through some pretty dense jungle in parts and rain would have made this nearly impossible!
When we finally arrived at the station after another three hours of hiking we were exhausted! I met one of the camp pets, a black bear and I tried to get a picture of the monkey but he was too quick for me!
So what exactly is "The Gibbon Experience" anyway? Ah. Glad you asked. Gibbons are actually a species of monkey that are indigenous to norther Laos. The Experience's job is to make you feel like you're one of them!
For three days you sleep in tree houses hundreds of feet above the jungle floor,
And go screaming between the foliage on a set of zip lines!!!
Some of the zip lines are up to 450 feet long!!! I can't even begin to describe what it feels like to be speeding along suspended by just a waist harness and see mountains in the distance and then look down and see nothing but jungle hundreds of feet bellow you!
This is a picture of our sleeping quarters in Tree House #5.
And this is a view off the balcony!!
Once you've hiked to your tree house, the guides take off and you're pretty much left to do whatever you want! You can hike around, go zip lining or just hang out and read a book.
This gives you a better idea of how high up you actually are! See that little speck? That's yours truly!
This is Tree House # 5. I had to shimmy out backwards along the line to get this shot. It's pretty scary going that slowly, especially if you look down!
What's really incredible is that all your meals are cooked by locals working for the "Experience" and three times a day the food is prepared, packed into little metal containers and then a guide will put on a harness, hike out to the nearest line and then glide over to deliver your food!
Yes, that is a rainbow and yes, this is the most amazing thing I've ever done!!!
That night, a fog set in over the mountains and the wind started to pick up!
There's obviously no electricity so at night you play cards and hang out by candle light. At about 2am there was a massive lightning storm that lasted a few hours. The tree house was practically shaking whenever the thunder sounded and the whole jungle was lit up by bolts of lightning!
Sadly, after three days in the trees it was time to hike out. We grabbed all our gear and prepared for the 7 hour journey back to the village.
The going was a little tough in some spots.
Especially when the leaches took hold.
A nourishing lunch of rice and......well rice.....wrapped in a banana leaf. The villagers don't exactly live the life of luxury so every meal you have is pretty much the same. Rice and veggies or once in awhile if you're REALLY lucky you get rice with a bit of chicken. But not often.
I didn't like all the stopping my group was doing so I ploughed on ahead by myself in order to better commune with nature.
Thankfully I didn't get lost in the middle of the Laos jungle although there were a few twists and turns that I wasn't exactly sure of.
Finally I made it back to the village where I ran into Thom who'd left the night before. Since I was the only one around he was nice enough to introduce me to his mother and let me hang out at his place for a bit.
This is his family.
They are absolutely adorable!
Of all the things I've done on my travels this one was extra special. Not only did I have an amazing time and meet some really cool people, but I got to see first hand a program that seems to be trying to help some of the poorest people in the country. And what's best of all is that it seems to be a success!
