The Gibbon Experience

The Gibbon Experience was just that: an experience, full of incredible highs (literally and figuratively) and of course some lows.

We started off in the little town of Huay Xai and took a pick-up truck about 2.5 hours to the start of the wilderness. The first thing we did after buying some remaining necessities like snacks and water was to drive across a river and continue on a windy dirt road to base camp. From base camp it's only about 2 hours to the first treehouse and zipline network; on days of heavy rain the first river is uncrossable by truck (yet somehow possible on foot!) so the trek time jumps up to 7 hours. Thank god the weather was nice because even the first two hours of the trek to the treehouse was pretty gruelling as it was nearly straight up hill and our guides showed no mercy break-wise. Our group consisted of 2 Dutch girls, an English girl traveling alone and three other Americans from Seattle. As on my previous trek, we all got along quite well and I'm hoping to rendezvous with some of them later on in my trip.

Once we got to the first ziplines, we donned the harnesses we had been given at base camp and without much hesitation started our first ziplining! Zipping around was absolutely amazing--there were lines several hundred meters long and just as high and we'd fly from hill to hill to traverse the Bokeo nature preserve. Here's a pic of Cat, the English girl on her first zip:

From Gibbon Experi...

Unforunately Bokeo seemed to be a bit of a Bermuda triangle for technology. Mine and another girl's camera spontaneously stopped working on the second day as well as my flashlight, so I don't have too too many pictures at the moment. I'm hoping once the group re-connects via e-mail I'll get some more shots that other people took and maybe a video too!

Upon getting to the treehouse in the afternoon, we were pretty beat so we ended up just kinda hanging out, playing cards and drinking some really horrendous rice whiskey one of the girls picked up. The treehouse itself was really cool and had just enough amenities to make it tolerable but still totally rustic and fun. There were two levels with a little squatter (effluent dropped to the ground below--high enough up that we couldn't smell anything) and even a spring-fed sink and faucet for a shower. The food we were served was quite good though it did get a bit old by day three--it was all pretty much steamed vegetables and rice.

Predictably, I woke up at dawn to the sounds of the jungle. Here's the last pic I snapped before my camera pooped out:


Fog rolling into the valley with treehouse roof and zipline

We got an early start on trekking that day but unfortunately it had rained quite a bit the night before and we discovered that with rain and mud come...LEECHES! Ick Ick Ick, I cannot describe how disgusting these little beasts are and how much they slow everything down when every 100 paces you have to flick the slimey little buggers off of your shoes before they inch their way up to your ankles. I had in my head that leeches sorta kept to rivers and bodies of water a la The African Queen, but no. They must sense vibrations because as you walk by, you can see little leeches on the ground straining to get as vertical as possible, vibrating around sickeningly just waiting for something to walk by to latch on to. I was lucky to only have to pull off one big mothersucker which managed to create hole in my ankle that bled for about two hours afterwards. Leeches are actually used in medical settings nowadays (like, legit ones...not for balancing the humours like in the middle ages) because their saliva has such potent anti-coagulation agents but it must be said, this is their only redeeming quality.

Anyway, we ate lunch after a nice dip in a waterfall-fed pool and from there took a few more zips to the second treehouse. After resting for a bit, most of us left our bags in the treehouse and went out for another round of zipping which was much more quick and enjoyable when not lugging around a backpack full of clothes and water. Unfortunately, we never ended up seeing any black gibbons or much wildlife at all really. It's interesting how in a jungle with so many freaking bugs flying around, there were so few birds. We did see a few flit by and a couple lizards but that was about it.

On the third day, I was woken up in the early hours of the morning as a mouse scuttled across my chest. A thorough inspection of the quarters revealed that the mouse smelled some peanut brittle in a bag in a bag in my backpack, infiltrated our mosquito net, and chewed its way through my backpack to the nutty reward. As a final insult it just traipsed right over me on its way out. I'm kinda bummed that the Fjällräven backpack I got in Sweden which has tremendous sentimental value now has holes in it, but I can patch them up and suppose it lends a certain amount of character to the pack.

It rained a lot on the last day and we were convinced that we were going to have to trek all the way back to the main road since the river would be uncrossable and a truck wouldn't be able to pick us up at base camp. So the general mood on the last day was pretty grim--rain, fatigue and leeches had us pretty worn down. With a different group it might have been different as under those conditions, bad attitudes can become virulent and a real downer, however we were all pretty tough and bore it out as best as possible. At base camp we celebrated with plenty of Beer Lao (a surprisingly good and cheap lager) and cheered when the pickup truck came after all.

Overall, the Gibbon Experience was a great adventure but I must say I think I'm all trekked out and have earned a more leisurely time the rest of the trip. OK, time to sign off. I'm in a sleepy little town called Luang Prabang down river and getting ready to bus to a waterfall and take a dip. Here's a view of the former French Colonial town from a simple wat at the top of the hill: