Flying through the Jungle on a Cable

So the first thing we did when we arrived in Laos in a little town called Huay Xai (not worth spending any time in except this is where we had to start this trip) is booked the Gibbon Experience.
Which in hindsight, should really be renamed the Jungle Experience since we didn't see any gibbons- though we did get to hear them singing at the crack of dawn which was pretty cool. The next few days were spent zip lining through the jungle above the treetops a couple hundred meters off the jungle floor, sleeping in treehouses (how cool is that!!), hiking through the jungle, and eating a lot of sticky rice.

So here's how the itinerary went:

Day 1: 4 hour ride in the back of a sangatheuw- which means covered bench seats in the back of a pick-up truck pretty much, though this one was slightly more minivan like- still had sideways benches in back though. Get a flat tire on the way in- watch the guides perform a tire change in NASCAR pit crew time. Get to the start of the hike- 4 hours long- in the heat of the day- through the jungle- uphill a lot. Now this probably would not normally bother me as much to hike this distance- but the heat got to me really bad and so being a bit too close to heat stroke and I've either developed allergies or something is bothering my breathing here when hiking- it was not as pleasant as desired and so I had to take it easy. Jim was nice enough to carry my bag for a bit for me to try and get back on track- I was so tired by then I told him that if I became delusional and confessed my undying love for him to just blame it on the heatstroke and ignore anything else I said until my body temperature was reasonable again.

So we arrive at the first treehouse we are staying at which is a couple hundred meters off the jungle floor, and we drop our bags and then zip line back over to a small waterfall with a small pool and everyone went for a quick swim. We went back to the treehouse and had dinner there and it got dark pretty early, so we start to play cards by candlelight and mosquito coils- yes the little buggers actually bother to fly up this high. I get my headlamp out for when we are going to bed, and while sitting and playing cards I glance up- and there is the biggest spider I have ever seen- at least in close proximity that did not involve a glass case between myself and it. And about 6 inches away from it is another, and a foot from that one, another, and so on and so forth- everywhere on the ceiling. They weren't big fat hairy ones (which I think would have been slightly less unnerving)- they were creepy, long-legged, beady-little-eyes-that-glow-in-the-dark-size-of-my-hand spiders. And to add to the experience- there was a herd of rats too. Now I was told about the rats- which were not so bad- though they were pretty loud at night sometimes as they rustled the empty plastic bags in the garbage can. But the spiders are what kept me up at night- it took me awhile after we had climbed in to bed- and checked every inch, and then tucked the mosquito net in under all the edges and sealed off the sleeping pads- to drift off and try to not think about them too much. And as it turns out- no spiders climbed in bed with us, and no rats either. So, it was fine- you just have to talk your mind down about it. Be prepared.

Day 2: Next morning we got up and zipped out to breakfast and then hiked for a couple hours and did several zip lines to get to our next treehouse- this hike was not as bad. We got in around lunch time which was nice, and had the whole afternoon to enjoy the view from our treehouse and relax. Some people went and zip-zipped (as the guides say) around to other treehouses, and Sara and I stayed back in the treehouse and took a nap and showered.

I'm staring out over the tops of the trees in the middle of a pristine jungle in Northern Laos, and I'm taking a shower that's a slow drizzle from the shower head- and when I look down- it's through slats of wood straight down to the jungle floor. And after I dry off and get dressed, I'm hanging in a hammock in a treehouse- something you dream of as a child- reading a book while I wait for the sun to set and my next meal of- surprise- sticky rice with cabbage and some other kind of vegetable.

Amazing.

Now, there are a few downsides- I have to hose down the toilet to get the bees to move out before I go to the bathroom on a squat toilet (which- no surprise here- just drops straight from the tree down to the jungle floor.) And there are a few spiders in this treehouse- though no where near the numbers as the first treehouse that sits further in the jungle. The water is pumped from a "spring" somewhere down below- so we used the Steripen on all of our water we drank- which was just an extra precaution against any bacteria. I've never eaten so much sticky rice in my life-every meal- and this isn't exactly conducive to keeping you regular- but I'll just live on fruit when I get out of here. :) The mosquito nets over the beds are really sheets sewn together which keeps all the bugs and rats out- but they get warm inside them at night.

Plus side- our group of people consisted of a couple- Carolyn and Casey from Idaho, and Sara and Renee from Melbourne, Australia- and we had a great time together. Sleeping in close quarters makes people get comfortable real fast- and I laughed so much- I still laugh when I think about different moments. And we all had different phobias- spiders, rats, bees, oh, did I mention leeches- thank goodness I didn't have any of those climb on me- I can imagine the scream now that would have sent the gibbons in to a panic.

Day 3: Get up at 3:30 am. Yes- you read that right- a time when no sane person gets up- much less in the dark, in a jungle- oh and what activity is up first- zip lining!! WAHOO!!!! Seriously- one of the craziest things I've ever done and so fun! Pretty much a battle of wits and mind to get myself to clip in and head off in to the dark where I can't see anything except the 10 feet of cable in front of me lit up by my headlamp. The jungle is literally pitch black at this hour. Maybe not being quite awake helps your psyche get over what you are doing. It was awesome. Then hiking in the jungle in the dark with just my headlamp- trippy. Even weirder- as we're walking I can hear this noise like someone is dropping handfuls of sesame seeds on the leaves all over the ground in short spurts. It took me a minute to realize that it was actually thousands of ants running out of the spotlight of my headlamp as it passed over them on the ground. Such a weird sound.
So we hike and zip line for about an hour and a half to try to reach a spot where we might see gibbons at dawn. Ah, dawn- something I don't see that often- which I think makes me appreciate it more when I do. (Though not enough to become a morning person.) And so we get to a platform in the trees right as dawn is breaking, and you can hear the gibbons start their singing in the distance. Such a cool sound. We couldn't see them- they had taken off for somewhere in the valley that day- but it was still worth it. We spent a couple more hours zip lining around and then had breakfast, a nap, and then hiked out an hour back to the pick up point for our ride back to Huay Xai.

I'd recommend this trip because it's such a unique experience. The cost is a little high- but I guess they can charge what they want since their the only ones that do it. The guides we had were no good- we learned more from some french guy who was volunteering there in 20 minutes of meeting him than from our guides in 3 days. We heard some groups had okay guides- don't expect much from them- if you get a good one you can tip them, otherwise don't. Book in advance of getting to Huay Xai- otherwise you'll be stuck in this town with nothing to do but wait til you can start the trip. If you aren't keen on the spider/rats treehouse and extensive hiking we did which is called the Waterfall Experience- you can book the Classic Experience which is only about 2 hours hiking in and then you stay in the nicer treehouses and spend your mornings trying to see gibbons- but you only have to get up at about 5 am instead since they are closer to where you are staying. It's the more tame version of the trip I guess.

But now, where would the fun in that be- think how much less interesting this blog posting would have been.... :)