A Step Off The Beaten Path

Zipping to and from treehouses – a great way to travel!

The Gibbon Experience has to be our favorite adventure so far in southeast Asia. It was definitely a splurge as far as tours go, but it proved to be totally worth it for the uniqueness of the experience. It’s hard to capture in words, so I’ll just start at the beginning…

We met at the Gibbon Experience office at 8:30am to stow our luggage, watch a short training/safety video, and break into groups for the 2 hour journey in the back of a truck heading into the jungle. The ride started off a bit bumpy and got a whole lot worse after about an hour when we went off-road. We arrived at a tiny village and began hiking to another even smaller village where we met our guide, Boun (pronounced “Boon”), and picked up our zip line harnesses. Boun and his assistant guide, Lar, would remain our guides (and food delivery guys) for the duration our 3 day/2 night trip. They led us on trails through the jungle up killer inclines (really wishing we’d done more lunges before this trip!) and across 4 zip lines to our treehouse. I say that like it’s no big deal. But these aren’t ordinary zip lines. Some of them are 100-115 meters high and extend anywhere between 60 and 440 meters long (that’s over 1/4 mile!). Our first zip line stretched 270 meters across a valley. The feeling of “zipping” through the air at high-speed over and through the jungle is indescribable. The last zip line of the day took us to Treehouse 3. As a family of 5, we were our own group and had Treehouse 3 all to ourselves.

Anna fixes herself some hot chocolate. This is the life!

The treehouses are unbelievable! Ours was built 35 meters high at the top of a huge tree and contained its own bathroom with shower, a kitchen sink with drinking water (pumped from a lake quite a distance away), and 6 cushions/mats with mosquito nets to cover them.  The views are breathtaking. Gibbon Experience claims the highest treehouses and zip lines in the world. That may or may not still be true, but it really doesn’t matter. They’ve truly created something special here. We hung out in our new home for a couple of hours until Boun and Lar brought us dinner. Unbelievably, they prepare a full dinner with 4 entrees and a bucket of rice and carry it to the treehouse (for every meal!). BTW: the food was really tasty!

Taking in the view

Fun in a treehouse. Notice the kids each have on their Thai pants 🙂

Sleeping high up in a treehouse is an adventure all its own. We went to bed early because it gets dark by 7pm and we didn’t bring a charged lantern :-(. And it didn’t take long for the night creatures to pay us a visit. First, we heard the rats. They came for the trash, and they must have found something worth fighting for given all the squeaking I heard. The crickets, birds, and I’m not sure what else, made their own cacophony of noises throughout the night. Something scurried about on the metal roof repeatedly and I thought we were being invaded by some large animal. Bats fluttered around the treehouse multiple times. And each time I poked my head out and shone my flashlight on what was happening, I saw . . . nothing. Except one time, I pointed my flashlight up at the ceiling and saw the gleaming eyes of a giant spider (the size of my hand) reflecting back at me. Yikes! No more poking my head out.

We all felt pretty anxious surrounded by all these unknown elements. But once things settled down and we began to rest, safe inside the netting, we started to discover that the jungle was quite musical. Constant variations of tones, hoots, and noises played monotonous tunes only to shift to new patterns. This enchanting music actually kept me awake, not from fear of what lurked outside my netting, but from a fear of missing some piece of the jungle symphony I was hearing. When I awoke early the next morning, I couldn’t help but smile, thankful for the fresh day and peaceful music that welcomed me. And then I heard it . . . Gibbon apes singing from the tops of the trees. Like sirens from an ambulance, they call to one another with their unique songs. The music only lasts about 15-30 minutes and then is gone for the day. Here’s a short video that captures the song of the Gibbon (you can’t see them):

Day 2 started with more hiking. Our legs burned with exertion as we climbed up the mountain trails between treehouses. The rewards for our efforts, however, far outweighed the pain! We rode a dozen really long, really high zip lines before lunch and saw/visited several equally beautiful treehouses. After lunch, we tackled more zip lines to the west before finally returning to our treehouse for dinner. At night, after another tasty meal, we played cards and enjoyed the view (and even a cold shower after our arduous day) from the tree canopy. Here’s a short video of Lori taking a zip line to a treehouse:

Through Day 2, several other groups had seen the rare Gibbon apes. They sing in the mornings from the top of the trees but then climb down to the middle during the day and can’t be seen. We hadn’t seen any apes at all. However, at 6:30 am on our last day, Lori and I crawled out of bed to see Gibbons in the trees just 50 ft from our treehouse! We saw 2 females (beige and brown) and 2 males (black), one of which was a 1-year-old baby. They never sang, but we were able to capture a decent video of them playing and swinging through the trees.

We feel so fortunate that we were able to come here. Great weather, great guide, a lovely treehouse, zip lines, and now Gibbons.

After another 6 zip lines, we said goodbye to Nam Kan National Park, our wonderful guides, and our spectacular treehouse home, and began our journey back to Huay Xai.

Saying goodbye to our Treehouse and guides, Boun and Lar

So we’re now in Luang Prabang, a formerly French-governed city located where the Mekong River and the Nam Khan River converge. We arrived here a couple of days ago after a 2 day trip on the “slow boat” from Huay Xai. That’s almost 200 miles (if I calculated correctly) of travel down the famous and critically important Mekong River.

The slow boats at Huay Xai. Ours was the really orange looking one (middle right).

If you look carefully, you’ll see a surprise through the middle window 🙂

Despite the languid pace and relative lack of activity of the slow boats, it sure felt good to park ourselves somewhere to catch our collective breaths. The Mekong River provided beautiful scenery throughout our journey – a combination of interesting igneous rock formations along the banks, sand beaches, lots of water buffalo, and mountainous jungle that seemed to close in on us periodically from both sides. The open air boats, which hold a little over 100 passengers, were comfortable if a bit narrow. We traveled for 6 hrs on Day 1 and 7 hours on Day 2, stopping to spend the night roughly half way in at the town of Pak Beng, a small village whose sole purpose for existence seems to be to cater to the slow boat travelers. Meh. We were happy to get moving early on Day 2. Along the way, we met 2 young girls from Sweden (traveling for a year after completing high school – why don’t we do this?!!!). They kept the kids happily occupied for hours playing cards and listening to music. The kids had a blast . . . and Lori and I got a nice little break :-).  On the whole, a really nice trip on an iconic river.

Evan and Gage share music with their new friends from Sweden

The obligatory Mekong River sunset shot

We’ll be staying in Luang Prabang for at least the next 5-7 days. The kids have been catching up on school work and we’ve been slowing down our pace of activity after the flurry of the past week. Had a great meal last night. Evan got adventurous and ordered the crispy garlic fish.

Evan enjoys his fish dish