The Experience

Well, it finally happened. The long awaited and much anticipated 3 day trek including zip line and tree houses has finally occurred! Yes, the Gibbon Experience, and what an experience it was.

For those of you who haven’t already heard us talk about it time and time again, the Gibbon Experience is a jungle trek in which you trek through the jungle, on foot as well as with the use of zip lines a couple hundred meters high, and spend your nights in tree houses. We first heard of the experience from one of Darren’s friends, and though expensive, it immediately became one of the top things to do on our trip.

So. Yes. The infamous experience.

We set out around 9 in the morning after a brief safety and instructional video at the Gibbon Experience office. There, we also met up with the rest of the people to be in our group. There were ten of us in total (which is quite a bit for the low season, the max being twelve): 3 Dutch girls, 1 Australian, 1 Kiwi, 1 American, 1 Brit, and 1 Swiss (and the two of us of course). We met Andy, the Swiss, the day before and since he was travelling alone we more or less “adopted” him. All of us piled into two vehicles and made the two hour drive to the river.

There was some concern as to how far we would actually be able to drive the first day. We were told that if it rained too much and the road conditions were too poor that we could have to hike up to 11 hours to the village where we were meant to be starting. After driving on paved roads for the first two hours we didn’t think there would be any problems at all getting into the village. When we were all loaded into the truck we were taken by surprise when the truck did not continue straight on the paved road but instead turned down a very rough looking mud road towards the river. We were taken even more by surprise when the truck began to drive through the river. Ya! We suddenly began to understand why the rain could make such an impact.

Immediately following the river was another hill. We all had to get out so the truck could get up the hill, and then pile back in and continue. There were many hills, some of which looked like they had entire creeks running through them, and there were plenty of times when we didn’t think the truck could make it up. Every time the driver stopped (whether to change gears or tighten the bolts on the tires) we always thought that it meant that we had to start walking. After making it up several nerve racking hills however, we were eventually kicked out of the truck about an hour away from the village. That last hour was almost entirely downhill, but the truck had spun its tires so bad in the mud that it just couldn’t continue.
We made it to the first village relatively easily. We stocked up on a few things (snacks, beer, etc) and started our trek into the jungle and out to the tree houses. We began by crossing yet another river, but this time by foot.

May I take this opportunity to point out that every day that we’ve been in Laos, it has rained, and the Gibbon Experience is no exception. It was muddy! So! So muddy! (For the entire 3 days, all trekking consisted of routine stops to check ourselves for leeches!)
Soaking wet, we made it safely to the “kitchen” (more or less the headquarters of the Experience out in the jungle). There, we were harnessed up and told to take a picture of the map in case we got lost. We were quickly briefed on what the next few days would entailed, introduced to our guides and off again into the rain.
Our first zip!

The first zip we took was amazing. It wasn’t incredibly long but the way it was hung and what with the rain, it was quite fast. We were told to break hard. A few of us had some troubles with the breaking system. Our first zip: Auria vs. The Tree. The Tree won. For the life of me I couldn’t stop. Jaa Lee (our guide) was yelling, “Break! Break!” I gave it everything I had but it was no good. So I stuck up my feet intending to let my legs, rather than my face, absorb the impact but the tree still managed to wound me. Not badly of course. Because of all the mud on my shoes and the speed which I was travelling, as soon as my feet hit the tree the slid right off onto either side and I managed to do a decent number on my shin. Not bad but enough to draw blood. The zip itself was such a blast that my horrible landing did not defer me in the least.
I think we did one more zip after that and then one zip into our tree house. We lucked out with our tree house for sure! Because the group was so large we had to be split up into two groups—one group of four to stay at Tree House 3 (one of the older and smaller tree houses) and one group of six to stay at Tree House 7 (the newer and larger tree house). It may have been my suggestion but it also made sense; because Darren and I had adopted Andy we were a group of three, and it only made sense to put the two groups of three together and thus volunteering Darren and myself along with the other for Tree House 7.
It was beautiful! Words, and maybe even pictures, can not describe how amazing this place was. Let me start from the ground up. This tree is almost 200 meters tall. The tree house itself is probably about 150 m from the jungle floor. You zip-line into the lowest level of the tree house. To your right is a slightly crooked shoe rack. To your left is the staircase to the main level. Across from where you zip in is the washroom. I want one! The first thing you see when you walk into the bathroom is an amazing view! You’re looking out into and over the jungle and the mountains and it’s absolutely breath taking. The toilet is a squat toilet, but who cares when you have such a beautiful view. The shower is amazing and hovers over a slat-wood floor, and there is something amazingly thrilling and peaceful and rejuvenating about showering naked in clean cool water overlooking such a lush forest. (I can easily say that the shower is my favourite part of the tree house). On the main level there is a large, low table where we all eat; a small kitchenette consisting of a few shelves (built into the tree), a sink, and a fridge; two hammocks; and, two sleeping areas. We slept on two to three mats spread out on the ground with a cloth canopy/mosquito net suspended above us. And of course, there is an amazing 360 degree view of the jungle! There is also an upper level in Tree House 7 (the other tree houses only had one floor) with just enough room for a small sleeping area and a hammock. The view from the top floor was amazing but slightly obstructed by branches; that being said, it made the top floor seem a little more private and secluded. Darren and I being the only couple, we were elected to take the top floor and we had no arguments about it!
We were to spend the rest of our day just settling into our tree house and around 5pm dinner was zipped in from the kitchen nearby, along with hot water for tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. The meals were simple, but delicious and were followed by local fresh fruits and snacks.

The nights and the mornings were early. The sun went down just before seven and with no electricity it was hard to stay up very late. The six of us rigged our head lamps around the tree house and played cards until talked and laughed until about ten. Then, we all fell asleep to the sounds of frogs and crickets in the trees. Some people are bothered by the noise and say that it’s too loud, but the six of us found it rather peaceful. The following morning we woke up bright and early to the sounds of Gibbons singing off in the distance. Their calls are both eery and peaceful. They were too far away to see them but we were hopeful knowing they were in the area.
We spent that afternoon trekking and zipping over to tree house 3 (where the other group stayed) and then trekking and zipping over to tree house 5 where we met up with the other group for lunch. We were all a bit miserable and wet. I was bleeding quite a bit from my foot where a leech had clearly had a nice lunch! The rain seemed to have subsided on the way back and we all took liberties with a nice little loop of zip-lines and just kept going over and over and over again! It was so much fun. It had actually stopped raining for most of the time that we were zipping, but even when it did rain lightly, when you’re zipping, it’s all good! It’s the walk back in ankle deep mud that isn’t so great.
We were definitely wet, muddy and exhausted by the time we got back to the tree house and it was all we could do much look forward to a beautiful shower and a nice hot cup of coffee. All cleaned up and refreshed, we were served dinner, and once again spent the night playing cards and listening to the sounds of the jungle at night.

While our array of head lamps did well to light up our tree house, as you all know, lights also attract a series of bugs. The first night a very large beetle (easily the size of Twinkie) flew into my shoulder, and on this second night a very large bee flew into our tree house (probably the size of my thumb). We were all freaking out, until finally it landed on the table and we caught it under a mug… and there we left it. I had actually completely forgotten about it until I heard that in the morning our guide accidentally found it as he was tidying up for breakfast. Oops! Apparently he whacked it with a broom.

On the third day, we again woke up to the sounds of the Gibbons singing in the trees. This time, they weren’t too far away to see. With the naked eye you could only make out the movement in the trees, but thankfully, Tree House 7 came equipped with a telescope. For about a half hour we took turns watching the Gibbons swing from tree to tree and and listening to their strange calls. It was pretty amazing and was definitely the icing on the cake. Later that morning, Tree House 3 came over to Tree House 7 for breakfast. The rest of the afternoon consisted of trekking back to the rest of the world, but not before stopping to do a few rounds on the zip lines. It was so much fun, but again, I didn’t do well with the breaking system. I got into a bit of a tiff with one of the cables when I was going to fast and couldn’t stop. My clamp hit on of the bolts and caused a small cable burn on my arm (no big deal, it’s almost completely gone already).
The rest of the trip was wet of course, and we were muddy, but this made crossing the river that much more of a welcomed necessity! We all took advantage of the opportunity to wash the mud off our shoes and our legs… maybe we jinxed ourselves.
We had to walk a ways to the truck, which was all up hill and we were exhausted. The sun had come out a bit and it wasn’t too muddy… but then… then the rains came. At least half a dozen times we all had to get out of the truck and help push it up the muddied slopes. At one point, we even had to just wait until the rain stopped because there was no way the truck would make it so long as the ruts were running with water. I somehow ended up behind a tire every time I tried to push and I had mud in my hair, and my ears, on my face and all over my clothes. One of the actual creators of the Gibbon Experience (a French guy) was with our group for the trip back to Huay Xai and when we reached the river he put his pants in the boat and walked across, stripping down to his underwear as he went and taking a little bath. Covered in mud, we all thought this looked like a pretty good idea, and while we didn’t strip down, we did opt for walking across rather than taking the boat, and it felt fantastic.
In the end, we were exhausted, wet and dirty, but would do the experience again in a heartbeat. It probably would’ve been better without all the rain but the experience was definitely incomparable. The zip lining was amazing. The tree house was fantastic, and waking up to the sounds of Gibbons in the morning and watching them swing amidst the trees is priceless.
The one and only disappointment of the trip (and it’s kind of a big one) is that the video camera, which we bought expressly for the purpose of this experience, went missing no more than an hour before we left. Darren had put it down to take off his shoes and forgotten it on the lower level of the tree house. One of the girls had seen it when she zipped in the following morning and it was not there when we left an hour later. We searched the ground beneath the tree house and asked everyone in both groups. So far, the camera is still MIA. We exchanged info with the office and are hoping that once we’re back in internet territory we’ll know if they’ve found anything. Besides the fact that video is the only way to really capture the feel of the zip lining, the worst part of having lost the camera is that we had not backed up or downloaded any of our other videos. The pandas, the tigers, the beaches. All of it was still on the video camera. So sorry if words and pictures can’t do justice to the experience of flying through the trees and over the jungle. Hopefully the camera will turn up soon!  (Still no word on the camera and it's been about a week!)