The Gibbon Experience (Northern Laos)

I wasn't lying when I said it was knee deep...

So there we were ... waiting at a restaurant in the middle nowhere. No internet. No running water. Two rooms with wooden beds. We woke up early to see what we could do to get onto the Gibbon Experience; there was a 2 day trip and a 3 day trip but when we called the office, they seemed to be full. Ben was going to take the 2 day one, leaving the following day because he sort of had made a reservation; but Andy and I weren’t sure when we would be able to do it...

At 10 am that same morning, they came to get Katherine and ended up saying that Andy and I could come along; and so we packed and got ready in less than 10 minutes. Off we were, trying to catch up with the group. They had already started so we had to be quick, but it was terribly slippery and muddy. After 10 minutes of walking I slipped into a river... hahaha ... great fun. The path was COVERED in mud, at some points we’re talking knee-deep mud, at others, the mud would just pile up onto our shoes and they would get heavy, really really heavy. The rain always pouring down, and the path becoming steeper and steeper.

We walked until we got to an abandoned jeep and waited there for the whole group. The girls started coming but no signs of any guys. After about half an hour the first guy came; he was carrying a huge sack of food! Turns out that the jeep that was carrying all the food and supplies got stuck in the mud and the guys had to carry everything. It took an entire hour for everyone to gather.

After that, we all got into a bigger truck. There wasn’t enough space inside so three of us got to go on the roof. It was the most fun yet terrifying experience branches coming at us, potholes, and speeding up steep muddy hills...it was a struggle to get through, and the tuck would slide back and bounce back and forth. After it couldn’t go any further, it was time to walk (more like slide) again. It was a rough 7 hour walk. And at the end, it was a steep climb to the fist base where we got our harnesses. They split us up into two groups, our group was Catherine, Andy, Hendrik and five Dutch people.We were going to have to walk a bit further and it was already starting to get dim out.

Zip lining instructions: lean back, make sure you clip the security on, that nothing is twisted and don’t zip line in the darkness. The first couple of zips were epic! Looking down to the canopy below and all along the horizon; the rush, the speed, the smell of the forest and flying through the eerie fog.  The zip-lines just helped me forget how cold, wet and uncomfortable I felt, but in between we had to walk ... and it was getting darker and darker by the second. The night hit and we still had about 3 more to go. People were starting to get impatient, frustrated, scared. The rain was pouring down harder and harder and there it was, the fist zip-line in complete and utter darkness.  It’s hard to describe the feeling of jumping into the unknown but it’s one of those that you never forget.

We made it to the tree house at around 8 pm. It was a tough day. My shoes were more mud that shoe, my rain jacket was wetter inside than out, I was covered in mud from head to toe, and there were pieces of branches in my hair. I had a cold shower with the most spectacular view (even in the darkness), the guides brought us dinner and off we went to bed.

The next morning we were up at 7am, greeted by daylight and birds singing. That’s when I fist realized that we had spent the night 35m above ground. After breakfast my joy was temporarily overtaken by the fact that I had to put on my wet clothes from the day before... everything was still soaked and muddy, but soon enough your body warms it up. I got out the thick chunk of mud off my shoes and off we went for a full day of zip-lining followed by an evening of wine and games. 

Our home for 3 days

I may have forgotten to mention there were some leaches along the way...

Mystery lady that help me find my way out

On our last day I was woken up by the sound of gibbons playing. Finally, the sun came out and we had a beautiful day of zip-lining. When the time came, it was sad to leave the harnessed behind. The path was still troublesome but we battled through it. I ended up walking with a Dutch girl. We were near the front but somehow we got separated from everyone. She wasn’t feeling well and we weren’t really sure of when to exit the main path. We ended up asking some local ladies for help. They were really nice, they fed us some fresh cucumber and then said to follow them. I trusted them. They took us through a corn field that we surely had not passed before, then over a tree to cross a river but we eventually made it out onto a part of the path that we recognized. I was so grateful to see that little deserted restaurant again. It now seemed like a luxury hotel. 

For more information about the gibbon experience go to:  http://www.gibbonexperience.org/

BORDER CROSSING, VIETNAM TO LAO

The journey begun on my 81^st day of travel. I had been warned not to do it, but like any other warning I just waved it off. I woke up at 6:30am and noticed that the beds in the dorm had been moved around. The floor was covered in water... everything was soaked except for my bed. So I took it as a sign of good luck... but I may had spoken to soon. The overcrowded minivan came to get me at 7:30am... the windy road took us from one mountain top to the next with a mysterious air lingering all around us.

And there it was, the first sign... we had to wait for half an hour because a car was stuck in the mud, and although entertaining to see how many men it took to get it out, we got covered in mud as well. 

The minivan crew consisted of: an older American couple, a middle-aged Spanish couple, Beca a pastry chef from England, Andy from New Zealand who turned out to be an incredible guitar player and some Vietnamese people including a puking  girl. The poor thing did not stop throwing up for the whole 10 hours. We got dropped off in the afternoon and had to get a room for the night, as the minivan would continue its journey the next morning at 5am. We roamed around town trying to find a place to eat but the best we got were some deep fried burgers... yum :S

It was 5 am and it was pouring rain. To top it off, we had to put our backpacks on top of the bus.... we had some new members join including a very large mean looking French guy (I couldn't understand how he was smoking cigarettes at that early hour) and Alex and Nicola an Irish couple.

The border crossing went just fine but the fun and games began at 10:30am when the bus driver stopped at a small town and told us to go “eat rice” at the only restaurant in the place.  We obediently had some rice with bamboo shoots, spring rolls and veggies. After about an hour, we were hoping to get back on the bus and get going. I went in the bus and fell asleep only to wake up after 45 minutes and realized that we hadn’t moved one inch.  We weren’t really sure of what was going on but when we asked the driver he said that we had to sleep there because the bridge was closed. The assistant driver was the only one who spoke English and he kept walking away in the middle of asking him questions and then laughed. We were starting to get frustrated but there was nothing we could do ....

We sat around playing cards, drinking  Beer Lao and watching the rain. We also met Ben, a Canadian who had gotten stuck in the Vietnamese bus behind ours. The boys all went to check what was wrong with the bridge but they came back with a video of cars crossing the so called “closed” bridge.  We were starting to get the feeling that we were being cheated. Then, to add to it all, the assistant driver told us that the bus was going to take us back to Vietnam the next morning... problem being that most of us couldn’t go back to Vietnam because they have no visas on arrival plus we had wasted 2 days traveling already.  

The "Closed" Bridge

When we had lost all hope the Spanish couple came running and told us that they had found a pickup truck that would take us to Muang Khua and was waiting on the other side of the bridge. As we were getting our backpacks the French guy took out a knife and slashed the tires of the bus. When I got sight of what was happening I grabbed my backpack and ran for my life.

Our ride... 

We got on the pickup truck, all 7 of us huddling at the back. It was still raining and we were sitting on the floor covered by a plastic tarp like runaway refugees. We laughed off our escape and managed to get the guitar out to lighten the mood but the road was dark and foggy. There were landslides along the way and at one point we crossed through a river.

At 8pm we made it to the edge of our destination but there was one more challenge.... since it was so late, the ferry was not in service and we had to get across a huge river because all the hostels and what not were on the other side. Eventually we found a guy who called his mom, and she brought her canoe and helped us cross in small groups. The current was pretty strong at it was pitch black but we managed to get everyone to the other side.

I was exhausted, the things in my backpack were wet, and we hadn’t had any food since the 10:30 am lunch so we went out for a celebratory group dinner after which I passed out, I couldn’t have been happier about seeing a bed....

The next morning (3^rd day of travel) we went to the bus station early to make sure we could catch a bus out (didn’t want to get stuck again) we needed to make sure there was room for the 8 of us. We grabbed some pho for breakfast while the French guy downed a few beers. When the bus came we were forced to put our backpacks on top AGAIN...but the ride was smooth.

At noonish, we made it to Udomaxi and split ways.  Ben and Andy were going to do the Gibbon Experience and so I ended up joining them. Our next destination:  Luang Nam Tha. Once there, we found some guy who took us to Ban Don Chai a tiny village in the middle of nowhere... to see if we could book the Gibbon Experience from there. We found the right place, it was a little restaurant on the road, but by the time we got there, the office was closed so we had to wait until the next morning. There was yet another Canadian there already, her name was Katherine and she was leaving for the Gibbon Experience the next morning but ill just have to make that a whole new story.