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/