the gibbon experience

We spent our last 3 days in Laos at the gibbon experience in Bokeo region. It was quite incredible to say the least.

The place is a huge forest area, and they've built 3 treehouses, at heightrs of about 40m up! They are massive trees, and it was quite amazing how they managed to build them. Even more mad is that the only way to get into the treehouses is to harness yourself onto a zipwire, fly across a valley of which were up to 70m below us, land and try to recover from the experience! They had set up the zip wires originally to try and catch poachers, but now its also for tourists!

Speaking of poachers, they had found a little baby sun bear a few weeks before we arrived and the women there were looking after it. Apparently, some people there had frightened off the mother while they were picking blackberries...hmmm. Anyway, it was absolutely gorgeous- so cute, with a little round tummy. They were feeding it milk and it was trying to walk. Held it for a little bit- just so sweet!!!! I think they plan to try and release it gradually, but look aftre it as well. i'm sure it couldn't survive long by itself...

Anyway, while we were admiring the little bear we alsmot forgot that in a few minutes we'd be throwing ourselves off a cliff and dangling by a wire quite a few metres up. It was so terrifying. I could hardly do it, but kind of walked and the thing was taking me away before i had any choice any more! And it was as terrifying as it looked! Once in the treehouse, the views were absolutely gorgeous- all around you could see trees, hills and valleys. We were way above most of the treetops and were looking down on the top of them. You could see the birds at your level and below which is definitely a different way of viewing the world. Poor marc didn't enjoy it quite so much - he has terrible vertigo and didnt leave his spot- at the very centre of the treehouse- for about 20hrs, apart from when i had to take him to the toilet!!! The houses were amazingly well made- 2 levels, lovely bedding, little sinks, coffee, snacks, a telescope, binoculars-everything! the best thing was the bathroom- they had a shower with just a lattice for the floor so you could see all the water flying down and down and down below you-plus the lovely views all around..pretty spectacular!

The afternoon was spent trying out the other zip wires, which were unbelievably even more scary! it definitely got better as you did them more and actually it was awesome, but one or two were just a little bit too high and free swinging for me! i think i might have developed a bit of vertigo!!!

Spent the night up in the sky, with the moon shining over the tops of the trees below us. The next morning they woke us up to come and try and find some monkeys-it wasnt the easiest thing to throw yourself off a 40m high tree first thing in the morning i can tell you. it certainly wakes you up! After an hour or so of crashing through lots of bamboo and falling down hills, we were ready for breakfast- its so cool- they all just zip back and forward with kettles of hot water, pots and pans, gas tanks, whatever!

And then came the highlight of the trip...its quite easy to forget that it is called the gibbon experience what with all the fear, but really the main thing about the place is that often, if you're lucky you can hear the gibbons sing to each other in the mornings. Appparently, its where human song evolved from, and they perform duets with their mates to show the strength of their bond. SO all of a sudden we just heard this crazy noise- like totally not what i expected, and it got weirder and weirder- whooping and wailing like space aliens or something! It was mad. And it just seemed to get more and more psychadelic, echoing across the valley, seemed like lots were joining in... It was certainly one of the most amazing things I have ever heard. Becky got a couple of recordings of it. I'll try and put one on the end of this

Then we had to move treehouses to the farthest one away. marc finally managed to zip out of the treehouse and had decided he wanted to to spend the night on solid ground. so we'd just arrived, were chatting to some others, enjoying the views and planning to go back and see him, when all you heard was the noise of someone coming on the wires...well, how shocked were we when it was marc! unbelievable-he managed to get through 8 or so different wires to get there! well done! so we had another lovely night in another treehouse-this time with some company- a few scurryings in the night and a big green snake in the next tree- far enough away for us not to worry too much tho!

And then we had to go. A brilliant way to end a brilliant country. Laos was so nice, lots of smiling kids and people, the most stunning scenery, and definitely the scarist bus journeys!