The Gibbon Experience

Besides the fact that it's a border crossing town, there is really only one major reason why people come to the little village of Huey Xai, Laos: The Gibbon Experience.

Here's a short description from the company website (http://www.gibbonexperience.org/index.php): "Poaching, logging and slash-and-burn farming are destroying primary forest and its inhabitants in South East Asia. The team at Animo have long been looking for innovative methods to solve this problem.A concept emerged; with the local people we build tree houses and a network of zip lines through the canopy of Bokeo Nature Reserve. We provide accommodation in the treetops and local guides (some of whom used to be poachers) ‘fly’ you over the forest to meet the wildlife. The funds received are reinvested to protect the forest"

They also have some side projects, including rehabilitating animals orphaned by poaching, and educating local villagers on alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture. In short, they're doing a lot of cool shit, and I was really excited to find a company that I felt good about giving my money to. There are multiple Gibbon Experience options, but I chose to do the "Waterfall Experience", which includes the most hiking out of all the options (~3 hours each day through very hilly terrain) and takes you deeper into the jungle. The group I went with consisted of myself, Emma and Mardi (2 friends from Adelaide, Australia), Stilman and Marin (a young couple from Germany), Sara and Robert (a couple, she from Columbia and he from England, but they live now in Barcelona), Aseem (Indian-born, now living in Australia), and our local guide, Nou. I really couldn't have asked to be with a better group of people. We all got along great and had such a fun time together (I kicked their asses at Uno). And we were all in love with our guide, Nou, who was the sweetest person ever. When Emma got too tired to hike and fell behind the group on the trail, he stayed with her and said "It's ok. You can have a sleep and I will wait here for you." You don't get much sweeter than that. So now then--my Gibbon Experience!

Our first treehouse isn't even on this map since we went further into the jungle. Nor does this map include the ridiculous elevation climbs we did. At least I know my legs are still in shape!

View from the first treehouse: jungle all the way to the horizon!

Getting ready to do my fist zipline! I became immediately addicted.

Dinner time in the treehouse! From left to right: Aseem, Mardi, Emma, Sara, Robert, Marin, and Stilman

This part of the tree was right in the middle of the bathroom and had to be stepped over to reach the toilet. Silly me, I put my bare foot right into this sea of ants without realizing it. Look how COOL they are!

It might be hard to appreciate the size of this spider in this picture, but I assure you it was FUCKING HUGE. About the size of my hand, in fact, and that's no exaggeration. There were several of these in our first treehouse, one of which was found by Mardi as it crawled up her sleeping bag after we had gone to bed. You can imagine the reaction that got...

Sun rising over the mountain. This was so beautiful, but not as beautiful as this same view under the moon. I woke up both nights around 3am and just sat alone and looked out over the moonlit jungle, listening to the cacophony of frogs and night animals. I think it was the most beautiful thing I've experienced on my trip so far.

Sara, Nou, and I watching the sun rise.

This was our bathroom! You can see the shower head at the top of the picture. Some treehouses had well water which was pumped up, but this one actually used rain water. I must admit, it was pretty fun to stand there naked with the whole jungle right there in front of you.

Hiking back to the village on our last day. Best trip ever!! If you're ever in SE Asia, you really gotta do the Gibbon Experience!

 

This is a video of me zipping into the first treehouse. Came in a little fast...as you'll see. Woops! 

 

One of the longer zips--I make stupid faces.