Gibbons and Leeches and Mud, Oh My!

We just spent 3-days in the world of rainforest and mud in search of Gibbons (a type of monkey). We did a trip called the Gibbon Experience (GE) and any traveler we'd met that had done the GE just raved about it, so I think Lani and I went in with slightly high expectations. We were a group of 8 people. I wouldn't say we came our completely disappointed, just glad that the trip was over.

Our group consisted of 3 Brits, 1 Kroatian, 1 South African guy (who should've stayed home - he had such an ego it was incredible!), and the 2 "dirty American girls." Because it's rainy season here, we had to trek in to the first tree house for 8 hours, through mud and rain and up slippery hills and through quite literally, mierda, for about an hour of the hike. And when you have animal feces squashing between your toes, and haven't eaten for 8 hours, I would say I probably wasn't the happiest camper. And then once we arrived at the first treehouse, it was not a place to comfortably rest our heads. The sheets hadn't been changed from the previous guests and Lani and I spent a long night trying not to move a muscle, as we slept in our clothes, covered head to toe to avoid any contact with the bedding, and quite awake as each little sound in the jungle kept us on edge. I was grateful for the morning when the guide zipped in at 6:00 a.m. and we got the show on the road. On a more positive note, it was quite amazing to wake-up in a treehouse, 150 meters above ground, and as far as I could see were green trees and the fog settling on the mountains, with the sound of Gibbons singing as my alarm clock.

We spent the day zipping around on these cables, suspended from tree to tree. You zip high above the tree canopy and it is quite an amazing vista. Once I got over the initial scare of being suspended on a cable, more than 100 m above ground, it was quite a fun day. It was kinda like we were the monkeys, and we had a great day swinging from the trees.


When we weren't zipping around, we were hiking again, in more leech-infested mud. In fact, over the course of the trip I got 2 leech bites. Yuck! I screamed like a total girl and the guide had to flick the blood-sucking beast off of me (I might be over dramatizing the event, but seriously). Proof of the blood below (near my heal) to document my first leech bite ever in my life!


For the second night in the rainforest, we switched treehouses. It was much cleaner and well kept.

The only real issues we had this second evening was that the horse bringing the food never came. So for dinner and breakfast at the treehouse, we had a tasty batch of sticky rice and boiled potatoes. Luckily, Lani and I had brought Oreo's in our backpacks and they were a delicious night cap on the evening. And our other adventure this night was the fact that we had 2 incredibly large, hairy spiders crawl around our bedding area. We had to wake up our Brittish friend, Flip, to kill both of them. They were huge! I guess we were in the jungle, but seriously, the creepy-crawlies that I was confronted with over 3 days was almost more than I could handle.

The next morning we said good-bye to our treehouse and the Gibbons, that we never saw, and hiked out to the village. We were supposed to have another 4 hours hiking out, but since it hadn't rained in the valley the last 2 days, they had sent in a jeep to pick us up and I was quite extatic to hop in the back of that baby and ride up the muddy hills, rather than walk them.

Back in the border town of Huay Xai, a shower was the first priority! Then we had dinner with the 3 Brits along the Mekong River and watched the sky change colors as the sun set over the mountains. It was our last night in lovely Laos. The next day we would cross the river to Thailand and head to Chiang Mai.