Where are those Gibbons?

Morning All

So, new flip flops eh? Not such a bargain after all. And I may even be back to the smelly Tevas for travelling yet! Two days of use and the padded soles have fallen off! The upside is they only weigh a gram now so I don't need to grip them with my toes to keep them on. This has resulted in a proper walk again and Carol can remove her ear plugs as my flipping and flopping is just a whisper now. The downside is that I've only got 1mm of leather between my feet and the road, so not too comfortable for any walk over 400 metres. It turns out you can't get a genuine bargain pair of leather Nike flip flops for under a fiver after all.

Our slow cruise up the Mekong took us from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai. We'd splashed out on the luxury boat which certainly meant no worries about overcrowding as we were two of only seven customers, matched by seven staff. This on a boat that can sometimes have up to forty people squeezed on board. Day 1 was a 10 hour cruise, arriving at a luxury 5 star resort near Pak Beng around 5pm. We had a gorgeous hillside wooden cottage with thatched roof offering stunning views up & down the river. First things first though, Carol insisted on the sitting tenant being evicted. Now I'm not normally squeamish about picking up spiders, but let me tell you, this fellow was big; and possessed a huge pair of fangs too. If you sat him on your hand he'd fill your palm and have his legs dangling over the sides! After a few minutes of chasing and moving furniture we finally cornered him, scooped him up and lobbed him out the window. We hoped he wasn't baby spider and that mummy spider wasn't somewhere else in the room watching events.

It would have been lovely to have spent the following day there, but it would have been very expensive, and we had an appointment with some gibbons. Day 2 cruising took us through lovely hills and mountain scenery, and a couple of stops for visits to the minority hill tribes. The Hmong village was particularly nice. The young children trying to sell us stuff really made us smile. They were not aggressive, spoke no English at all, but flocked around in the usual way offering embroidered bracelets for 5000 Laos Kip (about 40p). As our smallest denomination was 20,000 Kip, and there was no way the kids would have change, I handed over the 20,000 note and suggested we buy 4 items. Somehow, I don't know how for such an intelligent person, Carol lost count and picked up 5 items and the kids reacted as one. You'd have thought they'd just been told we were into devil worship and needed a small child to sacrifice. As one they all backed away, smiles replaced by looks of worry, and all gently 'oohing' and shaking their heads. We had no more small change so couldn't just offer the difference. Giving back one item wasn't cutting it either as none of them wanted to take back an item. In the end we had to get our guide to explain to the kids that it was just an accident.

Even with the above incident we ended up as heroes in this village. As we headed back down the hill to the river, an elderly lady of maybe 75-80 accompanied us. She was discussing something with a guide from our boat and talking to us in sign language. The gist of it was she could no longer see close up to do her embroidery. Back at the boat I offered her my reading glasses and she was delighted with them. She stood at the bank giving us the double handed, prayer like thank you until we were out of sight. If I'd done this earlier Carol may have even got her 5 little souvenirs without causing a diplomatic incident.

We arrived in Huay Xai around 4.30pm and checked in with the Gibbon Experience office as requested. Luckily they were still expecting us. The following morning (Monday) we had a safety brief before setting off on a three hour drive into the Bokeo province forest reserve. I can tell you from first hand experience that 4x4's may be great for off roading, but only when your sitting in them. If your on a bench seat in the back of a pick up, they are not so much fun. Luckily for the ladies in our group us four chaps were all gents and offered to sit in the back, giving up the comfortable seats for the girls benefit. There then followed a one hour up hill hike even further into the forest. Arriving at a little camp, we were split up between the various tree houses.

There are 5 tree houses in total, sleeping anything between 2 and 8 people. As we are on honeymoon they very kindly gave us a two person tree house which was also the closest which got no objections from us as we were both pretty sweaty from the walk. So, how to get in to a tree house fifty or sixty metres from the ground? Fitted with a harness you walk up through the tree clad hill behind the tree until you are above the height of the tree house. There you find (with the help of your guide) a zip line. Once hooked on to this you slide (or zip) down to a platform at the front of the house. Simple really. And it's the same for leaving but obviously on a different zip line. We were so lucky with our position. Literally below our tree was one of the longest zip lines in the forest at just under 400 metres. This led to a second line of approx 250 metres. Two further lines of similar length completed the circuit back to our tree with only a couple of minutes walking. Two of these lines were truly breathtaking as you glide 150 metres above the forest canopy zipping from one side of the valley to the other.

The gibbons are only active in the early mornings so we spent most of that first afternoon practicing the zip lines and getting to know the other guests. The nearest tree house to us was a 20 minutes walk away and had 8 people in it. Apart from a very short zip line into their tree house the nearest proper lines were the ones next to us hence they were over visiting us.

The tree house itself is fairly rustic to say the least. There is a large wooden floor, open sides all round, and a roof for protection from the elements. Even the shower & loo were alfresco so to speak. While this allows for wonderful views, it also meant we were open to the animals & insects, especially at night. It's dark by 6.30pm at the latest so the only thing to do is play cards by solar lights until you're so inundated by bugs you decide it's time to turn in. Instead of the normal mosquito net we had a 360* curtain. When you're lying behind a curtain and can hear things ferreting around below your tree (maybe a bear or lynx, or just a squirrel or rat) it certainly makes you realise your out in the sticks. Then just when you're nodding off something starts rustling around just the other side of the curtain. Who knows, another squirrel, a mouse, or more likely an owl, but whatever it was, it stole our bar of hand soap the cheeky devil!

The following two mornings saw us up at the crack of dawn trying to spot the gibbons. We heard them chattering away on both days but unfortunately for us we never got close enough to see them. Our next door neighbours (20 mins through the forest) were really lucky and actually spotted them from their tree house. Although they were about half a mile away they had a powerful telescope and were able to view the gibbons feeding and playing in the trees for the best part of an hour. Lucky them.

Tuesday saw us also take a guided stroll through the forest which involved visiting all the other tree houses, doing plenty of zipping, and getting loads of info about the forest from our local guide. We were fairly tired to say the least when we finally got back to our tree house around 3pm having been up at 6am after a slightly restless sleep.

On Wednesday, having risen at 6am for the gibbon patrol, we regetfully started our hike out of the forest at 11am. What a fantastic couple of days and a truly unique experience. Even though those pesky gibbons wouldn't come out to play with us, the whole trip was worth every penny and a real highlight of our trip.

The rest of the day ended up a long day travelling which involved crossing back into Thailand, just across the river from Huay Xai, and then continuing on to Chang Rai, arriving at 6.30pm.

We fly from Chang Rai to Borneo, via Bangkok and Kuala Lumpar on Friday so thought it would be nice to have a day to get organised. So much for those plans. Whilst going for a little stroll we find a shop with washing machines and tumble dryers only 200 metres from our hotel. The owner speaks very little English but we understand we can get all our laundry done for the same price (£1.30) as our hotel want to charge for one shirt or a pair of shorts. Like my Nike sandals it may sound too good to be true, but we still go for it. Soooooooooo, it turns out £1.30 does do all the washing, but despite the signs indicating tumble dryers, none of the machines actually tumble dry. So the rest of the afternoon and evening has been spent moving clothes around our hotel room from bath towel rail to curtain rail, from chair back to door frame in an attempt to get it all dry under the fans before packing for tomorrows early morning flight. The things we do to save a few pounds eh? Ridiculous I hear you all say. (not as ridiculous as spending 33 quid on washing . . .from Carol x)

Looking back on our short time in Laos, we realise we only stopped in four different places; but we have to admit to absolutely loving both the country and the people. The scenery is just stunning, mainly forests, mountains or rivers, and the people are similar to the Khmers and much quieter and relaxed than the Viets with none of the hard sell or bartering.

To quote Carol on a previous blog, tomorrow is a new adventure. Onward to Borneo.

Love to all

Mr & Mrs McK xxx

Ps. Apologies about the extended blog entry but this has been the first chance to update after a brilliant week.

Note from Carol. . . . Tony has really understated the treehouse, it was freaking us both out! After two nights I got up at 6am on Wednesday and the first thing that sprang to mind was how uterlly exhausted I was! The first night they had told us it was really cold at night so being one to feel the cold I wrapped up in longs (tucked into my socks to keep the nasties out!) and a t shirt with a long sleeve top close by if required. At midnight I woke up for the hundredth time and decided the cold snap wasn't to be - my hair was absolutely soaked with sweat! Now that I was awake I needed a wee which was possibly the worst wee of my life! The bugs congregate around the loo (which was a squatter) so I had to shoo them away before a world record quick squat! Needless to say I deliberately dehydrated myself the next day so a repeat of the nightmare was avoided! Something was flying around our tent type thing that was massive - we didn't see it but anything making that much noise must have been huge, it was like a helicopter! In fairness to the company though, nothing got through our curtains to try and eat us and I would go through it all again tomorrow.