The Gibbon Experience

Me on zipline
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The Gibbon Experience

400m zip lines 100m above the trees

Journey There (1-2 days)

Road to gibbon
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We woke up at 6am and should have realized from the torrential rain that it was going to be a long day. The weather was so bad that the bus very nearly didn’t leave due to flooding. It was at this point that we were told this journey was along the worst road in Laos, all 14 hours of it. We set off about an hour late on the most overcrowded bus I have been on, luggage on the roof and plastic chairs down the isles. The road was just a flooded dirt track with no grip at all that wound its way around the mountain tops, 50m drops into valleys and no barriers. The bus had to take run ups for the climbs, back end out all the way. If it didn’t make it we had to get out and help push. After about 4hrs we overheated then few hours later got completely stuck. Finally, about 5 hours late we got kicked off at our stop, given our soaking wet bags and the bus left. We were the only 2 to get off and were left at this wooden shack in the pitch black.

Tree house
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A man came out to meet us who could speak absolutely no English and showed us our shed for the night. It was very luxurious and situated about 2m from the pig sty and chicken hut. They then offered us food, which was tasty, and whilst we were eating thought it would be nice to put on the karaoke and invite about all the locals round who just stared at us, smiling. We then went to bed.

The next day I let the locals have a go on my MP3 and got the oldest man dancing to the Prodigy. We were then picked up by the Gibbon people and their rangers, carrying shot guns ECT and did the other 4 hrs to the gibbon Experience. We got dropped off in a tribal village (5 of us) and headed into the rainforest (1-2hrs) where we finally got to the base, put on our harnesses and zipped into the first tree house.

Morning view from treehouse
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The Gibbon Experience (3days)

The trip was well worth it. The whole place is set in 1000s of acres of protected rainforest. There are 3 tree houses each about 50m high in the tallest trees. The only way to get around is to zip between places on metal wires. The longest zip line is 400m long and takes you over a valley 100m high. It’s quite scary. The tree houses, where you live for the 3 days, are absolutely amazing. They all have running water, beds, showers ECT including a toilet where you can see through the hole to the trees way below. When you have a crap (in squatting position) you hear about a 4 sec pause on exit. Followed by about 5 seconds of crashing through the trees then a thud on landing. The pig at the bottom then eats it. All food is cooked for you by the chefs who just zip over to your house with the food.

Zipping (can just see me in dist)
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The first night me and Paul stayed on our own in tree 3, which is about another hour into the rainforest (along 4 zip lines and bit of trekking). The guides just brought us our food then left us to it. We then spent the rest of our time just trekking, finding animals and zipping everywhere. This is the most amazing thing I have ever done and would recommend going to Laos just to do it.

Journey to Chang Mai (2days)

We left gibbon and went back to tribal village. Waiting for our lift we got invited into the men’s hut where they were all getting pissed on their local brew rice whiskey. After few shots lift arrived to take us to Thai border. The 4x4 got stuck on every big hill so we were all towing it up the hills by a rope in thick mud. We got back to civilization about 16 hrs later.