Laos - Bokeo and the Gibbon Experience

We arrived in Huay Xai from Thailand - about 100metres across a river. It was really strange to think that we were already in a different country.We exchanged our money and instantly we were millionaires!

My first experience with a Lao wasn't the best considering spending a month with super friendly Thais. The lady running our guesthouse who we fondly named 'Big Momma' was rude, pushy, never smiled, and did NOT like being disturbed when watching TV in the restaurant despite not having received my dinner in over an hour. In the end I think they mustve gone to Thailand and back to get the mushrooms because I didnt get fed until bedtime!

Big Momma also tried to tell us that the Gibbon Experience wasn't running due to bad weather and that we could just stay at her guesthouse instead of going.

Well the Gibbon Experience was going, but it had changed dramatically. Normally they take you in a 4WD out to a village then you trek for 3 hours. Because the rain had washed away some of the road, we now had to trek 5 hours to get to the village on top of that!
We were advised to buy special rubber shoes to walk through mud which I'm very glad I did!

The first day was some of the most physically draining exercise I have ever done. I was trying not to get fed up but I couldn't help but be annoyed with the fact I was walking through mud up and down hill for 5 hours when normally I'd be sitting in a 4WD. The downhills were fine, but the uphills were killer, they just kept going and going. And it was HOT, I was dripping with sweat, and had pretty limited food. I managed to take a few photos but it seemed to require so much of my effort. Oh and our guides not once took a rest. Machines! So I decided to take my own pace, taking rests when I needed it, and only took about 10 mins longer in the end anyway!

When we arrived at the village everyone was enjoying some Cocacola which looked appealing but still in my anti-coke mind I opted for Miranda which is probably made by Cocacola anyway! lol. With sugar levels back up we headed on our merry way, but oh my God, the next few hours were INTENSE. I have never pushed myself that much ever. When we reached the top I couldnt even talk, just groan.

Part of the Gibbon Experience involves using zip lines over the forest to get from tree hut to tree hut. So we zipped into the first hut. Thank God! I was home for the night! While everyone else in my hut went zipping I stayed back to do some yoga and meditation in a tree hut 150 metres above the ground looking over a valley. Perfect! And can you imagine the view from the shower? It was definitley one of the top 5 shower experiences of my life.

At night we could hear rats running around our beds, BIG rats. But we had already been warned so all our belongings were safe in our beds under our nets.

The next day I could still feel my legs. Amazing! So I walked up to treehut 3 to meet Dionne and walk to treehut 5. I used 3 or 4 ziplines along the way and it was so much fun!! I got some videos of it which are awesome. One of which has a monkey in it that I didnt actually see while I was videoing it but only when I showed the video to Dionne did she see it was spinning around a tree at arms length away! Man I felt stupid.

We chilled out (lakalau! personal joke) in treehut 5 for the afternoon and used a few ziplines from our hut. We were staying with 4 Dutch travellers which was fun, learnt a few dutch words and tried playing card games with them which was amusing.

We went to bed early, the 3rd day was going to be the longest. We were so far into the jungle now and had to walk all the way back! I woke up in the night because of the rain, thinking 'nooooo pleaaaase stop raining', but it continued raining till morning. Which of course meant, MUD!

So for 8 hours we trekked through mud. And for some reason, it sucked, but it didnt suck as much as the first day. Had my fitness increased? With every step we were saying words to motivate us to get back to Huay Xai "good food, clean clothes, clean sheets, BeerLao" and our guide Max let us listen to his mp3 player which mainly consisted of old American country music.

After another 8 hours of trekking. We arrived. Huay Xai isn't much of a town, its just a border town, and pretty much everyone in the town ends up in the same restaurant for dinner. This night everyone seemed to be eating Indian food and so I managed to pick the brain of a few people travelling to India which is definitley going to be in my next trip.

The next 2 days were spent down the Mekong river on a slowboat. Now a lot of people complain about these boats, I dont know why. I mean yes the only seats are wooden planks and most of the time you end up on the floor but for goodness sake you're in Laos people what do you expect. Im sick of people here complaining all the time when they know full well their in a 3rd world country and you're not at home anymore. Oh and please, ditch the mini skirts and crop tops! Have some respect!
Anyway, 6 hours on the slow boat gave me plenty of time to read books, write in my diary, listen to music I never knew was on my ipod, and watch the world go by on the Mekong.

By the way, my opinion of Lao people was soon changed by our friendly guides and the different guesthouse we stayed in when we returned to Huay Xai. The Laos are just as friendly as Thai, if not friendlier!