Southeast Asia

Alarm went at 6:30 so that I could pack up the last few bits and pieces, get dressed and eat before the truck left. I had breakfast at the Gibbon Experience office and met most of the people who are coming on the trek. They are all couples, and much older than me so I don’t think that new years eve tomorrow is going to be bundle of excitement. I also dumped my big pack in the office because I managed to fit everything I going to need into my daypack.

Finally set off at about 8:30. Being in the car, the first thing that struck me was that they drive n the right-hand side of the road. That came as a big shock, especially since Thailand drives on the left and its still a stones throw away, literally. The road, I use that word liberally, we were on is the new China to Thailand highway that passes through the northwestern corner of Laos. There was no tar laid since it is still under construction, and it is just a dusty orange track with potholes the size of small cars and tractor ruts about a metre deep. The dust, that covered not only the road, but also everything nearby including villages and any vegetation, is sent into an orange cloud with every passing vehicle.

At one point the Belgium couple sitting beside me asked me if the roads were like this in Australia and when I replied “not in the cities” it was greeted with a very serious “ahhh, not in zee zities?”. God only knows what their perception of Australia is but they went on to tell me that one of their friends had been to Australia and had come home and told them that it was full of red-necks. I gave up on them after that.

The drive was very steep and winding and it was a good three hours before we reached our destination at the heart of the Bokeo National Reserve in the Hmong village that sits at the base of the mountain we were set to trek up. The girl I had been speaking to in the office about the program said that the tours leave every 2nd day, yet our arrival in the village still seemed to be a great cause of excitement. Liz, one of the volunteers with the project, explained to me later that the village feels very involved with the program since almost every family has at least one member who works up in the jungle, either as a forest guard, guide, or in the kitchen.

Our trek began through the corn fields of the village and as we walked deeper into the jungle we took numerous river crossings. Initially I used the bamboo stalk laid across as a walking plank, but it was incredibly unstable, bounced beneath my feet and had a tendency to roll so soon enough I took my shoes off and waded through the small streams. After the final river crossing we stopped for lunch, which was chicken and salad sandwiches wrapped in banana leaves. At this point our trek really began, the uphill climb was brutal to say the least. Everyone collapsed in a heap at the top.

All was forgiven almost immediately though when we were handed our harness for the zip wires [flying foxes]. A short demonstration later and I was zipping through the sky among the tree tops into tree house number 1, 40m above the ground.

In the tree house liz offered us tea and coffee and some snacks of nuts and roasted beans and told us a bit about the conservation project. It was begun by a Frenchman, Jeff, who over 6 years ago began to look for a way to protect the forest from illegal logging and poachers. Almost exactly one year ago the gibbon experience opened to the public, although the zip wires have been in place for much longer than that since they were initially installed to allow the forest guards to move quickly around the jungle to catch poachers.

At one point I was looking out into the jungle from the tree house when I spotted an animal moving through the trees. I assumed it was simply a common animal but the guides were very excited to see it so close to the tree house. The animal which was about the size of a small dog was black and had a long bushy tail, much like a possum, and moved through the trees by running along the branches and jumping into the next tree, is known to the locals as a ‘Mariloua’. What makes it so special is that it seems to be unknown to the western world and there is no record of it anywhere. I felt very lucky to have seen it, although I saw it again a few ties over the course of the afternoon. We went out this afternoon with a guide on the zip wires who showed us the way to the other tree houses. The longest zip wire is over 400m and must be at least 70m above the jungle floor. Its quite an adrenalin rush to be flying through the tree tops at a decent speed, particularly when you look down. Our guides lead us back at about 5:30 which was just in time to see the sun disappear over the ridge.

Dinner was at 6, I had little idea what to expect because its really only my first day in Laos and I’m not yet acquainted with the cuisine. It was delicious, although very different from Thai food, there was almost no sauce, it was just vegetables flavoured with salt and a few herbs served with sticky rice. As soon as the sun set the jungle seemed to come to life with noise, in every direction there was rustling in the trees and there was the occasional barking which our guides assured us were the barking deer, although I’m more inclined to believe it was the dogs in the local village. Without electricity its difficult to stay awake late so we all packed it in about 8:30, I was tired anyway from being up at 6:30. I have to share a bed with the only other solo traveler, a Thai doctor. It should make the night sufficiently awkward.

Tags: Laos

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2006 at 4:29 am and is filed under Laos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.