Bokeo Province - The Gibbon Experience - Bokeo, Northern Laos

Bokeo Province (Laos)

N 20'29", E 100' 45".

The Project: Poaching, logging and slash-and-burn farming are destroying primary forest and its inhabitants in South East Asia. The team at Animo have long been looking for innovative methods to solve this problem.

A concept emerged; with the local people we build tree houses and a network of zip lines through the canopy of Bokeo Nature Reserve. We provide accommodation in the treetops and local guides ‘fly’ you over the forest to meet the wildlife. The funds received are reinvested to protect the forest.

This is The Gibbon Experience.

This is where it started, well, it wasn't so much the concept of assisting the local people with deriving something from their natural environment, other than slashing and burning for the sake of farming, it was more the kind of surreal concept of sleeping in a tree house 50mtrs above the ground and zip lining between tree houses that captured our imagination, the bi-product of a tourist stimulated economy was thankfully the happy end result for the Lao people in this part of their land. Something that I believe we were more than satisfied to participate in but more regarding the tree houses and zip lining later on.

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08.03.09 - Day One of the Gibbon Experience

The Gibbon Experience was the sole reason for our little group flying into the remote outpost of Huay Xai, although I'm sure that Jase wanted to check out Luang Namtha at one stage also and that would have been an alternative option for him had we have decided not to have gone Gibbon hunting. So the four of us arrived at the offices of the Gibbon Experience all primed for what we believed was going to be an exhilarating experience, providing us with the opportunity of penetrating some distance into the jungles of Bokeo Province. It was only after the commencement of the instructional videos in the Gibbon offices that I became acutely aware of the risks that we were all preparing to undertake in order to get ourselves both in and out of this adventure. The instructional video didn't leave me filled with absolute assurance that my safety was anything else but in my own hands, or that of the guides (but more in an incidental manner rather than anything purposeful) who by the way we also later came to realise weren't that much help to us in any sort of situation. Having the zip line procedure explained and the apparatus delivered in somewhat of sketchy fashion really had me asking internal questions of how assured I was going to be of flying 100mtrs above the jungle canopy with a harness and a couple clips to lock me into a steel cable, kind of precarious, no? But as usual, it was c'est la vie, it couldn't be that dangerous  now could it? Wouldn't we have already heard tales of Gibbon death and destruction? Fabled urban myths of English backpackers flying into the forest canopy, never to be seen or heard from again? This is the methodology  I use to overcome my anxieties.

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With the 10min safety lesson done and dusted we picked up our packs and threw them on top of one of the Gibbon Express 4WD and drove out of Huay Xai heading kind of south-east initially and then north-west after that, although that could be a pretty wayward guess, I mean all I could say with 100% assurety was that we were still in Laos, just. Travelling through the high forested hills filled with a thick blanket of haze surrounding us we travelled for somewhere over an hour, past small villages scattered along the roadside until we reached a pick up/drop-off point for people gearing up to undertake the adventure. By the best I can figure it out with the aid of Google maps the place was called Ban Nam Kanne, but again, this is more of a guesstimate than anything precise, so I bare no responsibility for your stuff up if you take this as gospel.

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After a 30min stop to pick up necessary supplies (something that in hindsight we should have made more use of) we piled back into the 4WD and struck out in the high hills/mountains. It was here that for the next 1.5 hours the four of us were bounced around in the back of this vehicle like a jumping castle gone wrong in some b-grade horror film. In all truth I kind of enjoyed it because getting out into the back of nowhere is all about the journey and getting belted from pillar to post is part of the accomplishment, I mean it was never ever going to be a freakin' tea party in your backyard filled cream cheese party snacks now was it !? As we negotiated twists, turns and bumps of a hellishly dirt filled road, we also managed to get completely covered in the reddish-rust coloured Lao dirt that was thrown up by our skillful driver, it's what happens when you sit in the open air seating compartment without pulling down the protective plastic sheets, which, sure, may have saved us some of the trouble,but 'stuff that' where would the fun have been in arriving clean?

 

Lao style hair colouring, I actually kind of like it - 'My Lao makeover, - Bokeo Province - Northern Laos

After acquiring that new style Jungle chic look (Very popular for 2009, or so says the Lonely Planet guide), we finally landed in a small outpost that was going to act as the kick-off point for our journey into gibbon jungle territory. All in all the drive itself was fairly picturesque, a panorama of high jungle forests, relatively dry and constantly filled with the smokey haze, an experience in itself, but now my friends, the time had arrived. It was GO TIME for the Gibbon Adventure of a lifetime and we were all set and in relatively high spirits to allow ourselves to get our Alby Mangels on!

The starting point - some small village - Bokeo Province - N 20'29", E 100' 45"

 

The village itself looked like the quintessential Lao style village, (really,like I'd know what a quintessential Lao village would actually look like), but OK, it looked like your typical South-East Asian village that you might recognise from one of your favourite National Geographic episodes, the one that you'd expect to find if you didn't actually go looking for it. Thatched palm roofs, wood huts, scattered livestock, kids running around and doing what they do best, chickens doing whatever the hell they do. So I'm guessing it was typically Lao, right!?Yeah it was,it was! That's my insightful assessment and I'm sticking to it.

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We formed ourselves into groups of eight for our walk into the jungle, not a bad number seeing as though our Australian adventure group already had 50% of the weighting of the required eightsome, and after a very quick meet and greet with our guides, Ja Lee and Ca Va, or however they were spelt, we headed intrepidly into the Laotian wilds and beyond.

The creek crossing into Wonderland - Bokeo Province - Northern Laos

Our group struck out across the flats pretty quickly, I think everyone was filled with a bit of excitement and was perhaps feeling a little cocky at the start of the walk, each person assured with their own ability and ready assumption that the walk wouldn't be too taxing and would be somewhat of a comfortable stroll, perhaps offering the odd challenging spot at times but nothing that couldn't be conquered with relative ease. To add, I don't think our guides gave us any other indication that day as to difficulty or specific duration other than the walk would be somewhere in the vicinity of three hours and to paraphrase Ja Lee on his own assessment of what was to come, 'We go up, then we go down, walk a little, then we go up and then down', sure, sounded relatively comfortable and the theory of the undulating walk and our plan of attack was reasonable, but this is where the bullshit of the guides started to be brought to the forefront of our minds and it didn't get any easier to deal with them over the course of the next few days.

Lunch stop day 1 - relatively early, and me looking kind of....well, you can make your own mind up

Lunch done and most of us feeling comfortable with proceedings thus far we struck out across the Lao countryside on what was a relatively warm day but nothing too excruciating or unbearable, but the perception that most of us had of the walk changed once we encountered the base of the first hill. For most people this was to be the end of any type of Sunday picnic type stroll that they may have envisaged before signing on. I have to say for me, it wasn't oppressive or completely above my comfort level, it was reasonable but much longer than I had anticipated when we kicked things off. Really, I don't quite know how many hills we covered that day but most of us were gassed after hill #1, more due to the cockiness factor than anything else. We did hit the climb at a fairly cracking pace soon realising however that tempo climbing as a slower pace was much better than the all out assault we attempted as our first strategical ploy. Looking back down the track  could see that Janelle, Jase and Audrey were already feeling the pinch and our guides weren't doing much to alleviate the situation either as they kept on moving at their own pace with their assured, 'We now go slowly'. They never did! Their slowly meant that they would be keeping to their own pace and schedule which in turn meant a hell of a struggle for the rest of the group.

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I'd say it was somewhere on the three hour mark that we reached the first stop for the day, a wonderfully cool and refreshing rock pool, with a half decent waterfall to boot. Just perfect for a group that had been slogging in the sun and were definitely feeling the effects of incessant heat. It was fantastic however to be able take some time out  from the walk and consciously realise both our situation and location. We, (I), were/was in a fantastically remote place in the middle of a Laotian jungle, swimming around in a rock pool and absorbing everything going on around me. For some reason I remember that specific moment as being kind of surreal or perhaps I was just very present at that point in  time as I recall making a mental note that I should try and remember as much of the time and space of that moment as possible.

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After soaking in the surroundings, admiring the views and generally just relaxing from a few hours of challenging hikinh , it was time to get up and get aerial. Now was the time to get our game face on and to go all Evil Freakin' Keneivel , zip time had just arrived on our doorstep and for me  this was an equivalent highlight to hanging out in the tree houses.

One of the tree houses at the Gibbon Experience

After climbing back up the hill a few mins that had led down to the rock pool we stopped off for a few moments and sorted out our harnesses for the first zip line attempt. Now this is where the questionable safety procedures and measures came into play as most people went about struggling into their harnesses without too much direction or advice from the zip line experts. I guess their take was, well, you'll swim if you need to prevent yourself from drowning . So we all did out best to harness up with minimal correction or direction from the guides. I'm sure it was at this point that many of us tried to think back to what felt like a 30 second infomercial at Gibbon headquarters regarding how to operate our zip line contraption, how we should break and what the hell we should do if we got caught mid line hanging upside down 50mtrs off the ground with only our safety line to keep us breathing and preventing a fall to a rather sudden stop.

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How did I feel? OK from memory. I'd been abseiling a few times before so the equipment I was familiar with. I won't say that the adrenalin wasn't firing around this little body because there certainly was a hell of a lot of that going on. I guess with bits of fear, some trepidation and much excitement we all tried to remember what little the guides told us, clipped in our safety lines first, then the zip trolleys and checked that our harnesses were good to go. Not sure who had the honour of jumping off first but from memory I took my turn just after Jase. Watching him take off I witnessed him flying into the distance and then waited for the all clear call online, and then, after what felt like an eternity, I took my own fateful few steps from the launch platform before the zip line took over the slack and I was elevated above the greenery. I was online! And the feeling? Well, it was insane! Launching into the ether, between mountain ridges, above the greenery of the forest canopy, some 50mtrs up  and moving at a speed anywhere between 50kms-70kms an hour was more than just  little exhilarating. Again, it was one of those moments where you needed to mentally check yourself and take a second to realise the situation or the adrenalin would just blur out the reality of the situation, which I think is what happened on the first zip anyway. Never the less, for the acrophobic, if indeed there were any, this was the type of overload you needed to get over your fear and with an hour or so more walking to go with a couple of more zips to our beds for the night, it was the perfect remedy to well and truly conquer that mental anguish.

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After what ended up being a relatively long day we finally made it to our lodging for the evening, and again, to call it a spectacular would have just be a gross understatement. Just to see this huge tree house built so far above the ground, protruding out of the forest canopy was a sight to behold, but I'll fill in more about that next blog entry.