The Gibbon Experience - Bokeo Jungle, Laos

The Gibbon Experience

swinging like a beautiful gibbon

ants climbing like an upright stream

flying like a powerful eagle

snakes slithering like undercover agents

squating on the toilet like a bullfrog

tree houses as high as the heavens

- Emma

The only way in or out of our treehouse. The leaves you see below are the tops of high trees. We literally could not see the jungle floor. Each morning before we had even had breakfast, Emma would put on her harness and have a few ziplines back and forth from this spot. At the other end, which was perhaps 100m away, she would have to unhook herself, walk about 20 meters and reattach herself. True freedom for a kid, true nail-biting for a parent! 

Born in the year of the monkey! No surprise there. 

The most incredible moment of my Gibbon Experience was waking at dawn to hear the gibbons singing very close to our tree house. The early morning peace and beauty of mist covered hills, was in contrast, yet complemented by the echos of this primitive choir reveberating throughout the jungle. Keith and I both stirred from our sleep at the same time, sat up, then peered out from under our mosquito tent, which was now a creamy peach colour from the glow which preceded the sun's slow caress of this amazingly magical place on our Earth.

Truly unforgettable!  - Steve

Emma is the lump under the covers. Keith is slightly reluctant to have his photo taken before the sun has even broken the horizon. 

Living in the Canopy

While living in a tree house is a childhood fantasy realized, my dreams never quite captured the vertigo inducing heights that accompany living in a tree and zip-lining through the forest. The guides instruct you on how to attach yourself to the wire, then you are on your own.  Don't look for helmets... this is Laos, besides you would not survive the fall from this height.  I feel my heart race and my breathing constrict every time she attaches herself to a zip line and plunges off the ledge only to soar hundreds of meters above the jungle floor.  Each time I have to overcome a strong primal protective urge of which she is oblivious to.  She smiles with delight and I consciously let myself relax.  Each morning I have to reacclimatize myself before I leap from the safety of our perch to fly amongst the treetops and over steep forest valleys.  

The sound of the zipline, plus a slight swaying of the tree, dozens of meters above the ground, tells us that our meal has arrived even before we see our Laos guide who delivers it. As the bathroom floor is nothing but slats, Steve drops our only small bar of soap, and it is gone. Whether showering in the open air, or squatting on the toilet, the view is breath-taking. 

Our neighbours are birds, ants, spiders, tree rats (mostly heard at night), gibbons, deer, and snakes, especially Red Tailed Racers (poorly named as they were mostly green), 2m long snakes that would slither out of the nearby tree for sun and migrate back into a crevace at sunset. Like all good neighbours, they kept to themselves.

- Keith