Wow, haven't posted in ten days. So to answer the question that is on all of your minds, 'Yes, I am alive'. I know, you were all in unbelievable suspense.
So I've done a bit of traveling since last I wrote, but I promised myself I'd only post if I had something really cool to talk about. So here I am. Well, that and I haven't had internet for a week!
After the cooking class, I hopped on a bus for the town of Pai. Spent a few days there, wasn't overly impressed and decided to head back to Chiang Mai. While surfing Lonely Planet's travel forum (thorntree.lonelyplanet.com), I had heard about 'The Gibbon Experience'. I was mildly intrigued. Hmm, gibbons...similar to monkeys (except that they are apes)...I like monkeys, gibbons, etc. Hmm...
So I made some calls, booked some tickets and boom...I'm in a small town on the border of Thailand and Laos, but in Laos. For those keeping track on your maps at home, Huey Xia (pronounced like Way Sigh) is in the northwest corner along the Mekong River. Nice small town. Not many tourists stop hear as they normally just come to this town and hop onto a boat to go downriver. So not many tourists. My favorite part of the town was watching the monks coming around in the morning. They have bowls and the local women (and 1 man) would kneel waiting for them. The monks would walk past and receive donations of food. They would then line up and chant a blessing. Very cool.
Also met a couple that have spent the last 3 years biking around the world. They got tired of it, so bought a Tuk-Tuk. Kinda like an oversized golf cart. Now they're driving around the world in their tuk-tuk. Very cool. I'd recommend their website, except it's in german!
So the 7 other travelers and I hoped onto the back of the truck and headed out for the Gibbon Experience. After three hours down dusty and bumpy roads (remember, we're on benches in the back of an open air pick-up truck!) we arrived at a small tribal village. As we waited for our guides, the local population came out to check us out. It was nice knowing that if they had cameras, they would have probably taken pictures of us!
We trekked into the rainforest for about an hour till we reached the first zipline. We all saw the zipline and got excited. We got more excited once we saw that was the only way to get to the treehouse that we'd be staying in for the next 2 nights. So we'd harness up, and zip on over to the completely amazing treehouse. Now, when I think of treehouses, I either think of really lame platforms (that were incredibly cool when you're 8), or you think of the treehouse from 'Swiss Family Robinson' (if you haven't seen it...go out right now and get it...'after me...after me' hehehehe). This wasn't quite Swiss Family Robinson, but it was damn close!
The house had 4 different floors and could house about 7-8 people. There was a common space, and they piped up water from a nearby spring. The food was all cooked by local tribal men and brought over by zipline! You'd hear the sound of the zip line and hope it was dinner.
So we dropped our bags and get ready to see the rest of the forest. Oh, at this point, we actually met the true owner of the place, Willie. Willie is a 5 month old gibbon. Willie's parents were hunted and shot, and then Willie was sold to a guy that basically used him to try and get money on the streets. He was locked in a cage and miserable. Geoff, the owner of Gibbon Experience, saw him and 'bought' him. Now, Willie gets to hang out with the guests and swing around free in the jungle. The hope is that Willie will eventually join the local families of gibbons, but that is still just a hope. Willie is a bit of a pet, so I'm afraid of what will happen when he's a bit older and more aggressive. Till then, he's awfully damn cute, especially when he falls asleep in your lap. It's amazing how human like a gibbon can be. It was like having a 2 year old running around, trying to grab everything and eat everything. 'Willlie...no....bad willie!"
So after that, we wandered off to explore the other ziplines. There were 3 main ziplines and then you had to hike back about 15 minutes. There are three treehouses, only two of which are done. Each of these has a zip to and from the treehouse. So in total, there were a total of 9 ziplines. They're adding one more right now, and there are plans for quite a few more. The largest zipline is about 280 meters and is over a hundred feet from the jungle floor.
Guess the nice part of the whole experience is knowing that the owner of the program has a 15 year stewardship of the land. The Laos government has given him the right to protect the land and to work with the local tribes in creating better farming practices and such. All the wood used is locally harvested. All of the construction workers are local Lao men. And most importantly, the profits go towards protecting the rain forest, and towards the Laos villages in the area. Not bad.
The second night, I braved a night zip. Basically said goodbye to the light and headed out. I used my head lamp during the first zip. During the second, I turned it off. Let me tell you, even though I knew there were no trees in the way, and I knew that I wouldn't hit the tree on the other end (you had to pull yourself the last 10-20 feet), it still scared me. It was awesome though. Just hanging there, complete darkness beneath you, and stars above you. It almost...just almost made me feel like I was weightless in space. If it were for the climbing harness digging into my nether regions, then it would have totally felt that way.
So why is it called the Gibbon Experience? Well, there are 7 families of Gibbons in this part of the rainforest. Unfortunatly, we didn't see any of them. We did wake up to hear their songs and tried to find them. Alas, they were too far away.
So needless to say, this experience was awesome. I talked with the owner about possibly doing some volunteer work in a month or two. So we'll see about that.
That ended on Wednesday. I'll send out another journal to talk about Thursday and Friday.
As for me. I've been ok. I was pretty down for a while in Chiang Mai and in Pai. The opportunity to hop on over to Laos sparked my interest and completely changed my plans. I'm feeling so much happier and more energized about traveling now.
So an observation in regards to travelers. Well, this was a conversation I've had with a few people recently. I have yet to meet an American backpacker that didn't vote democrat in the last two elections. Not one. From the people that I've gotten into politcal conversations, they have stated the same thing. It's something that I'm going to have to keep my ears out for.
Well, that's all for this journal. I'd write more, but I have to jump in the shower and then meet some people for dinner.
Enjoy the pics!
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