So the beginning of our journey to huay xai was horrendous..I'm pretty sure that journey shouldn't even be legal. The big bus was off roading like a Jeep would. The amount of times we cringed hearing the bus make awkward noises hitting the ground..about 4 hours into this off roading journey we began to fear the worst that the whole 13 hours would be like this. There was no hope of sleep as it was mainly clinging onto your chair to prevent falling off, however after 4-5 hours we reached normal roads an managed to nod off.
Huay xai is not a touristy area at all infact we're rare here- quite refreshing. Saying that there also means there's not a lot to do. Checked into a local guest house for £6 and booked into the gibbons experience. Time to charge everything up in preparation for the jungle.
We went to the office to check in and then got driven into the middle. Of. Nowhere by a jeep..
We jumped out the car and he informed us it's a 3 hour uphill hike to the treehouse. Mart informed me he likes it when we do stuff like this as it always makes me so happy apparently trekking with a backpack on and a bandana is what I do best!
Now I know we haven't been exercising much but hiking I've always been ok with, the recent sapa trip was a doddle. Today I felt like I nearly died!!!
Even mart said he's never seen me struggle so much I really don't know what it was! It was so so hard a million degrees plus humidity in the jungle at a steep incline. Mart also informed me he'd never seen me sweat so much- literally coming off me like a river! Bandana was soaked! The initial hike was in 3 stages with 3 rest stops and boy did I need those! I don't think it helped that the 3 other people we are with are some sort of fitness freaks so went steaming ahead - I certainly felt how short my legs are compared to 3 very tall men!
Then the zip wiring started. Now a normal brain may tell you to be scared, we're really high up, there's no safety nets, no one checking your wires, we only watched a short video instructing us.. I don't know if it's the travelling or the fact we've done some crazy stuff but hesitation didn't cross either or our minds. We hooked on ran and jumped..it's so hard to explain what you see. Flying across the top of the jungle canopy at great speed with the most spectacular views. Only once did the thought wow if I fell it would be certain death came across my mind. But other than that it was just sheer pleasure. It was extremely hard to take photos and videos one handed trying to navigate not spinning around but managed to get a fair few. Due to the one handedness I often didn't reach the very end of the wire (there quite long) and had to turn around and pull myself along (poor weedy arms). We went ziplining across the jungle and got the hang of it very fast..eventually we zip wired into our tree house which was epic! It literally is a wooden tree house with a bathroom on one floor beds and a sink and small table on the next and a top deck with more beds. It's in the most ridiculously high tree and the most stunning view of the jungle canopy below I ever could of imagined. Another tick off the bucket list I may add- stay in a tree house.
We restocked on water an tea and water Melon and rested a while. Poor mart I sent him back down the zipline so it could get a photo of the tree house he had to pull himself all the way back! Some more zip lining and we headed back to the tree house (you can only access it by zipping in) 2 women appeared from no where and brought us delicious food and made our beds with Mosquitos nets in.
I had a shower which was really needed. So bizarre your completely open to the jungle with a curtain behind you but if you look down into the slats of wood you can just see the cascade of water falling towards the ground. So high up! Watched the sun set over the jungle and then the guides left so we we're just alone in our tree house in the dark! Made sure all the stuff was washed up and out away so the jungle rats don't find anything. Then it was a short game of cards with the French and the Spanish guys (they drank a bottle of whiskey) and we hit the hay! Up at 6am for more zip lining through the jungle. Sleeping was pretty weird- there sure are some strange sounds when your in a tree house with no walls in the middle of the jungle overall a comfortable nights sleep once you lay still enough to be kind of cool as the mosquito net made it into abit of an oven.
Woke bright and early to some fruit and watched the sunrise over the jungle we then went straight into some morning zip lining. I must of been half asleep because id finally figured out how to go faster and forgot to break and went smack into a tree! We then went back for breakfast and packed our things up into our backpacks strapped on and zoooom we we're away! Went to see a new tree house their building - a French man has lived up there 3 months building it.
We then saw the biggest tree in Laos which was right by our treehouse..full of bee hives! Which is why it took me about 20 minutes to have a wee in the morning as I was dodging the bees. After all this it was time to start our decent which meant new zip lines down! Honestly one of the best experiences we've ever had! It's so high up an you go so fast! We'd all gotten pretty good at it towards the end. Even on the decent we we're all ridiculously sweaty. Half way through some of the ziplines I definitely had to pinch myself just to realise what we we're actually doing!
Eventually we arrived at a small straw hut where we had lunch with chickens pecking at our feet. Quick refreshing dip in the lake nearby and the jeep brought us back to huay xai. A much needed shower and we went and had a few drinks and some food before calling it a day - so tired!! Pretending to be a monkey is hard work! Got our things in order ready to leave for the airport tomorrow to take us to Vientiane!