Hello!!

We have just spent a few days in Luang Prabang and we are now in Vang Vieng where we will be going tubing tomorrow!!

The Gibbon experience:

We headed to Houayxai in Northwest Laos close to the Bokeo Nature Reserve where the experience is located. Our group consisted of 10 people (Dutch, German, Ukrainian and Swiss). Before departing, we were shown a safety video that had hilarious voiceovers! We headed off in a jeep - all of packed into the back - on an uncomfortable ride to the jungle. The journey took us through a river and then onto a dirt track that went on for ages. We went up and down lots of hills and over many holes, with all of us in the jeep bouncing up and down all the way. This journey would be impossible in rainy season!

We eventually arrived at the jungle side village where we met the previous group who had done the experience - they hadn't seen any gibbons so we weren't holding out much luck. We were each given a delicious chicken baguette and then set off on the trek into the rainforest.

The heat was blazing down on us making the walk even tougher. We walked alongside rice paddies and farms before we met the edge of the jungle. We were glad to find shade in the rainforest. I struggled with the walking as there were so many steps - it literally was an uphill struggle! The heat affected both of us as it was so humid.

Eventually, we made it to the kitchen area where we had some water and received our harnesses. Our group divided into two where we were to share tree house three with 2 Ukrainians. They were both really lovely, although "Thordiur" (something like that) couldn't speak English! Natalia Proved to be the best gibbon experience companion by making us tea all the time! We crossed a few zip wires enroute to our tree house and they were great!! The views you get from them are amazing, spanning over the vast jungle! I was anxious at first, not believing that the harness would hold me!

Our tree house was incredible! It had a shower, loo, table, seats, hammocks and even a kitchen sink!! Oh and a cat! We thought it was a novelty but later found out that the cat was there to solve a snake problem! The food in the tree house attracted mice which then attracted snakes so the cat was to kill the mice. However, the cat was tiny so we think that a snake could probably eat the cat! But, we were glad to know that the snakes were not there!! The views from the tree house looked over a huge expanse of the jungle. It was panoramic.

Before dinner (rice, meat (hopefully not gibbon!) and veg) Jonny and Thordiur found the long zip lines and enjoyed playing on those! We were given free time to explore the jungle by ourselves. The noises of the jungle - crickets, birds, gibbons?! And a few growls! - made sleeping at night very hard! I was worried that a gibbon would jump into our tree house or a spider would be in the bed!

In the morning we were awoken by an excited guide saying "gibbon, gibbon, gibbon!" We got ready in 10 minutes and eagerly followed him into the jungle in search of the rare black crested gibbon! And WE SAW GIBBONS!!! We were not close enough to take pictures but we could see them swinging from tree to tree and hear them. Apparently we were lucky to see them as many groups miss out. It was incredible to see them in the wild - if only for 10 minutes!

After breakfast, we headed out for a day of trekking and ziplining. We were like gibbons! Jonny absolutely loved it!! I gradually overcame my wimpishness and loved it too! One of our favourite lines was from tree house 5, where you had to sit on a ledge about 100ft of the ground! EEK! Was exhilarating.

I had a problem with the brakes and kind of smacked into a tree! On some of the lines you stopped short of the end so you had to pull yourselves in which was difficult with my weak arms! Luckily, the guides were there to help! We spent the day zip lining which was so good - Jonny was daring enough to take photos and videos while flying along. (Hopefully these will be uploaded!) The longest wire was about 500 metres long and the speeds you could get up to were fast!

We had dinner and watched the sunset. Just as we were going to bed, Natalia and Thordiur decided to use their torch to search the roof of our tree house for spiders! They found a few MASSIVE ones which they showed Jonny. I didn't want to see but Jonny made me so consequently I did not sleep that night! Also, the noise of bats in our roof scared me even more! The thought of a spider falling on me is just gross especially when they are the size of Jonny's hand!

We were not woken up early in the morning as the gibbons could not be located because they were not making any noises. We packed up and headed through the mist to tree house one to meet the rest of the group. Ziplining in the mist was awesome if somewhat scary! You couldn't see anything not even the nearest tree! Jonny got a great video! The mist made us all wet though!

We had an hour to play around before we left the jungle, so Jonny and I went out to do the nearest loop. Jonny wanted to spend another day flying through the trees and would very much suit the life of a gibbon! I enjoyed it immensely but was 'itching' to get away from all the bugs! I had been bitten so much!

Before I end this blog, I just want to say a bit about the toilet and our toilet habits as we got close to nature. The loo in the tree house was of squat style where a hole led to an open drop to the jungle floor! A few times we were caught short so had to do sneaky toilet stops in the rainforest. Jonny thought that his deposit might be mistaken for that of a monkey!

Sorry if the last bit was a bit gross but I thought it was funny to add!

Luang Prabang:

We caught the speed boat from Houayxai down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. We had planned on using the slow boat but we didn't have time, but the speed boat provided us with plenty of opportunities to see the surroundings. The speedboat is said to be a dangerous way of going down the river but we had life jackets and helmets. The speed of the boat was fast which was a little frightening. The journey went by quickly and we got to see a beautiful sunset at the end. Enroute, a suspicious package was uploaded onto the boat and placed in front of me. When it started to move I was very alarmed! At first I thought it was a pig and then a snake and then a fish - it turned out to be a turtle! Needless to say I kept an eye on the bag all the way!

We spent a few relaxing days in Luang Prabang. The action packed days of kayaking, trekking and ziplining tired us out so we lounged in some cafes and toured a few temples. One temple was so pretty - it had mirrored multicoloured tiled mosaics on the exterior and interior.

We walked around the night market which was fantastic - stalls upon stalls of scarves, clothes, jewelry, linen and ornaments! Jonny and I happened to buy lots - oops! We then found the night food market where we sampled some bacon and chicken kebabs which were amazing!! And we treated ourselves to some cake - I had apple cake but not as good as Dorset apple cake though! The sandwiches here are delicious - French inspired as they are in baguettes! YUMMY!

Hope you are all well

Love Kirsty and Jonny xx