From Vang Vieng we had to travel up to Huay Xai as we had booked on to the gibbon experience. We decided to take a minibus back to Luang Prabang; the roads were very windy and the driver had his foot to the floor the whole way, needless to say we all felt a bit sick after a few hours. We stayed for a night in Luang Prabang and then got the slow boat up the Mekong river.

The boat takes two days to reach Huay Xai but it is a much better way to travel than taking the 17hour bus. We got on the boat at 8AM and set off sinking in to the comfortable seats and had a nap. The boats are long wood and metal vessels and have minibus seats inside which recline. This route was not so busy as most people come down from Huay Xai so we had two seats each. As the boat wound up the Mekong we experienced the true beauty of Laos. The river weaves through the mountains which are covered in lush green jungle, every now and then it pulls in to let a local person get off at their little village with supplies from the town. It's like stepping back in time on the river as you see local men fishing for their lunch and kids playing in the water. The river is lined with huge rocks, some protruding out from the water, it's a bit Jurassic park-esque.

The boat stops at the small town of Pak Beng for the night, its a very small traditional Laos village which has only been connected to the electrical grid for a couple of years. We found a cheap guesthouse and headed to the Indian restaraunt as it was the only one on Trip Advisor, it was rather disappointing. After a good sleep we were back on the boat for the second leg of the journey.

We arrived in Huay Xai that evening and had some dinner at a local restaraunt set up by the tribal women, they make a great salad. The following day we caught up with our admin (uploading photos and blogs) and checked in for the gibbon experience.

We returned to the Gibbon office the next morning for our briefing video and then jumped in the back of pick up trucks for the two hour journey into the jungle. After an hour and a half on the tarmac roads we drove through a river and up through the mountains on a bumpy dirt track. We stopped at a rural village where we left the trucks and started our hike in to the jungle. We were teamed up with two guys who live in Manchester who made our group up to six. We trekked into the jungle for a couple of hours and stopped at a kitchen hut and got our harnesses. After a short walk we got to the first zipline, the guide went over what we had to do and disappeared along the zip line and said he would see us on the otherside. This was a bit worrying as we were now on our own. Kate plucked up the courage and volunteered to go first and Pete waited till last; he was a bit worried as he doesn't like heights and he continuously checked his harness and safety line. We all zipped out high above the tree canopy it was amazing as your so high up, it was such an adrenaline rush! We then walked up to the next zip line. Pete went second this time but didn't have enough speed to ge all the way over. His arms tired quickly having to pull himself in and the guide had to help him out, he really didn't like dangling hundreds of feet above the ground but after a couple more lines got the nack and loved it. We made it to our first tree house, you enter by ziplining a few hundred metres and arrive at a platform just underneath. This tree house was the highest perched 35 metres above the ground. The view was amazing, it had two floors, a toilet and shower and running water. There were two other ziplines in the main living area, one to exit and a second entry line from the kitchen. The infrastructue was amazing, each tree house has a kitchen close by were someone cooks and the guide sleeps, when it comes to dinner time they zipline in with a tiffin full of hot food and rice. They then zipline in with a kettle of boiling water for tea and coffee. The guide told us a route we could take which created a small loop back to the tree houses. Our guide disappeared to help with diner so again we were left to our own devices zip lining through the jungle (you could never imagine being able to do this in the UK with health and safety laws, zip lining without supervision!).

That evening we all sat and played Uno and had the one beer that we were provided with. We went to bed under our mozzi nets and laid listening to scratching from underneath ( still not sure what it was) and the noises of the jungle. No one had a great nights sleep but it was great fun.

The following morning our guide ziplined in at 5.30 and took us out to find the gibbons. We ziplined out of the tree house in the dark and headed to where he thought they might be ziplining and trekking across the jungle. It's an amazing feeling flying through the air a hundred metres up and up to 500 metres across. After an hour we heard the gibbons singing and worked our way deeper into the jungle, we all stopped and waited in silence trying to spot them and then they started swinging through the trees, each one stopping to look at us. There were 6 in total, some black and some brown and one with a baby. It was amazing seeing them swing from tree to tree and we were very lucky as not many people see them.

We headed back to our treehouse where our breakfast had just been ziplined in. We ate up and packed our stuff ready to trek to our next treehouse for the second night. This trek was a bit tougher with lots of uphill stretches but we made it to the waterfall by lunch. There was a big beautiful pool at the bottom, we all jumped in to the freezing water and cooled off after the long trek, there was even a zipline into the pool which we zipped down dropping into the middle. That afternoon after some lunch we headed to our second treehouse, we zipped in and were welcomed by a cat, the staff take him there to keep the rats out. It was great as we could zipline around as much as we wanted in our spare time so we headed out on the lines. Our tree house had an amazing view over the valley and in one of our photos you can see Pete ziplining across, he put a pink cape on so you could spot him in one of the pictures.

Again this tree house had a bathroom with a view, it's all open (apart from a curtain to keep you hidden from others in the tree house). It makes you feel at one with nature! That night we had another round of Uno, but had an early night as we were all pretty exhausted. Unfortunately when Steve and Clive went to go to bed they noticed the cat had done its business on their bed....urgh! But luckily there was a spare! We felt a bit sorry for the cat as its just stranded in the tree house with no toilet provided. However it is there for a purpose....to ward off the rats so we were kind of grateful!

After a much better nights sleep we had breakfast and headed back to the village, the walk wasn't to bad although we had to go through a few rivers which meant taking your shoes off and on. We finally made it back to the village and got in the back of the pick up trucks and headed back.

By far the best thing we have done since we have been away. The zip lining was amazing your so high up, you just feel like your flying through the air! We would do it again in a heartbeat!