The Gibbon Experience / Luang Namtha

Remember that childhood dream you used to have when you could live in a tree house and fly from tree to tree? Well I just came about as close to living that dream as I believe is humanly possible. In Huay Xuay (where I left you last) there is an organized trip called the Gibbon Experience where they take you into the jungle where you trek around, zip line around, and stay in tree houses for the night. To say the least it was amazing (thanks Andrew!).

I could go into a day by day account but really it's the pictures that will do the most justice. Over all the experience was really fun, except for the giant spiders the size of my fist that came out at night and the leech infested jungle we had to hike through (I guess it makes for a better story though).

Our tree house for the first night

A typical meal we had delivered to the tree house by zip line. Tea, cabbage, chicken, cucumbers, eggplant, and of course a mound of sticky rice.

Me on one of the many zip lines, I think there were about 15 all together

Our guides hanging out at one of the tree houses

Our tree house for the second night

Our group for the trip: 3 Americans, 1 Australian, 3 Canadians, 1 Englishman, and 2 Laosian guides (all male except for little old me)

After the Gibbon Experience I headed North to Luang Namtha with one of the guys from the group, Leroy while Reid and Jason took off for Vietnam. Our first day there we went on an all day tour with a local guide. We first did a jungle trek (can't get enough of those in SE Asia) with a guide from the nearby village. It was really interesting because he would show us all the edible things in the jungle which we also got to try. After the trek we went to a few villages in the area where we got to see how most Laosians live their day to day lives (80% of Laos' population lives outside of the cities).

Our lunch on the trek surved on banana leaves. We had local cusine which included bamboo, pork laap (Laos dish which I guess is comparable to a meat salad), larva, various greens and of course the token sticky rice.

Our guide and his village

Making lao lao (the local whiskey) in one of the villages. It basically tastes like a very strong sake and you apparently don't need to be of drinking age to bottle it....

Woman at one of the villages harvesting ginger

The next day I spent with my friend Niamh and an Irish couple we met. Niamh is the friend I met on the slow boat and she came up to meet me for another day of traveling. So something I should mention about Niamh. She has been traveling for about 7 months now and spent the last 3 of them on a motorcylce she bought in Vietnam. So for our day in Luang Namtha I hopped on the back of her bike and drove about an hour north to a town called Muang Sing. Muang Sing is known for being a hub to go visit various villages of different Laocian tribes. The drive up was beautiful and fun on a motorcycle (don't worry Mom I wore a helmet). After lunch in Muang Sing we got directions to a Katang village, a tribe known for their headresses and needlework. After another beautiful drive we arrived at the village.

Me and Niamh on her bike

The road out to the village
Arriving at the village

Niamh shrouded in the crafts the villagers were selling us

What we drove up to was a small village of bamboo houses on stilts with the usual live stalk running wild through its dirt walkways. We would say hello to people as we slowly walked through and they returned the greeting with a smile and then a curious stare. Once the villagers caught onto our presence we were offered some food by one of the women (we were told this is a typical gesture for visitors). At this point we were surrounded by half the village (about 30 people) trying to sell the few crafts they had. This was all done in a friendly fashion and not in a pushy way by any means. We observed, even bought a few things, took pictures and laughed with them at our interesting way of communicating (mainly hand gestures because even with a Laos phrasebook it was hard for them to understand us). The exchange was friendly and unreal at the same time. I hate to be cliche but it was like something out of National Geographic. When we left we were chased by a group young boys waving and laughing. It was a very unique experience to anything I've had and was a nice way to end my travels in Laos. Next stop Vietnam....

One of the boys running after our bike as we left