..36.. treehouses & ziplines

unbeatable. certainly the highlight of the trip, the program we just did ( http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/activities/gibbon_trk.htm ) was three days of such adventure! first, we took a 4 hour busride from Huay Xai in Laos, near the border of Thailand, into the Bokeo National Reserve. we switched vehicles then, and the 9 of us partipants plus a handful of workers and tour guides piled, with luggage, into a truckbed and drove through a waist-deep river, and over beautiful steep roads through the jungle. when the road ended, we hiked for an hour or so further up into the jungle. we eventually arrived at a bamboo hut where we were outfitted with Petzl harnesses. climbing up a bit further, we came to the first zipline platform, which zipped about 100 meters across to a treehouse 120 feet off the jungle floor! it was such a rush to be careening through the jungle like that, and then crashing gently into the treehouse landing platform! i'm several years away from being ready to have kids, but i'll be ready anytime for a good excuse to build treehouses!!!! that day we explored the network 12 ziplines and 4 treehouses. the tiny local villages get paid to help build and maintain this network, and to prevent poachers from coming into the nature reserve.















as the sun went down, we were fed a tasty dinner of unidentifiable jungle vegetables and buffalo meat. then nish and i sat around egging each other on about how we were gonna go night zipping. and before we knew it, we were donning our harnesses, neither of us willing to admit our bluff. amy joined us, and the three of us zipped away through the night, flying up to 400 meters at a 5 percent pitch, crossing our fingers that our headlamps would illuminate the landing platform in time for us to brake. this must be the best thrill i've had in my life - when i got to the landing platforms, i was laughing so hard i couldn't stand up. so the three of us explored the night jungle in hysterics, and could hardly fall asleep at the end, we had so much adrenaline pulsing through our veins.




















the next day we hiked to a waterfall for a few hours, tearing off leeches that grabbed on in unfair places. after a picnic lunch, we headed back, and the guides decided to take us the creative way. we found ourselves bushwhacking through a creek lush with spikey plants and fallen trees. after an hour of that, we headed straight up a mud cliff, praying that our bamboo walking sticks wouldn't snap at the wrong time and let us slide back down to the bottom. this was easily the most hard-core trek i've done, and straight through the lao jungle no less! the cheerful group we were lucky enough to have made the whole experience at once a comedy and an adventure.

























day three found us up early, getting in our last zips before we had to hike back to the truck. this was such an amazing adventure, and leaving was sad. i would love to go back and volunteer for them, building treehouses and making trails through the jungle. though they only started a year ago, this program is so well run. at the end of the program, we headed across the border, back into thailand. even after a full 3 weeks in northern laos, it was very sad to leave. and definitely the place i'll come back to first.