Gibbons on Acid

I left Chiang Mai on the 22nd Aug. The day before I had lazed around the city wandering through local markets and bookshops, stopping off every so often for a coffee or a banana shake. Chilled isn’t the word!

The journey to Chiang Kong, on the Laos border, was 6 hours but regular stops meant it was painless enough. I got talking to a Thai lad who was an assistant architect in one of the northern towns. He didn’t like it much but had to support his mother and sister so he was glad to have a job. I gave him one of my cream jam biscuits.

I stayed the night in Chiang Kong in the Bamboo hut guesthouse in a small ‘rustic’ attic room. The place had a very eccentric owner with a wife who makes the most delicious whole meal bread I have ever tasted. The Mekong river ran right past the guesthouse so I spent about two hours just watching it. It only takes 5 minutes to cross it but the sheer volume of water is impressive…it looks for all the world like brown liquid lava…it exudes a brute force.

Early the next morning I went through customs and arrived in Huay Xai, Laos (after paying a dodgy 100 baht photocopy charge on the Thai side). Got mesell signed into the Subaidee hotel (Hello hotel) and went to sign up for the Gibbon experience. The girl in the office was decidedly unhelpful and pointed to the brochure if I asked any questions. A bit of a mystery tour then!

7am the next morning I met all my fellow Gibbon chasers -2 Israelis, 3 Parisians, 2 Canadians, 5 English agus me fein! After an instruction video, a two hour drive and a 4 hour walk; we got to the START of the hike! The weather meant that we would be hiking 6-7 hours. It was muddy and steep and leech infested…deadly stuff! After reaching ‘base camp’ we had to decide on who would go into the separate tree houses. I was to share with the 3 French girls. They seemed nice enough but there English was only so-so. Well, my French is fairly non-existant! (Where is Paddy Clarke when you need him!).

So we got on our harnesses and set out for Tree house three (everybody pissed themselves laughing when I said this). Our Tree house was an hour away – zipping and walking so it was after 6pm when we arrived. The tree house was deadly and stuck out over the jungle canopy giving great views. It would all be worth it, tomorrow…hunger and tireness dulled our senses.

At dinner (which arrived in stacked tins) I talked a bit to the French girls about France and Europe and the nature around us. Sometimes we struggled with understanding but we laughed instead of getting frustrated. We retired under of mossie blankets around 9pm.

What happened next is a story I’ll tell ye fully over a pint but in short...

One of the French girls headlamp blowup and leaked acid into her eye which swelled up like a balloon, and caused surface damage to her eye. Being isolated in the jungle with three scared and one injured girl was an unforgettable experience. But we got through it and next morning the guide arrived at 6.20am. It took me 20 minutes to explain that the girls needed to get out of the jungle to seek medical advice. All the guides are Laos are currently in the process of learning English; most are between 18-20. The girls left to face a 7 hours trek out. I wished them ‘Bonne Chance’. I am still waiting on an email to find out how they got on. I zipped over to Tree house one to join the others and to relay the story.

The rest of the day was spent hiking, zipping and looking for Gibbons. I saw one in the distance but some saw a family up close. 8 of us were staying in Treehouse 5 that night and arrived just before the heavens opened. We zipped a little in the evening but mostly made tea and coffee, ate and chatted. There were no shortage of stories and the odd shot of Lao Lao (local paint stripper) was had. No exploding headlamps that night.

Day 3 we had to trek back out…and it was still raining. The mud track had become streams and the streams had become rivers. The leeches owned the jungle. It was hardcore but everyone dug in and maintained high spirits…looking back it was the best trekking I have ever done. We trekked for 8 hours and the relief of seeing a road, and a shop, and a jeep was indescribable.

Later we all checked into the same hotel; I was sharing with Keith (who had left his girlfriend behind in Luang Prabang), and we all went to an internet café to share photos/videos and then had an Indian and a few shots of Johnny Walker. Nice fun folks…although the Aussie guy was a nutter…he is the lad holding the bottle of Johnnie Walker in the picture. The most common question he gets asked is ‘How are you not dead?’.

Next day I had planned to get the slow boat but Keith needed to get back to his missus ASAP and another English lad Brad wanted to get to Luang Prabang quickly so we got the speedboat, which takes 6 hours; not 2 days like the slowboat. In the Lonely Planet it says ‘…you do this a your own risk…’. We have just been in the jungle for 3 days, bring it on! (Oh ya, could I have a helmet and lifejacket please).

Have to go…Tubing down the river in Vang Vieng today. Will update blog again in Vientiane.

Home in 20 days and counting…
Mike.

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
Jean Paul Richter