Ziplines & General Monkey Business

Houay Xai

We managed to get across the Thai/Laos border without much fan fare, just the usual falang (foreigner) prices applying!
Houay Xai is a sleepy small town, well really it just had one street, so it is a town in the loosest of terms. We were staying here as we were heading off the much anticipated Gibbon Experience!

Gibbon Experience

The idea of the Gibbon experience is an all adventure 3 days and two nights of trekking, staying in tree houses, zipping across the tree canopies on cables and as the name suggests Gibbon Monkey spotting. We managed about 2 and a half of these and had a lot of Leeches thrown in for good measure. The trekking was pretty strenuous in the heat and humidity, the zip lining was lots of fun, queue some Attenborough worthy jungle shots. Some bad luck and bad breaking skills led Emilia to jar her leg on the first day while zip lining into a tree house. The guides version of medical assistance was to create a stick out of bamboo, then proceed to trek for a further 3 hours.
All in all, it was good fun but we still carry the scars from the experience with some leech bites and Emilia still a cripple! We also failed in the main aim and didn’t see any gibbons!!

Ziplines & General Monkey Business

Houay Ne, Laos