It was time for us to go to our last destination in Laos (pff time flies!). To get to Houay Xai had to make use of another way of transport; The slowboat. 2 long days it was, but that is no surprise when you are on a slowboat. We went over the Mekong River and the views were incredible. The boat, on the other hand, was not quite what we expected. Quite simply described: It was a wooden boat without benches, but they had it solved very provisionally. they've just put some car seats everywhere in stead...
We just adjusted our expectations again, we've learned that by now.
The stop in between the two days was in Pakbeng, which on arrival went very smoothly. Immediately we got the key in your hands and got to your room without filling out the hassle of forms, checking passports etc. These people just get it. We had a very good night sleep as well! Just a cold shower that's all.
The next day we arrived in Houay Xai, and from here it would really happen! After 2 nights, preparing ourselves physically and mentally for our adventure in the jungle. The gibbon experience offers multiple trekkings and the girls (of course) had chosen for the hardest of all!
At 8 o'clock we filled our small bags with cool and warm clothes and technical gadgets to capture everything as good as possible.
During the briefing there was a couple next to us; A mother and daughter. They were nervous! Nik made the joke; "Those will be our new Jungle friends!" And yes, from the departure point there was a group of a total of 11 people. This group had to be split into 2... and there they were! Our 3 new girlfriends. Exactly we had 2 old women and a daughter in our group. This would be 3 days partying... The other group, with 6 young girls, went up the other way... Byeeeee!
It is impossible for us to describe these 3 days in detail but we will try to get the highlights out for you.
These 3 days involved a lot of walking, climbing until the sweat is spraying out of all the body parts, but of course there were also the zip lines through the jungle! IT WAS F*%$^ GREAT! For these days, we have focused our thoughts on the basic things in life, being one with nature, flying over the jungle and enjoying not worrying about anything else.
Our first treehouse had a great view. The best view was found in the bathroom... Yes, while enjoying the surroundings you could have a nice cold shower ;-)
The guides went back and forth by zipline to the kitchen and suddenly our dinner was ready. Together with our party animals we sat down to eat rice. These days, we have had a large amount of rice we can tell you.
In the morning: Rice
Afternoon: Rice
But what will be on the menu in the evening? Rice!
At 19:00 it was really time to go to bed. Because, what can you do in a tree house? No tv, no wifi, almost no light, cold, no nice drink, but above all very quiet group members. The deck of cards stayed in our bag.
No... we thought about the reasons why there is no possibility of buying a beer for the evening in this beautiful treehouse. It is after all a unique place!
But then we thought about people starting ziplining from the treehouse... And then forget to fix the hook? Super funny of course at the moment, but the consequences are very big we think.
The night was still unsettled. We were certainly prepared for sounds of animals... But.... If you suddenly hear a snout next to your ear and you realize that you are between the rats, you start to get a bit nervous.
Nikki regularly gave a shovel with her legs to chase those dirty beasts away. Oh... it will be alright. Finally, we had all our stuff brought in our tent/mosquito net. Except our shoes and socks. They could use a fresh air...
If our equipment survived this night you will read in our next blog! And somewhere next week we might have a new movie of our gibbon adventure!! We are just excited as you are.
Hope you enjoyed another one of our stories fellow steemians! Have a great weekend.