Home » Laos » Jungle VIP's

We meet up at 6am to go get tickets for the bus at 9.30, for Ban Don Chai, a tiny village that acts as the jumping off point for the Gibbons experience. While me and Jim are waiting for the ticket booth to open we're joined by Graham and Rob who are also on the same Gibbons. They manage to squeeze to the front while me and Jim are squeezed back by a determined 5 foot old lady and a monk. 7 tickets bought and Rob, Graham and Hanah disappear off to the bank - open on Sundays in Laos, but you have to wait for the branch in the capital to turn their machines on 600km away.

Jungle VIP's

Gareth Penpraze
2007-04-21 20:32:45

Displayed times (last time: )

45 minutes hauling themselves to the top!! We spend the rest of the day zipping around the jungle with the most memorabe
part being Rob's superman!! We put an extra harness on him and turn them backwards so he'd be hanging looking at the jungle floor!! We send him out over the jungle with a good push (not needed). We usualy never made it to the next platform but travelling like a dart through the jungle you do pick up speed. Just as well Andrew was there the other side to stop him as he would have been through the tree. Andrew nearly fell off the next platform trying to stop him and sprained his ankle for good measure. After lunch we go to play with the Jack and Sungsee but to our surprise there's a 1.2m tall bear also wanting to play. We are all at a reasonable safe distance until Sian zips in to be greeted by said bear standing on the landing platform and an over excited monkey swinging from the zip line. None of us fancy getting bear hugged and panic ensues as the bear chases us through the jungle. Dinner arrives and Helen surprises me with a birthday cake and a candle on it. When the rest start to sing happy birthday, June our cook appears with
a huge tray with a Laos jungle cake and loads of candles - it consisted of local sweets, pineapple, banana, watermelon and nuts. Very nice thought Helen but thoughily outdone by the super cake!!! I can't forget the bottle of Laos whiskey brought from a Huay Xai 4 hours away!! Its probably been the best birthday I've ever had and likely to have in a long time. The guys have even managed to get rid of the bees nest for us!!

Last morning in the jungle and we try to make he most of the zip lines before leaving, no superman today though!! We get packed up and leave the treehouse and immediately Sungsee jumps up to Helen to look for some flees again. Jack needs some behavoural therapy as he's straight into my bag and then starts taking hair bobbes out of the rest of the girls hair. We're all a bit sad to be leaving but the 2 monkeys have other ideas. They follow us out of the jungle to the village and start to run havock. At one point Sungsee dissappears into a chicken hut and a few seconds later chickens are escaping out of any possible hole they can find!! The kids in the village are more scared of the monkeys than us which makes a change.

We're loaded back into the 4X4 for the 3 hour trip to the Laos Thailand border. Very sad the Laos adventures have finished and the road home is in sight!! There will be more videos added soon so keep checking.

Gareth Penpraze
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ASBO-Holidays/