Lean back-no breaks!!

7.00am saw us eagering munching on baguettes and omlette in preparation for the Gibbon adventure. First we went for a video briefing at the office, you know you are doing something a little out of the ordinary when you advised not to zip if there are monkeys on your zip wire.

We met with our other adventurers Jenny, Mike, chris and friend Dee from NZ, and Sylvie and Annabel from Geneva. In the back of the ute and off we go. Laos seems to be very flexible regarding what side of the road to drive on, this could prove a little challenging when the bridge to Thailand connecting Huay xai and chieng kong is eventually finished .

Once we arrived in Bokeo nature reserve we met our guides Vang Lao and Suoeng and started the long climb up up up. First stop was the guides village to pick up harnesses and ensure jack didn't let the guides think they could get one over on us with a bit of impromptu Rattan Ball. He did us proud- to the surprise of some of the guides. More Up Up till we arrived at our first Zip line... Terror swept through the group, we didn't realize that we would be zipping around like locals in just a few goes.

It is hard to describe quite how much fun the zip lines were. To start with it was hard to look down, we were going really high above the trees. The freakiest run was probably when we zipped straight into Tree house 5. The tree house is hidden from view till you are right up to it, then you just fly straight into the basement.

Soon after we arrived in the tree house, the guides re appeared with a kettle for coffee and tea. Nothing better than tea with condensed milk after a hard day of trekking and zipping.

Actually one thing better- the shower in the tree house was worth the ticket price alone.

New years eve, so we settled in for a heavy game if international UNO ( Swiss cheat!!) and some funky Laos wine to see in the new year - sadly were all ready for bed by 8.00

Sa bai Dee Laos

After yesterdays amazing race adventure it was good to spend the evening in the small Laos border town of Huay xai,you know you are on an adventure when there are frogs in your room.
We checked in to a great little guest house, at $8 you can't go too far wrong( actually you probably can) this was perfect for what we needed, a good sleep and somewhere to sort out of bags for the big Gibbon experence in the morning

The race is on!

After some pretty hearty research about how to get the bus to the Laos border, we missed one key point .... It had slipped through our knowledge net that we needed to purchase tickets ahead of time. Word on the street before we went to bed was there was little chance of getting to chiang kong that day with out a pre purchased ticket. Aaaggghhh

The problem for us was that we had to check in at thevGibbon experience office by 7pm and be ready to leave at 8.am the next morning. If we didn't make thre boarder crossing when they closed at 5pm, our Gibbon dreams were sunk !

6.30am- Up at crack of dawn ready for the challenge .
First stop Chiang Mai bus station- hive of scum and villainy , except for a small area roped off specifically for monks to sit. We split up to figure out the system, and see what we could work out. we figured that we needed to be on a bus by 9.30 at the latest , or we'd have to hitch/ hike/ hijack

8.00 After a bit of negotiation we scored tickets for a 9.00am bus. The quest was on...first stop Chiang Rai.

12.30 We seemed to be making good time and getting quietly cocky only to find that Chuang Rai has 2 bus stops. The one we needed to get us to chiang khong was apparently, over the other side of town. Unsure if we were being scammed as no one or no guidebook had mentioned this , we took a leap of faith and commandeered a waiting tuk tuk, chucked our bcd packs in and legged it across town.

1:00 god of travelers must have been smiling on us as we walked straight on to a chicken bus for Chiang Khong scheduled to leave at 1.30. Estimated travel time 2 hours. Cutting it a little fine, but starting to feel a little more confident. The bus made it's merry way north, picking uo and dropping of villagers/ monks/ school kids finally pulling into Chiang Khong at 4.00. We raced down the hill to the river- the boarder crossing between Thailand and Laos. Best boarder crossing ever, a small fishing boat that moves farmers, tourists, goats etc across the river.

4.30 - Negotiate Laos immigration and stumble up the steep hill to the main drag of HuayXai and the gibbon experience office-
"Dibs and Jack- you are team #1!"

A mess of elephants

We started our day early with a early morning pick up to be wisked of on an elephant/rafting journey.
Our group were a great mix of nationalities 2 other aussies, a Malay guy and Chinese girl olaf from St Petersburg, and a gang of 5 lebonese québécois. German often gets a bad rap for being a rough guttural language- check out lebonese french canadian. Everyone one was good fun so we set off on our elephant ride. We had a baby elephant tagging on to our group as it,s mother was carrying one of our group. It kept sticking it's nose into jacks pocket to try to get his wallet. Very enterprising!
It was a beautiful trip, especially when the elephants moved into the river. From e elephants we went rafting on bamboo rafts. Great fun, some nice little rapids. jack and olaf did a lot of the steering which went surprisingly well, Jack wisely gave up steering when we had a negotiate the herd of elephants crossing then river .

Chiangmai mai-day1

It maybe isn't a true Druce on the loose adventure when half the team isn't on the loose- but there will be stories to capture of the Dibs Jack adventure to the Laos jungle. After a huge flight we arrive in Chiang Mai-cool little city. There is a moat around the city apparently to keep the Burmese out. Who knew the burmese were so terrified of Christmas fountains...
After a swim and #1 Pad Thai we hit the town and get completely lost. Fortunately there are lots of tuk tuk drivers to get us back to the hotel.

Laos Adventure 2010