What if you had the chance to spend a couple of nights in the world’s highest treehouse? What if that treehouse was also in the middle of the jungle in Laos? And could only be reached by a zipline? And you were afraid of heights? Would you do it?
Obviously, since I’m writing this blog post, I did choose to do this 😊. The organization that created and runs this adventure is called The Gibbon Experience. While we didn’t see or hear gibbons on our trip (it was a bit early in the season for this), it was still an amazing experience. The treehouse we stayed in was over 40 meters (130 feet) high, which was at the level of the forest that gibbons live in. And yes, the only way we could enter or leave the treehouse was with a zipline.
Our treehouse from a distance. It was hard to get a good picture because of the surrounding forest.
But zipping into it provides a much better view!
Looking down to the forest floor 130 feet below.
The views from of the surrounding jungle were fantastic.
Even the views from our bathroom sink and shower were amazing.
We actually had a western style toilet, which was a pleasent surprise. Although you can’t look too closely down at the cracks in the floor; there’s not much below there.
While there was a small sink setup in our living area…
…all our actual meals had to be ziplined in.
We had myself, a German couple, a Swiss couple, and the brother of the Swiss girlfriend. It was a fantastic group to hang out with for 2 nights.
The sunset on our first nigth was sublime.
One of the Swiss brought a portable Yahtzee game, so we had some nice entertainment in the evenings.
The sunrise the next morning was equally sublime.
There was one zipline for coming in and another for going out of the treehouse.
These gibbons are critically endangered, so the Gibbon Experience was started as a way of trying to save them. Eventually the entire area of 136,000 hectares was designated as a national park by the Laos government. Around half of our fees go to gibbon protection and forest restoration work.
The best part of the experience was spending almost two full days zipping around the park on ziplines up to 400 meters long that allow you to soar over the forest canopy. We had the whole area to ourselves, so we were able to go on these lines again, and again, and again. On each iteration you get to see and appreciate even more of the surrounding landscape that rushes by and below you. It’s not like a traditional zipline park where you do each line only once around the circuit. We also spent quite a bit of time hiking into the park and then hiking around the park to get from our treehouse to the two primary zipline tracks. And on some of the lines there were nice hikes to get from one line to the other. It was a wonderfully immersive experience.
I was able to hook my GoPro handle into a loop on my zipline belt and then pull the extension up my shirt to have the camera pop out of the top of my shirt, just under my neck. I had to adjust things the first few times as you can see here. But it ended up working out pretty well overall.
The most spectacular line was the longest, at over 400 meters.
Its companion is 350 meters long and is also a wonderful ride.
This line goes from the ground to one of the high intermediate platforms.
On some of the lines that don’t slope down far enough you find yourself stopping short and having to go backwards hand over hand to finish your run.
Being in the jungle, it was also a journey to get here. It started with a two hour drive in a pickup truck from the small river town of Huay Xai. Half of that drive was on an insanely dusty and bumpy dirt road (and since we were outside on benches in the back of the truck we got to taste all the dust!). Then we had an hour walk from the village where the road ended into the jungle area our treehouses and ziplines were in.
The luxury vehicle we were crammed into for the two hour drive.
The small village we had lunch in.
Part of the walk into the jungle was on a road.
But most was on a beautiful trail.
We had a chance to visit another 6 person treehouse in the afternoon. A dutch family had been staying there for 2 nights and had left that morning. We had an overlapping zipline session with them their last morning and they were a lot of fun.
It was a nice zipline into that house as well. And in this video you can even see the safety process we use when we arrive 🙂
It wouldn’t be a jungle trip without some fascinating insects (spiders, in this case) and some beautiful flowers.
Our final group shot before we had our last lunch in the village and drove back to town. Our two guides – Campy and Charlie – were outstanding. There was another really nice German couple who traveled with us. They stayed in a smaller two person treehouse called the “Honeymoon House”.
