Who says treehouses are for kids?

On Day 1 of our Gibbon Experience, we checked our backpacks in to our guesthouse storage and arrived for our initial brief at the office at 8. There we viewed a safety video (yikes, I almost wrote 'safety briefing') which provided the basic zip lining instructions and then we were loaded in a tuk-tuk and off we went! A bumpy hourlong ride brought us to a small village, with the usual naked children, free-roaming chickens and pigs and thatch-roof stilted huts. Here we received our harnesses, strapped them on and began trekking.

It was warming up fast and a little (ok, lot) of sweating and huffing and puffing later, we arrived at our first sequence of zip lines. It's hard to describe (maybe the video can help if i can find a way to load it) but the sheer thrill of zipping over huge valleys of lush green trees and palms that roll for miles in each direction is absolutely amazing! And works wonders to evaporate the sweat away too.

With each zip, our group got more confident and before ya know it, people were hooping, hollering, kicking their free legs around and letting go with both hands. We stopped for sandwiches and then continued the trekking and zipping for another hour or so before we arrived at our treehouse.

If you've ever climbed a tree, set up a treehouse and camped out in a backyard fort as a kid, you know that these evoke all sorts of fun childhood memories. After we zipped over to our tree, I was just amazed at how well constructed (thank goodness as we were suspended about 300 feet above the ground) and clean the tree house was. You arrive at the first level which was also had the bathroom, sink and shower. Yes there was a shower and it had the most amazing views!

The next level was the main floor and was relatively large. It had room for three large beds, the dining area, a sink and even had lighting.

A stairway led to a small loft with another bed. The view looking out over the entire valley was just breathtaking. As our guides left us alone when we were at the treehouse, our only other resident was the cat who we were told eats the rats if they should make a visit so we decided she could stay of course. After some chill time, we left to do some more zipping, right as the sun was lazily dipping towards the mountains, bathing the valleys in a bright amber glow.

Arriving home to the most magnificent sunset, we were treated to a yummy dinner of sticky rice, veggies and a meat dish. As well as the local Mallaca wine! It was rather sweet but I'm not going to complain when we are miles from civilization (and in a treehouse nonetheless) and get wine!

We also got to know our group better which included a Spainard (gave us some good info for our May trip), a couple from Switzerland and two girls for Seoul. Erika and I whipped out the cards for a game of Crazy 8's and Spoons which was a big hit. As we tucked the net around the bed and listed to the night jungle come alive with the hiss of cicadas and the cackle of birds, I quickly lulled into a deep slumber.

The sun awoke us early at and 7 am, we were out trekking and zipping again. The cooler morning air was wonderful and the zipping was a great way to wake up!

Back at the treehouse, breakfast of more rice and such gave us the energy to trek and zipline some more as we eventually made it back to another small village for our bumpy trip out. This experience was incredibly memorable and although it would've been nice to have a whole other day to zipline, I was just so happy we got to go at all since we had trouble getting ahold of them. We arrived back at Huay Xai in enough time to catch our ferry across to Thailand and then a 5 hour ride to Chiang Mai! Laos was amazingly impressive and eye-opening and I only wish I had more time to explore this laid back and scenic, albeit poor and basic, country... Laos-style!