Foodie perks in Penang

We were so sad to leave Koh Tao but knew we had less than two weeks left in South East Asia and therefore the pressure of time was now upon us! We had already booked flights back home from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, but we had delayed the journey because the weather forecast predicted nothing but rain for everywhere South of Thailand. Plus, we loved Koh Tao so much that we struggled to bring ourselves to leave.

Eventually, we figured that cities would have plenty of indoor things to do and might be a sensible next step. The decision to then travel to Penang in Malaysia was based on two things: it was en route to our final destination, and the reports of the food here were superb. I am pleased to say that it did live up to expectations, and we loved it.

Penang is an island off the West Coast of Malaysia that's also known as "The Pearl of The East". We stayed in Georgetown, which is one of the more popular locations situated beneath some of the mountains, with plenty of foodie delights and things to see and do. It was much more relaxed than other big cities and a bit more pedestrian-friendly than most. Which was quite nice, given the general lack of accessible public transport around. There were more Muslims here than in the rest of South East Asia, and it was Mosques, rather than temples, that were among the main points of interest in the city.

On arrival at our hotel, we knew we would enjoy our time here, as the location was great and hospitality was fantastic. We were immediately handed free wine vouchers, and were promised free ice cream and free laundry - what's not to love? It also had a nice rooftop bar that gave a great view of the mountains and city. Mostly, the weather was fine here, but late afternoons and evenings would bring great thunderstorms. It was a memorable welcome to Penang - seeing the skies lit up by lightning and watching the rain drum on the rooftops.

View from the hotel roof

I can't say that we did a great deal in Penang; it was simply a nice place to  hang around. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, but the best part was the cuisine here: plenty of fusions of Malay and Chinese influence, and anything and everything from South East Asia could be found here.

On our first night, we visited a local restaurant that was highly recommended for its excellent Chinese food. It was heaving with locals and the staff were always on the go. We tried the speciality dishes that consisted of caramelised, twice-roasted pork belly and honey roasted chicken. It was fantastic; so much so that we visited twice during our stay!

The following day we had an explore and a flurry of activity. Penang was an interesting city, with street art on many street corners and hidden gems where you'd least expect them. Our first find was a chocolate museum, which turned out not to be a museum so much as a shop, that provided us with a hefty share of free testers, (which have always been one of my minor pleasures in life). According to the ladies who worked in the shop, Malaysia is famous for its chocolate and coffee. Who'd have thought, ey! We couldn't resist buying some souvenirs from here; we were feeling a slight sense of obligation given the amount of free stuff we had consumed there. We ended up buying some Durian chocolates here, which weren't as smelly as we had expected (at this stage at least). (Sorry Granddad, Grandpa and Uncle Geoff, hope they are make it back in an edible state!)

Street art of Penang

Our next port of call was the National Museum, which had the refuge of air conditioning (ahhhh!), and contained lots of historical details about Penang and how immigration has shaped it - which can be seen in the culture and varied nationalities that exist today, not to mention the food.

By pure chance, we stumbled upon a superb vegetarian restaurant after this, which served some tasty noodle soup and pau sesame dumplings, which turned out to be my favourite. They were stuffed with some kind of BBQ mushroom that tasted just like meat, and fried in sesame seeds. I had far too many of these - but no regrets.

After lunch, we ventured off to take a look at some more of the sights and visited Fort Cornwallis. Built by the East India Company in the 18th Century, the fort was never actually used in warfare and still remains intact to this day. By this stage I was practically in a dumpling coma and had to be dragged around the fort by  Matt by means of force. I was desperate for a nap to escape the afternoon and the fort bunker was a tempting place for it. But I battled on! Following this, we passed the clock tower; a key part of the city that leans ever so slightly to one side - not precarious at all!

Evenings in Penang were fun and exciting, given the huge varieties of places to eat and drink, and of course the thunderstorms, that started early evening and continued through the night. We have memories of heading out in our poncho and mac-in-a-sack, feeling like massive, waterproof tourists. Another favourite place of ours to visit on the evenings turned out to be a food hall that consisted of around 30 different stalls with cuisine from all over Asia and beyond. You could get anything and everything here, including claypot frog porridge and fish head soup. Tasty! Needless to say, we didn't fancy these, and decided to stick to our much loved BBQ pork pau dumplings and even found some nice Mexican food to dabble in. A Malaysian man in a questionable Hawaiian shirt played some happy music on a keyboard, which further added to the atmosphere.

All of this eating and drinking was clearly too much work for us and for a couple of days after the semi-busy day we didn't do much, apart from potter around our hotel watching films and reading books. By this stage we also discovered the free ice cream stall in the hotel - so why would we leave? It was quite simply a nice place to be, and a couple of days there was enough for us to see and do everything we fancied.

Overall, Penang was an excellent place to go for any food lover and it was so different to everywhere else we had been. The real dilemma we faced was where to go next, as our options felt limited by both time and the weather forecasts - which seemed to predict torrential downfalls for all the places we wanted to go in Malaysia and Indonesia. We eventually reached a decision, but this was most certainly delayed by the free ice cream and wine that was provided by our nice hotel, which we were so reluctant to leave!

Chilling in Koh Tao

So, when finished in Chiang Mai, we headed down to the south of the country, keen to see what island life might be like. We started with a flight down to Bangkok, then a train to Chumphon, and finally a catamaran to Koh Tao, a little slice of island life, famous for the diving and snorkelling opportunities available.

As soon as we arrived at our hotel, we realised that there were very few taxis on the island, and no tuk-tuks, so we followed the crowd and rented another motorbike for pootling around the island. We celebrated Zoe’s birthday, and our arrival, at a fantastic Italian place (called Thalia, if you’re interested), ran by a charming and eccentric chap, who seemed to us to be a mixture of Basil and Manuel, from Fawlty Towers. His whole menu was hand-written in Italian, and though he could have saved himself some work and written translations next to each, he seemed to prefer talking each table through the options, and we were very happy with the results.

It’s fair to say that we fell in love with Koh Tao - we originally meant to stay for 3 days, but ended up extending and extending our stay, until we had been there for 11. I count us as lucky to have managed to pull ourselves away - we met lots of people (mostly divers) who had only meant to stay for a few weeks, and had found themselves in the same place years later

I think one of the big reasons we liked it so much was the size of the island, how much quieter it was than so many of the places we’ve been, and how liberating it was to be able to get around under our own steam - there was one main road around the island, and it took only about 15 minutes to get from one side to the other. In fact, we agree that every place we’ve rented bicycles or motorbikes has held a special place in our regard, and think that is very likely because of how fun it is to travel independently - to not need to look for bus stops, or haggle with a taxi driver, or walk amongst traffic, but to have the power to go where you like, when you like.

Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with a day-by-day account of what we did on the island, because we spent a lot of time enjoying being very lazy. On day two, we found a beautiful beach (one of many), and dared to go snorkelling in the crystal blue waters, after a little while shadebathing in factor 30 suncream. It was beautiful, and in half an hour we saw scores of pretty fish, of all shapes and sizes - it made me wish, not for the first time, for a waterproof camera!

Note the smiles - this was clearly BEFORE suffering a scalding

However, our milky-white complexions rebelled against this prolonged exposure, and we both got pretty badly sunburnt on our backs, boo! We think this was worse than usual because of the antimalarial medication we’ve been taking (doxycycline), which increases photosensitivity, boo.

So! We spend a few days hiding from the sun, scuttling from shadow to shadow. In the evenings, we had fun going on drives to different viewpoints overlooking the island to watch the sun set, and going to a range of tasty restaurants for yummy food. I can imagine worse places to be stuck whilst recuperating.

Once our backs were slightly less lobster-like, and we had kitted ourselves out with some long-sleeved tops and waterproof factor 50 suncream, we were ready for the water again! This time, we jumped onto a big boat with a load of other tourists, and were taken around the island, stopping at five different spots for some more snorkelling. This was great fun, and we saw all sorts of fish again, often ending up right in the middle of a school. As an added bonus, we had clearly learned from our last experience, and our sensitive skin survived the day of blazing sunshine - feeling more than a little schadenfreude for those in our group who had started the day sunbathing, and ended it looking like tomatoes! I’m a bad person.

Next day we went for our first experience of scuba diving, after getting a taste for the water, and hearing that we were in one of the best places in the world to try it. This was an experience that was obviously very exciting, but also quite nerve wracking - breathing underwater is in no way natural, and the animal part of your brain takes a lot of convincing otherwise!

Still, we felt that we were in good hands, with an instructor who had been teaching on the island for 8 years (another who had only meant to stay for a few weeks at the start!), Xavier. He talked us through the basic techniques we would need to be safe in the water, and sorted us out with our equipment. We were taken out on a boat with quite a few other divers, who would be doing their own thing, and meeting up with us at the end.

Our dive started in shallow water, where we gradually allowed ourselves to descend to the sea floor. Once here, on our knees and totally submerged, it took a few seconds for breathing to feel normal. After acclimatizing, we went through the techniques we’d been shown earlier to demonstrate to our instructor that we were going to be safe in the water - the most important skill here was how to find your mouthpiece in a cool and collected manner, in case it went missing. After this, we were off into the deep end!

It was great getting to explore the reefs from so close, and to see the hundreds and thousands of fish living happily below the surface. We were under for 45 minutes, but it felt like five. After a short while, I almost forgot that we were underwater, and instead felt like I was a hot air balloon flying over an alien landscape.I wish I could do justice to just how beautiful it was, but I’m not a poet, so you’ll have to make do with photos that I definitely took myself, honest.

Honestly

The rest of our time in Koh Tao was spent finding more ways to chill out - more tasty food, more unique sunsets, and more time enjoying the views. We went out snorkelling one more time around shark bay, and weren’t actually disappointed when we didn’t see a shark.

After what seemed like a lovely lifetime on the island, it was time to go - we jumped on the catamaran again, to a bigger island nearby (Koh Samui), from whose garden centre airport we were flying to Malaysia...

Ciao, Chiang Mai

Following on from our time in the Laotian treetops, we headed back to where our journey had started weeks and weeks ago - to Thailand again. This time, we were looking at the north of the country, a place called Chiang Mai, which was supposed to be a particular highlight of southeast Asia - we had heard lots about it, so approached with high expectations.

As with many of our destinations, this city was very old, and as such had a lot of history. We stayed near the old town, which had in the past been a huge fortress with thick walls and a moat. Fortunately, these defences haven't been needed much in the last few centuries, and so the city has been able to spill out over them, and now goes on for miles in every direction, with temples of all shapes and sizes scattered around.

Either a very good waxwork, or an even better example of meditation

There’s not much to say about our first few days in the city, so I’ll try not to waffle. It was hot, very hot - most days were over 40 degrees - and so we even the slightest exertion left us sweating profusely and running for our next air conditioned cafe. Despite this, we managed to explore one or two of the dozens of temples, some of the many bookshops that were to be found, and a 3D art museum. The latter was a fun way to spend an hour or two, and made a change from temple-gazing. Plus, most importantly, it was air conditioned.

Wine o'clock is earlier every day

Oh, and a special mention should go to the nice Indian restaurant we found - so nice, we went twice.

After a few lazy days like this, we came on to the main events of our visit to Chiang Mai - firstly, another cookery course! Avid readers will remember that we went on one in Vietnam as well, and we couldn’t skip an opportunity to learn about yummy Thai food as well. This course was an evening affair, and started with a trip to a nearby market to learn more about the ingredients - sadly no embarrassing hats this time, except for the one I usually wear.

Once we’d finished gathering supplies, it was time to get started. This time, instead of each of us making one big dish and sharing with the group, we were each making several different dishes for ourselves, which meant for a much busier lesson!

The first dish we made was Pad Thai, a classic stir fry, that you can find everywhere - from posh restaurants to petrol stations, everyone has their own version of it in Thailand. They ranged from “meh” to “wow”, and I’m happy to say that we were taught how to make a particularly “wow” dish. The main ingredients are chicken, rice noodles, garlic, egg, soy sauce, fish sauce, tamarind sauce, carrot and beansprouts. Preparation was pretty simple, and once everything was ready to go, it seemed like less than five minutes until each of us had our own tasty dish. This is one that we’re both keen to get into the habit of making back at home - quick, tasty, and healthy!

After that, we moved on to a few other dishes. We were taught (for the third time this trip!) how to make spring rolls, and then we were divided into groups to start making different curry pastes.

Each group started with an alarmingly large pile of different spices - mostly fresh or dried chilli, depending on which curry was desired - and then started pounding them into a paste using an industrial-sized mortar and pestle. This was hard work, but made easier by sharing with team members, and in the knowledge of the yumminess this would bring about.

Red, green, penang and massaman curry pastes

After that, it was a simple matter of deciding how sexy we were each feeling - this was how our teacher asked how hot we dared to make our curries. I’ll let you guess what answers we gave.

As expected, the curries were super-delicious - I made a Massaman, and Zoe did a Penang. We’ll definitely be making more of these in the future, and hopefully with our own paste, if our desire for fresh and tasty food overcomes our innate laziness when faced with the alternative of a pre-made spice pack (boo, hiss!). Happily, we were given another recipe book here, so will have something to blame at future dinner parties, if the food is too sexy to handle.

Third time is the charm

For our final full day in Chiang Mai, it was a treat for Zoe’s birthday - a trip to a nearby elephant sanctuary! There seem to be more elephant sanctuaries up in the north of Thailand than you can shake a stick at, but it takes a bit of research and detective work to find out which are worth supporting - each one will say that they rescue these creatures from unhappy lives, but quite a few will be continuing with bad habits, and offering rides or even trying to keep them tame with threats of pain. Fortunately, our friends Heather and Laura had done all the hard work (thanks!) for us, so we were happy to follow their lead and visit Elephant Nature Park for the day.

So, we were picked up and driven to the reserve. As we travelled, we were shown a fairly harrowing documentary about the work the park does, which started by showing some of the horrible treatment an elephant has to endure to work with humans, either as an animal to be ridden, a performer in a circus, or as part of a logging team. These are wild and gentle creatures, and it’s not natural for them to do any of these jobs - in order to get them ready, their spirits are literally broken through torture and misery, until they learn that to disobey their handler means further pain.

Personally, I had known little of this in the past, and have ridden an elephant once before, years ago. However, after getting on, it quickly became clear how unhappy the animal was, with chains around it’s legs and stuck on the same route every day with heavy loads to carry. The only happy part of that experience was giving the elephant a bath afterwards, which she seemed to enjoy. Zoe has had a similar experience, and since then neither of us has had any desire to support that side of their treatment, though we can completely understand the appeal of such activities to other travellers, who may not know better.

So! As you may have guessed, the aim of this park was to rescue elephants from unhappy lives in captivity, and give them a new life as close to being back in the wild as they could manage. A big part of their plan was to motivate the gentle giants with pleasure, rather than pain - the difference between a banana and a stick. We went on a “Pamper a Pachyderm” package, where we spent the day taking four old elephant ladies on a walk around the park. Like many old ladies, their day started with being fed dozens of halved watermelons, followed by a morning dirt bath. The oldest, (and coincidentally grumpiest) of the group was a lady called Happy, who was in her seventies, and needed some of the skins cut off her watermelons, so she could manage them with her teeth - no colossal dentures were available, sadly.

Happy!

We were each given a satchel full of bananas, and took the ladies off on their stroll, giving them encouragement in fruity form whenever they became distracted. It was really nice getting so close to them again, and with our bags of fruit we certainly felt popular - there was always a trunk prodding and pestering for more! As soft as these ladies were, it was very obvious that they could crush us without noticing, if we were stood between them and a good meal. This lent an undercurrent of danger, not usually experienced on leisurely park strolls!

It was a nice day for a walk, though by the time we stopped for lunch, we could see that clouds were starting to gather, and the ominous rumblings  were starting from the horizon. Still, what’s the worst that could happen?

Oh, yeah, stampede!

So! Just as we were fording a shallow river back to the start of our stroll, the heavens opened. What started as drizzle very quickly turned to a downpour, and that wasted no time in becoming a proper hailstorm, with thunder and lightning directly above us, and chunks of ice the size of marbles being flung at us by strong wind, sending Zoe's hat flying. This biblical storm also came as a surprise to the elephants we were with, and they started running around like, well, wild animals. Me, Zoe and the other tourists were led of in one direction by our group leader, whilst the elephant minders had to run off in the other, to try and calm down their partners - I did not envy them at this point. Hysteria nearly overwhelmed the group when some of the ladies came charging back towards us, but we were fortunately able to scurry away behind a truck before disaster struck.

With that drama behind us, we were taken to shelter in a nearby porch to wait for things to die down. After a little while, the rain stopped, and pretty soon the sun was shining again, as the apocalypse had never really happened. However, our soaked clothes told a different story. Somehow, one of the guides even managed to find Zoe's hat, and the two were unexpectedly reunited. Of course, as it the way with her and headgear, this was only a temporary reprieve, and shortly afterwards hat number four was forever lost, again.

Happily, the old ladies we had been shepherding had been coaxed back to safety, and we gave them their second crate of watermelons as an afternoon snack, before saying goodbye. Our last experience at the Elephant Nature Park was a visit to their newest arrival - a baby elephant, who was only five days old! The mum already had a three year-old baby, and because she was still breastfeeding, AND the gestation time for an elephant is near two years, they had no idea she was even pregnant until a commotion one night heralded this very welcome arrival. It took some serious detective work to figure out who the father was, given that little one was conceived on the sly so long ago.

This marked the end of our trip to the Elephant Park, and of our time in Chiang Mai. Next, we were heading to the south of Thailand!

A special mention should also go the the five hundred dogs that the park has running around, most of whom were rescued after being abandoned in the floods affecting large areas of Thailand in 2011. Zoe was in heaven, and I had to frisk her afterwards to be sure she wasn't smuggling two or three out.

Gibboneering in Laos

After sampling some of the adventures that Laos had to offer, the best was yet to come: The Gibbon Experience! This was totally unique to anything we had ever done before. In short, it was one of the best things ever, and we were incredibly lucky to have been able to do it. So if in Laos, do not miss this, do not!

The Gibbon Experience involves a three day adventure into the Laotian jungle. We were to stay in tree houses, (some of the highest in the world in fact), in the hope of catching sight of the elusive gibbon. The best part is that it involved zip wiring around, here, there and everywhere. And the nature... Oh, the nature! We had seen our fair share of wildlife in South East Asia, but nothing quite like the kind of weird wonders you get in the rural jungle of Laos. Sun bears, leopards, slow loris, pangolins and rare species of monkeys can all be found in the National Park here, for example, not to mention the gibbons themselves!

The location of The Gibbon Experience is rural and barely accessible, which is as it should be. A fairly new approach to tourism, the experience seeks to promote the protection of the natural delights rather than destroying the forests to make way for a bigger industry. This is where the money goes. It is set deep in the North West region, far enough away from human development to allow the wildlife to thrive and to enable us to enjoy it too.

Needless to say, the journey from Luang Prabang to the Gibbon Experience was an adventure in itself: a two day slow boat (slow being the appropriate word) from Luang Prabang to Pak Beng for an overnight stay, and then on day two a journey from Pak Beng to Huay Xai. From there, a two hour drive to the National Park, and a small trek to our tree house, which would be our home for the next couple of days. The journey was exhausting - I'm exhausted even retelling it - but it was all SO worth it for what was to come.

The slow boat itself was comfortable enough, (or at least more comfortable than what we had expected, having read a few disconcerting reviews online). The seats were comfy and roomy and the breeze stopped us from melting in the midday heat. But alas, the journey was not without it's perils! 

Day one was a sad day. Matt somehow managed to sit on his kindle - in what could only be described as a moment of sad irony - just as he was explaining how much he was enjoying reading, and how lost he would be without it. To make matters worse, the model is one that's no longer available from Amazon! Needless to say, he took some consoling and tears were almost shed. Matt is now settling for paperbacks, but it was a traumatic experience that tainted the slow boat memory.

Not even a nice sunset could console Matt, sigh

After the incident that shall not be named, we decided that it might be a good idea to communicate with each other as a form of entertainment and ended up playing some card games instead, including Beanie (a variation of Nanna Betty's "George's Game"). The journey meandered through the river with Laos on one side and Thailand on the other. Some of the sunsets were particularly beautiful, but after two days on the slow boat, we were starting to get a bit restless and arriving at Huay Xai came as a welcome relief. It was a small riverside town that was nice enough. And more excitingly, we were one step closer to the gibbons!

The following morning we headed out to town to locate the Gibbon Office, where we had a very basic health and safety briefing and were greeted with our 4:4 transport to the National Park. We hopped onto the back of these trucks with a few other Gibboneers and felt the wind and dust in our face as we raced towards the jungle across the dusty Laos highway. A couple of hours later, we reached the jungle itself and had what could only be described as a bumpy ride through dirt tracks and mountain, deeper into the abyss! Holding on for dear life at times, the 4:4 embraced some challenging drives down banks, up steep hills, and through a river(!) until we finally arrived, bedraggled and sweaty, at a few huts which were known as the 'village' of the jungle, with a few pigs and cows to keep the local residents company.

Here, we gathered in groups and met our guides, who interestingly were all poachers in past lives, but as mentioned earlier, have learnt through growing tourism, more money can be earned through working for the preservation of the forest as jungle guides. We split off into smaller groups of 7 or 8, and these were the people who we were due to share our accommodation with for the two nights. We got very lucky - our group turned out to be lovely and we really enjoyed the company throughout the experience. There was a nice sense of camaraderie.

Group shot!

And so we began our trek to the tree house! Despite the fact that the website had actually claimed the experience was suitable for all fitness levels, we disagreed, and found it a real challenge at different stages. It was no doubt further precipitated by the 40 degree heat! After some steep uphill hiking, we stopped briefly for lunch, and eventually made our way towards our first zip-wiring spot, where we were given some complicated equipment to saddle ourselves up in, ready for the zip-wires and tree houses. 

It was time for our first zip-wiring adventure. Gulp!!

In all honesty, our first zip-wiring experience wasn't the great success we had imagined, but it was still lots of fun. Some people seemed to take to the sport quite naturally - gliding down to the landing spot with gravid ease in a streamlined, graceful manner. Others, (well, me specifically), ended up spinning around on the wire and braking too soon, thus ending up grinding to a halt about half way along the wire, with a queue of eager and frustrated zip-wirers behind me waiting to set off. When this happens - and it does happen - you have to use your strength to pull yourself along the wire until you reach the other end. I have to admit that it was a little embarrassing when I reached the stage where I couldn't pull myself along the wire any further, and had to be rescued by one of the guides... But cest la vie. Matt handled his first zip wire better than I did, but it's fair to say that neither of us were born naturals. To be a pro zip-wirer I think you have to lean back for speed and use your arm to balance. But it's trickier than it looks; trust me!

Got the hang of it eventually

After a bit of zip-wiring and mega trekking, we had finally reached our tree house - Hurray! We zip wired to the platform and were greeted with a house like no other: tree house 7 (the best of the treehouses, not that I'm biased or anything), which consisted of 3 platforms of wooden beams suspended by ropes and a tin roof. We were reassured that it was safer than it looked, and was designed by skilful architects, but still, natural instinct gave us a bit of a fear when we looked down and saw just how far away the ground was. Yikes. Not one for the vertigo sufferer. We were given the rest of the day to relax, which was much needed. It also gave us a good chance to get to know our housemates, not to mention the resident wasps, before tea time. Everyone fancied a shower but few were brave enough to enter the bee hive that was the tree house bathroom. It was a test of bravery to see who could endure a shower, or indeed toilet visit, amongst the deadly swarm.

Our tree house!

A rather nice picture of the bathroom of doom

As the afternoon passed us by, we spotted the occasional tropical bird swoop through the trees, and even at one stage a giant flying squirrel popped by to say hello! We wondered at first, due to it's size and black fur, if it was one of the elusive gibbons, but we realised it had a golden coloured belly and a big give away was when it glided through the trees. It was an incredible sight! 

Mysterious tropical bird

Dinner was served by one of the guides who arrived, shortly followed by a lady who was carrying a hot kettle, both by zip wire. The food was actually really good, mostly consisting of Laos staples such as noodles, chicken, oyster mushrooms and morning glory with rice. It was all excellent, and more than enough for the seven of us. We were also given some interesting snacks such as flavoured sticky rice, peanut brittle and melon. Our guide was a man of few words and made a sharp disappearance after dishing out food, leaving us at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the leftovers, as we had heard by word of mouth that the (oh-so sinister) "jungle rats" were likely to make an overnight appearance at the treehouse. As the sun set, we waited for beer, which never came, and started to wonder if our Gibbon Experience would turn into a real life version of Lord of the Flies. Thankfully, it never came to that, and we all coped reasonably well without the supervision of our guide, who never did come back that night! And in case you were wondering, we ended up throwing our leftovers overboard, though in retrospect it maybe wasn't the best idea given that the jungle rats were out and about. 

After dinner we were all happy to entertain ourselves with Matts card games as the dusk, (and not to mention, savage forest insects), crept in. It was really a bizarrely nice experience, playing cards with the jungle sounds as the background music. As night time arrived, a couple of solar powered lights gave us just enough visibility for cards. We spent a couple of hours in the communal kitchen area before we retreated to our tents for some well-deserved rest.

Fortunately, our tree house had three levels which meant the couples each had a floor (bottom and middle) and the singles could occupy the top. Me and Matt had the bottom floor, which meant less distance to the bathroom but also less distance to the jungle rats, as the kitchen was also on this level. (You can see where this is going, can't you). And as for sleeping arrangements, we had a couple of floor mats, a blanket and pillow, and a mozzie net/tent to act as our boudoir. All were assembled with the help of our handy head torches, and when it came to bed time, we were well prepared. At this stage, we wondered if we heard the rumbles of thunder in the background, but decided to ignore it and get some shut eye, ready for our early start.

It was only a couple of hours into our slumber before we were woken up by torrential rain. A true thunder storm! The wind and rain pounded against the tin roof and the occasional strike of lightning lit up the sky through our tents. Luckily we were sheltered, but the ever-growing thunder claps did induce fear that was comparable only to the waspy bathroom experience! It was made worse by the subtle creaking noises that served as a gentle reminder of our own vulnerability. We wondered if we would end up being evacuated, but it never did happen. 

But I'm pleased to say that the storm passed eventually, and there was also no sign of our rodent friends on night one. The next morning we laughed and joked about our near death experience before breakfast arrived, which was another few Laos basics such as omelet (so much egg in Asia) and peanut tomato stuff (couldn't tell you the technical term, but it was tasty). Well stocked on food, we got suited and booted again ready for a day of zip wiring to ogle the other 6 tree houses and look out for gibbons. Morning is the best time to do, apparently, But so far, no signs of our long armed friends, and even if they were about the morning fog limited our visibility,  but some of the girls in our group swore they heard the distinctive calls of the gibbons at about 6AM!

A beautiful morning in the jungle!

So we set off again with our zip wiring gear, and had a long trek ahead of us through the trees. We visited the different tree houses, some with thatched roofs, some with one or two floors. Seeing them really did allow us to fully appreciate the architectural skill involved in their creation. Apparently drones are going to have a key role in the design of future tree houses - what an age to be alive!

Our rivals: Tree house 5

This day the trekking was tiring and we were all overheating. I also had a nerve racking experience on the zip wires where I got my hand caught in the break device half way along the zip wire. Fortunately no major injuries to anything other than my ego. And I'm very pleased we were wearing gloves, put it that way. After this slight knock to my confidence one of the guides was happy to tag along with me and Matt as I was lagging a bit, which was nice of him. On our way back we spotted a strange white spider, that we never did identify.

 A white spider - bizarre 

Eventually we arrived back at our tree house for a late lunch and some snacks. This afternoon, we ended up braving the shower despite the immanent wasp attack that awaited us in the bathroom. The midday heat felt a bit overpowering (no A/C in the tree house!!) and the water was cold enough to give a bit of respite.

Humidity in the air was high and we could feel a storm brewing. We spent the afternoon beached in the tree house, and played some card games again later on. Thunder approached and the heavens opened! It was terrifying and exciting, hearing the storm approaching. No evacuation this night, but we later found out that one of the tree houses did in fact get evacuated later on.

The most memorable thing about night two for both me and Matt was the arrival of our friends, the jungle rats, who decided to pop by on more than one occasion. Waking up to the sound of squeaking and rustling came as unnerving shock to our systems. Although we knew they probably weren't, it did sound as if they were in the tent with us! We could also hear them rustling through the bin, which was just a few meters away. The next day, someone saw bite marks in the soap in the bathroom. Jungle living comes at a price!

That morning, we woke up to the sound of gibbons! Caught in the heat of the moment, we didn't get any recordings, but the sound of their voices seemed to echo across the jungle; it was just fantastic! It was foggy again, so no sign of them, but I'm pleased to say that we did hear them on day three, along with the sound of some exotic birds and geckos.

Gibbons in the mist!

Our general plan for our final morning was an hour or so of zip-wiring, followed by a trek back to the village. A little less strenuous today, and we finally felt as if we were getting the hang of the zip wiring. The main drama of this day involved a random attack from some cows on our way back to the village, would you believe. On our final descent, one of the guides shouted "run!!" and we turned around only to see about ten people running away from two cows who were charging in our direction! Luckily no disasters transpired, but it was a bit of drama to finish off the three day jungle adventure!

So on our return, we revelled in everything we had seen and done, back through the Laos jungle towards Huay Xai. Overall, The Gibbon Experience is, and remains to be, a highlight of our trip, and a definite recommendation for anyone visiting Laos!