The Gibbon Experience

Blame it on Alex Garland's The Beach, but when I first heard of a place deep in the jungle where people could fly through trees and stay in tree top houses it sounded like an old wives tale. I expected to be passed a map and to find myself lost, alone in the middle of the Golden Triangle. What I hadn't bargained for was The Gibbon Experience.

Situated in Bokeo province in northern Laos, the Gibbon Experience is a conservation project which allows visitors access to the rainforest at canopy level. With an ingenious system of zip-lines and tree houses visitors scour the landscape in search of a once thought extinct species, the Black Gibbon, Nomascus concolor lu, which were only re-discovered in the area in 1997. The project's grand aim is to conserve the vast Bokeo nature reserve and raise funds to protect the wildlife whilst alleviating poverty.

Northern Laos however is not an easy place to get to in a hurry. After a brief ride on Lao Airlines my first impression of Huay Xai was an idle chicken pecking at the runway. Welcome to the real rural heart of Asia. To add to this the four smiling, terracotta-coloured returnees climbing out of the pick-up made me realize that the next 48 hours were going to be a mixture of dirt, mud, sweat and exhilaration.

Within the first hour, as our transport snaked its way through the dust, the immediacy of the project was brought into focus. Mud is thrown up and hills moved aside as a new Chinese-built road carved up the landscape. Lao is opening up to the world and one of the last wildernesses in South East Asia is being threatened in the name of regional integration.

After a three-hour ride and another hour's trek we had arrived. The project has a total of four tree houses, each accessed only via zip-line. Ours was a gigantic four level affair, stocked with food, necessities, unique toilet access and for that extra kick a bottle of Lao Lao to get things started after dark.

After a brief safety lesson and a short tour of the site we were left to our own devices; all that was left was to strap up and head into the unknown.

One or two tentative leaps from the hillside and you're away, no going back as speed and wind build up and the dot in the distance is your new home. The sound of the zip is reminiscent of an incoming plane, you look up, around, anything but down, and then on your right a whole vista of tropical jungle reveals itself.

The momentum of the zip brings the scene to you in cinema style and you don't quite believe what is around you. You feel detached from the experience and question your surroundings, is that really a jungle under your feet? What next, the Arc De Triomphe? You expect a blue backdrop, a change of picture, yet this time there's no $10 photo, this is the real thing and below you it's a long way down. The height of the longest line is greater than the pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

Without realizing it within a day you become accustomed to your treetop lifestyle. The once timid group of tourists can be heard along the hills shouting various renditions of "Go, Stop, Clear," followed by that crashing plane sound echoing around the hillside.

From the canopy, you get a gauge of the size of the forest you are trying to protect, not a sign of human habitation for miles, just endless shades of green. The wildlife meanwhile notices the additional tree-living ape with curiosity.

At night you're kept awake listening and wondering if you're about to fall out. It is discomforting to think that you are a hundred feet up playing Robinson Crusoe in the branches, and the sounds of the forest bounce across the canopy towards you. Crashing, snapping, falling, anything but graceful. You realize the jungle is more Meatloaf than Swan Lake. Yet it is a lot quieter than expected. Until recently the area was a hive of poaching activity (even the local police chief still comes to pick up timber for his own personal use) and the wildlife is still to fully recover.

Whether the Gibbon Experience can really protect the reserve for the future is an open question but there is no doubt it is ambitious. We never heard any gibbons but it didn't matter too much. It was a unique experience to have so much fun, acting out all your childhood fantasies, and to know that for once, you're not ruining the environment you came to see. For anyone looking to escape the faded plastic tour guide adverts in Chang Mai, for the moment, this part of the world and this project in particular holds the answer.

For more information, see the Gibbon Experience website.