#11 the gibbon experience, houey xai #12 bangkok

Hurtling along a flying fox with the sky above you and the vast forest canopy below you, the sounds of birds singing, the wind rushing through your hair... sheer bliss, I tell you! Yep, the two-day mad scramble to get to Houey Xai was worth it to do the 2-night Gibbon Experience (www.gibbonx.org) eco tour in Bokeo Nature Reserve in Laos near the Thai border. It's a child's fantasy playground of epic proportions, as a network of flying fox wires lace the forest trees and five multi-level treehouses have been built 50m or more above the ground. On our first day, we trekked into the jungle (proving that, yes indeed, we are very unfit and are going to be slaughtered on the Annapurna trek in a few days), zipped along the flying foxes at speeds of up to 50kph, played cards late into the night, slept in treehouses, woke to the bizarre arcade-game-like whooping call of the rare black gibbon (previously thought to be extinct) - although Kris and I didn't actually see any gibbons. Of course, there were some downsides: bees, wasps, spiders, ants, mice, whining foreigners with insect phobia, bites from mozzies on steroids, painfully early mornings, no bedroom privacy, the cost of the tour (US$150), but that was overshadowed by all the good stuff: playing with a two-month old orphan Asiatic bear cub, staying in a treehouse with the "good group" of people (not being the least bit judgmental, am I?), yummy food, great views...

#12 bangkok
Now I'm back in Bangkok and about to jet off to Nepal - looking forward to some cool weather! Last night I was psyched about going to see a muay thai boxing match, but when I got there I found out that the cheapest tickets were 1000 baht ($40) - to stand at the back! What a rip off! And ringside seats were twice as much. I think they were foreigner prices, and my attempts to appear like a local were blown by my daggy traveller shorts, birkenstocks and massive camera. Damn.