A Hundred Feet Up

To Jungle Tree House 2, Laos 

It's Kylie and today was very exciting.  We went zip lining "with the gibbons" (members of the ape family), even though we didn’t actually see any.  The truck that brought us to the start, was the same type that brought us to the elephants -- a pickup with bench seats in the back for eight or more people.  When we got to the trailhead, the guides passed out harnesses to everyone, beers for the adults, and a Pepsi and Fanta for Dex and me.  But, since we don’t enjoy fizzy drinks, we gave them to Mom and Dad instead.  (Dad’s note:  Yippee!  Beer and Soda.)

Our guide, "X-man"

We had a two hour hike before reaching any zip lines.  Unfortunately, it was up hill almost the whole way (Dad’s note: kind of like a roller coaster --  no up, no down.)  I enjoyed walking through the forest with large jungle trees and vines that would extend up over the trees and coil themselves around the branches and trunks.  There were also occasional stands of bamboo that would stretch up towards the sky.  I was surprised that the bottoms of the bamboo stalks were not very large even though they towered fifty feet high.  

Sam, Felice, and Anouk

Surprisingly, we didn’t see any wildlife except for butterflies, ants, and those pesky mosquitos.  Sometimes we could hear birds chirping off in the distance, but other than that, we didn’t see any animals … but then we got to the zip lines!  Dex and I were surprised when the guide said we needed to go with him.  Oh well, we hooked on our safety lines first, then the big, sturdy roller and then the guide hooked on behind us and pushed us out onto the line.  I loved how long the zip lines were!  You couldn’t even see the other side of most of the them.  At the end of the very first zip line, it was really fun to see everyone’s faces and hear their comments, "Amazing," or “Wow, that was so cool!”

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked for only a minute or two, hooked up to the next zip line, and then zipped over a steep tree covered valley.  It was super fun.  I found that you could barely hear yourself above the loud whirring sound of the rollers along the cable.  It was much easier to hear others when you were watching from the ground.  After zipping along for an hour or more, we finally reached the tree house.  For a moment we thought we’d have to climb up the huge tree to get in.  Instead, the guide hooked himself up and zipped into the house, even though it looked as if he were going upwards.  It made no sense!  Even when it was my turn, I had the same odd illusion. 

Team TreeHouse 2

Our accommodations for the night

Even more amazing than the zip lines was the treehouse!  We all took off our harnesses and shoes, then Dex and I raced around the house exploring the bottom floors and upper decks.  There was even a vine growing up our tree, which I thought was really neat.  And this was no ordinary tree – we were 100 feet in the air, and so was that vine.  Other than being way up in the air, the house was quite homey.  There was a very low table with snacks and a bath room and shower on the lower level with an amazing view!  All fifteen of us, picked our places for the night (The whole group included our family of four plus another American (Andy from San Jose), three from Germany (Jana, Janina and Sarah), two from Belgium (Sam and Felice), two from the Netherlands (Anouk and Tim), two from Laos (Ni & Boua), and one from Switzerland (Katja). 

Anouk and Janina

View from the bath room

After dinner, we played two great games of Super Karma.  Unfortunately, Mom’s karma needs work and so does Tim’s.  (Dad’s edit: What great fun -- lots of joking and laughing.  Everyone was such a great sport to join in learning the game.  A perfectly amazing day.)