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The Gibbon Experience in Laos

29/07/09July 29, 2009

What better way to spend a holiday than swing through the trees not only like apes, but with apes! This might seem like every child’s dream but it is possible at as part of the Gibbon Experience at the Bokeo Nature Reserve in the north of Laos. Eco-tourism NGO Animo has created an adventure park in a jungle where tourists can swing from one tree to the next and have to make their way along ropes to get to their beds at night.

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Tourists are accommodated in tree houses in Bokeo Nature reserve
Tourists are accommodated in tree houses in Bokeo Nature reserveImage: DW

Tour guide Noan is standing on the edge of a 50-metre deep abyss with the group of foreigners from Germany and the Czech Republic. He tells the group about the functions of the cable while he straps them with the belts.

Adrenaline Flights

The 26-year-old Noan shows them how to hook up to the zip line. There is a network of so-called zip lines across the jungle that Noan helped construct. Some of them are 400 metres long -- an adrenaline flight can last up to a minute.

Andreas Dimmling from Berlin decides to be the first one from the group to take the zip line which follows the river route. There are banana and mango trees everywhere. Dotted amid them are six tree houses. They can only be reached by tightrope.

Living in Tree houses

After his exciting flight and on comparatively safe ground the 30-year-old Dimmling looks out across the jungle, “You can’t be scared of heights just because there’s a drop of 60 to 70 metres. It’s all a bit wobbly as well. If I stamp on the floor, the whole tree house wobbles a bit. “

The beds in these houses are simple mattresses. There are mosquito nets because it’s considered to be a malaria territory. There is running water for a couple of hours a day but no electricity and no toilets. The food is basic -- rice and vegetables three times a day. But this did not bother Andreas at all. He explains:

“We’re not used to living so simply in Berlin. Here, the light goes off at six -- basically when it gets dark -- and we get up at six in the morning when the sun comes up. It helps us discover that we can do without certain things and still have a great and special time.”

Gibbon Spotting

The first trek starts at six a.m. There is a lot of walking because the zip lines and tightropes are often a long way away from each other. If tourists are not fit enough, neither do they get far nor do they get to see a gibbon. Tourist guide, Bon Pen explains, “It is difficult to see a gibbon monkey. You have to be quiet and walk slowly. If you are not quiet and the monkey hears you walk, the monkey is gone already.” One doesn’t get to see monkeys if it’s too windy.

Although it sounds like just a huge adventure park for urban travellers, the Gibbon Experience at the Bokeo Nature Reserve is more. Animo uses the proceeds to implement projects to protect the environment. The NGO also involves the inhabitants of the 12 villages that are located within the reserve. They work as guides or cooks and thus earn money doing something that helps preserve their natural surroundings.

Author: Lydia Leipert
Editor: Anne Thomas