Laos Zipline Jungle Adventure Days 2 and 3

In addition to ziplining…

There were some sounds of scuffling in the night. And there might have been what was a rat or mouse fight near the wooden walls by Dan and Katrina’s beds. I might have woken at one of the sounds, but I don’t recall as clearly as Dan or Adam did. Apparently there was a bit of pounding and a “shut up!” as well. I did wake to go to our en suite bathroom in the middle of the night, but thankfully did not encounter any creatures.

Good Morning!

Ziplining from our hut, 60 feet aboveground

Our guides came to get us and we ziplined out of our hut.

Breakfast: eggs, baguette, fruit, Lao coffee

Breakfast and good, strong Lao coffee greeted us (well, there was a bit of a wait)… Sweet, condensed milk was available for us to drizzle over bread or into our coffee — it reminded me of my childhood. Note the roll of TP that stands in for napkins.

DD makes friends with a camp kitty

Our guides, gathered around the fire

The rest of the day was comprised of longer ziplines than the ones we encountered yesterday. Sometimes they were long and fast, where the crew would yell out ahead of time for you to “Brake! Brake!”; more often than not they were long and slow. The lenghthiest line we traversed that day measured a quarter of a mile, or 400 metres long.

Hand over hand retrieval

We all seemed to get stuck on one particularly slow one, and Mr. Big or Mr. Loy would head out, monkey-like, to bring us back in.

One of the highlights of the day was our pause for a couple of hours to just chill by some beautiful waterfalls.

The water was cool, but not unbearably cold. Danny’s photo.

After this pause we felt we didn’t need showers at our lodgings.

Picnic Lunch! Danny’s photo.

Tasty meat and veggies, and of course, sticky rice!

The crew laid out some gorgeous banana leaves and proceeded to pass out bowls of BBQ’d chicken and sweet pork sausage, sauteed veggies and sticky rice. Again, so simple, but oh, so good!

In the afternoon not only were there more ziplines but also some other somewhat more diabolical courses in the form of suspension bridges…

"The Spider" - super-scary!

This bridge, dubbed “The Spider” was definitely the most horrifying for me, and is still the stuff of nightmares. There is something about the wide gaps in between each loop that freaks me out, despite the fact of being clipped in securely on the top. I stepped on the first loop and began wobbling jerkily. Heaving a deep breath, and clutching the sides firmly, I took another step and willed myself to be still. It worked, but my heart kept racing and I kept sweating until I had made it over to the other side.

Danny - generally afraid of heights, unless he's firmly clipped in.

After that, the rest of the obstacles were not nearly as harrowing, or so I felt. We finished the day with a visit to the waterfalls nearest our hotel, and had a nice dinner as usual. The next day, we didn’t even wait for our guides to zipline out of our tree house. Glad we were not reprimanded for breaking the rules.

Happy and Perky on our Last Day

Here we are, rarin’ to go… that Lao coffee really does wonders for our mood.

Scary, but not as scary as The Spider.

One more semi-frightening bridge on that day, but it was nowhere near the terrifying horrors of The Spider.

The way out - Via Via Ferrata
I don't mind climbing - lots of footholds and handholds and clipins

And finally, as promised, we need to climb back out on a rock face – the Via Ferrata.

The end of our jungle adventure.

We trek back through the jungle basically the way we came, and before we know it, we’re meandering through the same coffee plantations and vegetable gardens and other open fields. We end up once again in the village of Ban Nonluang, where we have a final lunch and jump on vans back to the Pakse city centre. Adam, Dan, and Katrina fly back to Bangkok, while DD and I stay on in Pakse for one more night before leaving for Siem Reap the next day.

Definitely a fantastic trip, and one I’d highly recommend to anyone. Our guides, and especially Mr. Loy (thank you for that Tiger Power!) were helpful and friendly, and always emphasized “safety first!”

The trip in 2013 cost $272/ person. Discounts appear to be available if you’re in a group of 3 and above. Adam made all the arrangements by emailing Green Discovery Tours. Costs included transportation from the Ubon aiport to the border town of Chong Mek, and then from Laos immigration to Pakse and on to Ban Nonluang. A flight on Nok air from Bangkok cost $138 for 2 persons.

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