Sailing from the treetops to the river

I traveled for a week or so without a camera until I realized that the one I thought was broken in Cambodia does work-just the screen doesn't. So shooting blind-I began again to try and capture the best of my trip. Here is the high point of Luang Prabang-literally-one of the top spots in town is the temple on the top of a large hill overlooking the river and town below. 

Most of the town is full of cute souvenir shops, massage parlours (of which I partook), and lots of restaurants and cafes located on one of the two rivers that surround the downtown. I caught this rowing team during practice one day while I was enjoying a mango shake. I missed several boat races during my travels (one time by one day), so this was as close as I was getting. 

From Laung Prabang I headed northwest, almost to the Thai border, to HueySai. From here I joined the Gibbon Experience-a three day trip created several years ago to protect the gibbons in the area and using the former poachers as guides. Paying what normally would have lasted me several weeks of travel (but totally worth it!!) I spent the time zipping through the treetops, sleeping in a treehouse (that's right), and seeing/heading the gibbons. The tour started with a 8km/5mile drive along this very muddy road in which one truck couldn't make it the whole way. When it's really bad you have to get out and walk the whole thing.

We were dropped off in a small village that serves as base camp for the trip. We had to cross this river first and then hike a few hours before the zip lining started. I'm the one up front with the walking stick-which became my best friend as it saved me from slipping and falling in the mud many times. 

After the hike and a few zip lines we arrived at our treehouse. I really wish we had this architect in our neighborhood when I was little. It definitely was a step above what we ever achieved.  

Here are my new French-Canadian friends chilling after the first day. 

This ladies and gents is the shower (can you see it in the upper left hand corner?) and the view from the bathroom-not bad right?

This is the whole gang from Treehouse 7. The nine of us plus our two tour guides (who were amazing!) had a blast together. All of our meals and drinks were flown in by a girl who worked in the kitchen located just up the trail from the zipline. In the mornings, one of the guides would zip over with a large kettle of hot water. And the first night they were kind enough to bring us a large beer bottle full of LaoLao (the national drink-a rice whiskey-basically moonshine). Between that and some card games, we had a wonderful time together. 

The reason for the trip: the gibbons! My group was lucky enough to see and hear the gibbons the very first morning. We were awoken by their singing (almost whale like) before the sunrise one morning. And by the time we were able to see, they were active-swinging around the trees. Gibbons have the longest arms to body ratio of any ape-so it was pretty impressive to watch them quickly move meters in seconds.

(I hope this video comes out well I haven't much success loading them yet). Here I am with my tour guide Mike. Can you see the background? At any one time we were 50-60 meters off the ground. Twice we were given an hour or so to do a figure 8 shaped course of zip lines and I always maxed out on the free time. 

After the three day zip lining tour, myself and my four new French speaking friends hired a boat for 2 days and set off down the Mekong and then up the Namtha River for a scenic route to Luang Namtha. 

Along the way we passed numerous small villages like this, all roadless, meaning that the only access was the river we were traveling on. 

We spent the night at the house of the boatman and his wife in one of the roadless villages. It was one of the highlights of my trip. Although it's not unheard of to choose to take a boat instead of the bus, there were no other tourists for our 2 day tour. As we walked around the village people were going about life with little regard for us. We watched as people gathered water from one of several wells in town-their only form of water besides the river (which is still used for bathing), cooked on open fires, and shucked rice.

But the most common task we saw happening was weaving. The women here are renowned for their beautiful woven skirts. Beneath each house (which are all on stilts), at least one woman from each family could be seen at all hours of the day and night, weaving on these old fashion looms. I was mesmerized by the complicated process and several times just stood and watched as the women were working. 

We also got to watch a match between our boatmen and his friends. He is the one about to head the small ball back over the net. I've seen this game played in other countries with a soccer/football. It's a lot like volleyball but you use more soccer/football skills. Here in southeast Asia, a ball made of woven bamboo is used.

As I said, there are no roads, but there were several paths the ran up and down and around the houses and animal pens. After walking through town and enjoying a delicious meal by the boatman's wife we made friends with the old men in town and we invited to shots of Laolao.

Cute kid picture of the post-the boatman's son joined us on the second day. Here he is asleep on his dad's lap as he drives. Also, I hope you can see how this boat operates. The wooden cylinder that is vertical has ropes wrapped around it in opposite directions which then lead to the rudder on the back of the boat. The gas pedal is the rope that is looped around the big toe of the boatman. 

Luang Namtha-my last stop in Laos, was a sleepy town but their morning market was alive and kicking....or wriggling about. This guy nearly got away. 

I had seen this several times and was glad to finally glad to snag a photo on my last day in Laos. Do YOU know why I really wanted this picture?

another sunset over rice paddies, it never gets old. 

My friend here was trying to bargain with these ladies. Well actually he didn't want to buy anything but they insisted on his buying something, so his method to get rid of them was to offer way under the price they asked. It was funny to watch. These ladies walk around town selling their wares: bracelets, purses and among other things- drugs. I was offered both marijuana and opium several times. This region is very close to China and is known for their opium.

I'm back in Vietnam! Having just crossed the border I can now finally read again (in Cambodia and Laos they don't use the Roman alphabet). Unfortunately the first sign I came upon was this one.....so close ;)