It’s not particularly cheap, but as soon as I had heard of the treehouses in Bokeo Province, I knew I had to see them for myself and sleep in there. So, I booked my trip and three weeks ago, I jumped on a plane.
The town Houayxay (in Lao’s Northwest, see the green arrow!) itself is not that exciting so I spent a rather relaxing afternoon with the people from my hostel, read my book and walked around. I woke up refreshed and very, very excited. After a brief introduction, we got split up into two groups and loaded into jeeps. A very bumpy 3h drive brought us deeper into the national park to a small village which was the starting point of our hike. Both groups would do the same route, but in opposite directions. For the first 5min or so I was a little disappointed because I ‘got stuck’ with a complete female group and I half-expected to have three days of screaming and complaining ahead of me (wow, am I being sexist here? I guess sexism also exists between women…). But oh boy, was I wrong! All other 7 group members were tough cookies: No-one complained about the hike being too steep, we didn’t have to wait up for anyone and all in all, we had tonnes of fun together! One of those moments when your first impression is just wrong and you feel guilty afterwards… As soon as we left the rice fields and entered the jungle, I knew I would love this trip (except for the millions of mozzies and leeches, to be fair…).
The hike was demanding enough; we were puffing and panting up some fairly steep and slippery ascents and I could tell that I am still not fully recovered from my first month here. When we reached the first zip-line, we got a brief introduction from our guides and with mixed feelings everyone tried it for the first time. Let’s just say that the security checks are rather… minimalistic and I was glad I already knew the harnesses from climbing. But this lack of security also had its advantages, for example we were allowed to zip-line by ourselves and didn’t have to wait for double-checks all the time. So, I fastened my straps, attached both ropes to the zip-line, took a deep breath and off I went.
It’s a crazy feeling to just jump and plunge into open air. I didn’t even book the tour because of the zip-lining but thought of it as a mere bonus. Looking back now though, I am so glad it was included! It was incredible to speed through and high above the green canopy, to lean back even further to increase my speed, feel the wind on my face and turn my head this way and that in order to catch every possible angle of the view. The first morning, I woke early and spontaneously decided to kick-start my metabolism: So, I put on my gear and swiiiiiiiish, off I went. Because there was no-one behind me I could break and just stop in the middle of the line. I took some nice pictures of the morning mist in the mountains, watched my feet dangle 30meters above the forest floor and just felt super energized and happy. Part of me was tempted to let go a loud Tarzan-cry, but out of courtesy for my fellow hiker’s beauty sleep, I didn’t. The downside of this little excurse was that I had to monkey-monkey myself all the way back into the treehouse. “Monkey-monkey” was what our guide called it when someone didn’t make it all the way to the platform. You then had to turn around and haul yourself along the zip-line with your arms. Good exercise!
Breaking for a quick snapshot
Me doing “money-monkey”
Oh yeah and I haven’t even talked about the treehouses! AMAZING!! They are truly breath-taking and I can only imagine how much hard work it took to complete them. The national park is very remote and all the supplies for building, maintaining and all the food is carried up there on ponyback or by foot. When starting a new house, the tree needs to be climbed by a human and then, the first zip-line is set up. All material is carried over like this, from the first nails and planks to the sink and toilet bowl. In fact, we enjoyed a lot of comfort up there: Electricity from solar panels (not for charging your cameras but to power some lightbulbs)! Even running – and drinkable – water! I loved taking my showers with that view, I doubt anyone could start their mornings any more refreshed and adventurous. Going to the toilet in the middle of the night was a mission though: D I really regretted drinking that beer in the evening haha In general, I slept like a baby up there, lulled by the cicadas chirping and my aching muscles. We had comfortable army-style mattresses, thick covers and a mosquito net – what more can you ask for? Good food? Well, we even had that!
On the second day, we did more hiking, zip-lining and stopped at a nice natural pool for a swim. Ahhhhhh, so refreshing! The 3 days passed way too quickly and before I knew it, I was back in Houayxay and only the mosquito bites reminded me a few more days of where I had been…
the drive to the village was an adventure in itself
ponies like this one bring food and all other supplies to the treehouses
we started out trekk through rice fields and headed straight for the jungle
…where we had to start going up pretty soon
our lovely and very competent guides 🙂
morning adventure
dodgy bridge
i loved the micado-pattern of the bamboo
we also had to cross some small streams (the guide made us fans out of palm leaves against the mosquitos and the heat)
natural pool in the middle of the jungle
can’t wait to try it myself
ready – steady – go!
…and huuiiiii off I go! (note the BEEHIVE above my head!)
I looooved showering here
Toilet with view!
comfy treehouse
The gang!
Rice harvest – a backbreaking activity
But there was no need to be sad because the trip ended with a lovely dinner with the whole group and a local festival of lights. Every town and village celebrates it after the traditional boat races, but on very different dates. It was truly beautiful to see the many candles and lights illuminating the streets. They also let burning lanterns fly into the night sky and launched even more candles glued on boats – from the size of a hand up to 5m long ones! The whole town was celebrating.
And also the flight back was an experience in itself: The airport seemed even tinier to me than it had upon my arrival and there was a power failure so neither their computer system, nor any security devices worked. Two girls from my hiking group actually got away with accidentally having booked their flight for the day before. But because the system was down (and maybe because the overstrained, barely-English speaking Lao lady didn’t want to start an English discussion with them…) they got on the flight anyways! Lucky day! The security check consisted of one brief, 3second look into the main compartment of my backpack and no-one even noticed the remaining water in the hydration bladder; I could have brought ten knives with me without anyone noticing it… Ah well. Luckily, there’s pretty much zero risk of terrorist attacks here in Lao…
All in all, a GREAT and very unique trip!
chillies, chillies, chillies
Flying back to Vientiane – luckily I have one more trip lined up before my return to Germany!
But we made it to the next lodge in tense silence and once more, jacked up the Pajero. I can honestly say that I learnt a lot about cars this trip… With Michael on the phone and ten locals watching us, we finally found the root of the problem: 1(!) single screw was missing. But an important one: FYI, wheel suspensions only consist of two big screws per tire and as soon as one is missing, the other one could fall out shortly after. You can imagine that the resulting loss of control could lead to a rather nasty accident. Not a pretty thought. Lucky us.
For us, it wouldn’t be a perfect holiday without some decent, sweaty hikes. And with our 4×4 (see last article), we didn’t have any problems getting deep into the Lesotho and SA mountains. When it comes to hiking, I never really know what there is to write about it but rather let the pictures speak for themselves. The ones beneath are from three different tours. Please check the subtitles or contact us directly if you’re interested in the exact locations.
Feeding Fernweh 