Huay Xai to Bokeo National Park
The morning started about 0630, kind of that hurry up & wait thing since we didn’t end up leaving until about 0815.
The first part of the trip is sitting in the back of a truck fitted out with a couple of planks of wood, with a little padding on them and a canopy to keep the sun off.
There are 9 of us from various parts of the globe. 3 Canadians, 2 British, 2 Swedish and 1 German. The drive was mostly on gravel roads some of them were not too bad, others were a little, um, bumpy. Though it seems they are trying to upgrade the road still it will be awhile before the work is finished.
We arrived in a small village of Ban Tup about 3 1/2 hours after we left Huay Xai. From here we learned we had to walk for about 1 hour to get to the tree house.
The trek up to the tree house was not really that bad. We had to wade through about 4 streams the last just above the knees so they really were not that deep. The journey after the 4th stream was mostly straight up and personally I was glad when we got there.
The kitchen was the first building we saw, ground side for obvious reasons, open fires in a tree house really do not make sense.
We got given a harness each and then walked up to the first zip line. There was some brief instruction on the harness and safety before we all zipped across to the tree house one at a time.
It is rather basic but still has more than I expected. The main level is the living area with a small kitchen. There is the upper level a small ‘bower’ that sleeps two people and a lower level that sleeps 4 people. On the lower level there is also a bathroom. The water in the bathroom is cold but they have plans to put in solar hot water panels in the future so there can be hot water.
Here we got to have a break for about an hour. Three of us had to go to the number 3 tree house as this one only sleeps 6 people. I volunteered and so did the Canadian couple. So off we went zipping with one of the guides leading us to the 3rd tree house. All up it took about 40 minutes incorporating another 4 zip lines and small treks between the lines. Zipping is fun when you get used to it and the views as you are zipping across are spectacular. On the way the Gibbons started singing but unfortunately we did not see them.
The 3rd tree house is some what smaller and all on one level housing a maximum of 4 people. The advantage is a truly amazing view across the top of the canopy.
The day was finished off watching the sun set across the canopy and we ate dinner & played cards by candlelight.
