The Funky Gibbon Experience

Do the Funky Gibbon!

I have a fairly substantial interest in gibbons for several reasons.

1. I did research in Taiwan on parasites that affect them.

2. How can you not like them?  The way they swing around is hysterical.

3. Last but not least, my maiden name (now my middle name) is Gibbons.

Gibbons are actually apes, not monkeys.  They get around by using their really long arms to swing through the trees, and can reach 35mph.  The Latin name for gibbons, means tree dweller, which indicates just how much time these animals spend off the ground.

When I attended the 1st gibbon conference (yup, that’s a thing) in 2012, and heard about the gibbons in Laos, I mentally added it to the list of countries I wanted to visit.  However, observing these animals in the wild is not easy.  The black crested Gibbon is critically endangered, with only 1300-2000 individuals worldwide.

We hemmed and hawed for ages about whether or not to spend the money to do an excursion called “The Gibbon Experience”, and at the very last minute agreed that it would give us the best chance to see the animals in the wild.

So we made our way to Bokeo National park in northern Laos, were driven into the jungle, then a group of us, led by guides, hiked an hour and a half further into the jungle.

 

There are five tree houses spread over the jungle, which are of varying size and quality.  By some chance, we were given the two-person “honeymoon” treehouse, which was named “Igor”.  The group joked that if we have a baby in nine months, we have to name him Igor Gibbons.

Our treehouse was about 30m/100ft high at the top of a mountain, which made it quite cold and windy, but it was really awesome.  We had a completely exposed bathroom, a mattress, and sink.

Since the treehouses are so high, the only way to access them is via zip line. We wore harnesses around our waists, and hooked onto a line to enter and exit the house.  This is also how our guides brought us food.  Actually, zip line is how we got around a lot of the jungle.  There are 23 cables of varying length (the longest is 440m/1443ft) that make it possible to traverse valleys.

Flying through the trees on zip lines and sleeping in treetops is the closest we’ll get to being a dweller of the trees. Well, at least for those who aren’t lucky enough to have “gibbon” in their name 

In the rain, we trekked through the jungle, dense with bamboo, our guide pointing out ginger, bananas and huge squirrels.  We sloshed through the mud, and visited all the tree houses.  The most impressive was number 5, which sits high atop a lone tree in the middle of a valley.  To exit this house, we had to clip onto the line and jump out a window, which was slightly unnerving (for me, not Paul).

 

We had so much fun on the zip lines. Our guide left us on our own for a day, and we did 60 runs on the different zip lines.  The most invigorating part was doing a long zip line just after sunrise, with mist and clouds hanging over the tops of the trees below us.

And yes, we did see wild gibbons.  On the second morning, we saw 3 males and 1 female swinging through the trees and climbing branches.  We were pretty amazed; there are fewer than 2,000 black faced gibbons in the world, and we saw four!

The next day we briefly heard their distinctive whooping call.  We also saw a swarm of a type of endangered monkey called a Phayre’s langur.

We are so happy we did the gibbon experience. Sleeping in a treehouse, zip lining over the forest, trekking in the jungle, and seeing wild gibbons in their natural habitat was a perfect was to end our time in this amazing country.

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Beer of Choice: Beer Laos (it was the only option; we were given 2 cans on the first day)