I slept incredibly well up in that treehouse in Bokeo! I was asleep by ten, for the first time in I don't know how long, and woke up briefly around 5am, and peeked out of my mosquito netting, to see the entire surrounding jungle enshrouded with early morning fog, and the rising sun. It was quite beautiful!
I think I woke up officially around 8am, when we were all awoken and greeted by the high pitched sound of the zipline being traveled on towards our treehouse- it was our guides with breakfast, and another large kettle of boiling water. :)
We all had a good breakfast, had our morning hot beverages, and then everyone got packing. We zipped out of our treehouse by 9am, and spent the morning hiking until lunchtime, everyone dripping sweat from the heat and intense humidity of the jungle. When we finally arrived at a picnic table in the middle of the jungle next to a waterfall, we were all quite happy to jump into the cold water, and eat a good lunch, and spent an hour or two there just relaxing.
Oh, and, I forgot to mention the leeches. Yeah, leeches! From the ground! The first time I saw one, I didn't know what it was, and thought it was just as strange worm that stood up on its bottom end, reaching up into the sky for some reason. Later on the first day, we discovered that this was a leech sniffing and reaching for its next victim, as most of the east coast guys found these engorged leeches on their ankles and legs in the later afternoon. For some reason, the rest of us were spared this yucky experience, and the east coast guys were the central targets of these devious and sneaky leaches over the rest of the 3 days.
Our pace of hiking throughout this experience was quite fast, and there were many hills to climb along the way. After many more ziplines, we finally made it to our second treehouse. This time, I had a much better hold on the whole ziplining thing, and went off with the Swedish couples to zipline just for the fun of it for the next few hours. It was so much fun! Once I got over the initial fear of jumping off a platform hundreds of feet off the ground and into the abyss of a massive valley, I was really able to enjoy the experience, and was also developing some expertise in how to get all the way to the other side- it's all about becoming as streamlined as possible, laying back, and pointing your feet!
We were all back in the treehouse around 4:30, when our guides dropped off our dinners once again, and said 'See you tomorrow!' and zipped away without a trace. We all commented on the earliness of our dinner, but, we were hungry so we went for it. As we opened the 4-tiered Tiffin, we quickly realized that there was no protein/meat in this meal! Uh-oh! As we looked at our four small tins containing nothing but rice and dark greens, a disappointed silence fell over the group. We exchanged some words, and looks, and with trepidation, dug into our light fare.
As the night progressed, the status of our situation began to slowly but surely deteriorate. We were all still quite hungry after eating our meal, and it was only 6pm. We realized that we had no more hot water for the night unless our guides took pity on us and came back, and as the sun began to go down, we realized we had no electricity in this treehouse. I was the 9th person in a group that was ordinarily only 8 people, so an extra set of mosquito netting was brought for me, but the treehouse had no hooks to hang it by.
Luckily, we had quite a well-equipped group, and some of the guys began attaching their headlamps in high places to provide light for the group to hang out and play cards. Two of the Americans decided to break the rule of 'no zipping at night', and went off with the kettle to a small camping stove we knew to be on the other end of one of the lines into our treehouse. Some of the guys had extra caribeaners and helped me to fashion makeshift attachments to hang my mosquito netting.
Also, a bit earlier, we all had the opportunity to spot some Gibbons, which, while quite far away, were still Gibbons! We all gathered together to look at them and point them out to each other. We felt quite cheerful that we got to see these elusive Gibbons, and it brought more energy to the hungry and tired group.
The guys came back with the boiling water, all of us proud of their accomplishment. All of our tummies rumbled, and without any food, we all tried to fill our bellies with some hot OVALTINE, the only thing we were able to find in the treehouse for food, beyond some pieces of fruit that were meant for the next day, as well as some rice and condensed milk that was leftover. One guy created a new snack by mixing the ovaltine, condensed milk, and rice together, and a few others followed suit.
The previous day, I had taken it upon myself to wash all of the dishes for the group, and didn't ask for any help, and very little help was offered. On this evening, I decided to leave things to chance. As the hours passed in the headlamp-lit dark, the dishes sat on the table as we tried to figure out what card games to play, when someone saw the most gigantic spider in our hut! Some people started getting quite scared, while others grabbed their cameras to photograph the spider. We all agreed that spiders might not be such a big deal, but being in such darkness made it feel a bit creepier. Suddenly, we all hear a rustling sound from the treehouse trashcan- we all turn, and see the head of a rat peeking out at all of us, which quickly disappears as it runs to some unknown destination. The entire group instantly motivates as a unit, and begins cleaning all of the dishes, and despite my distaste at the prospect of the rat, I smile at the motivation that it gave the rest of the group to clean up after itself.
So, now we have found ourselves in the relative darkness, with massive spiders and rats, on empty stomachs after a full day of hiking and ziplining, and pretty much everybody makes their way to bed. We pray collectively that breakfast will bring greater prospects for our final morning of hiking out of the jungle.
The next morning our guides zip in with a yet again limited breakfast, though there is a small amount of eggs that we ration out. We all pack up for the final time, and zip out for our final few hours of the trip.
The last few hours of trekking were made quite quickly and relatively quietly. Despite our hunger, everyone felt pretty good, and was enjoying the final scenery from the jungle, and eventually out into fields and farmland that led us back to our original destination of the small village. As we approached the original riverbed to cross by foot, it felt remarkable that it had been only two days before that we had begun our trip. As we waited in the village for a truck to come pick us up, we saw the new groups getting ready to begin their experience. It was quite amusing, as the difference between those beginning the trek was apparent from those just finishing it- we were all so sweaty, dirty, mosquito bitten, and some healing from their leech-bites.
We had a great trip of it- the whole thing! But we were definitely all ready for a shower, and a good meal. Most people were going to Thailand from there, but myself and a Swedish couple were going to board a short bus ride to Luang Namtha, a small town just two hours northeast of the end of this jungle trek.
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