Gibbon Experience, Laos (Bokeo Nature Reserve)

We took a 2 day slow-boat along the Mekong to Huay Xai. Decent scenery along the way. Met a generous, alcoholic Burmese man who didn't quite grasp the fact that we didn't speak chinese. I tried my best, but, just couldn't get it.
Got to Huay Xai, slept and set off on Gibbons the next morn. The experience starts with a 3 hour car ride out into the jungle. About a half hour out our truck broke down.
So they sent another, which also broke down.
One more truck and we made. Just look at how happy T was to finally get there.
We set off into the jungle with our harnesses and before long we were zipping at roughly 50 clics, 150m off the ground.
First day was we just hiked and zipped 3 or 4 lines out to our tree-house for that evening.
View from the bathroom of the tree-house.
Dining room.
Tea room.
Day 2 we woke up at 5:30 to head out on a trek looking for the gibbons.
Like many before us, we didn't find them. Not to worry, twas a foggy sunrise, which made for cool zip-lining.
After breaky we head out towards a waterfall, near treehouses 4 and 6 where we would sleep that night. The waterfall didn't meet the standards of our blog. After lunch at the waterfall, the guides told us it was free time 'til dinner and we could use the zip-lines at our leisure. So we spent the next 3 hours doing exactly that, cruising and zip-lining through the jungle, essentially just the 3 of us. it was ridiculously fun.
That last pic there is of tree-house 4, the setting of an ominous tale. Our group was 8. 6 were to sleep in tree-house 6, and 2 to sleep in the seclusion of tree-house 4. There were 2 couples in the group, however for some reason neither wished to take the opportunity of a night alone in the jungle. Paul suspects hard-core religion, I think it was fear of intimacy, Dr. Phil taught me that. This gave Paul and I the chance to start spending some quality time together. So we have dinner at tree-house 6, head out and get to tree-house 4 just as it's getting dark. The wind picks up and the tree starts swaying. We had been informed in the opening video briefing that if the wind gets too strong, the guides will come evacuate you, but wait for the guides. Then swaying picks up. We call down to the guides on the ground about 200m away. They yell something back. This exchange happens a couple more times. Two massive trees across the valley fall and crash into the jungle. We decide to get the hell outta there. Upon arriving at the guides' huts they explained to us that they were yelling at us to come down. Apparently we were only in danger code orange, not red. In orange the danger is just enough to have weaker guests fearing for their lives, while the guides yell stuff at them in convoluted english, adding confusion to the fear and compounding the stress. We missed this part of the video briefing.

The wind calmed down and we returned to the hut. Already on edge I lay shaking in the fetal position. Just as I thought the sweet release of sleep would take me away, a tremor hit the jungle shaking the tree once more. I called to Paul in his mosquito net to see if he too needed a new pair of boxers. Groggily he told me to grow a pair and get back to sleep.