The Gibbon Experience

The Gibbon Experience began as a conservation project in the Nam Kan forest of Bokeo, aimed at giving villages an income from standing forest rather than from logging it, and it works by putting paying visitors into treehouses reached only by zip line. The treehouses are high in the canopy with no walls, food is winched across, and the western black-crested gibbon whose population the project exists to protect is heard far more often than it is seen. Trips run over two or three days with a good deal of steep walking between the lines.

What you actually see

• The treehouses - open platforms high in the canopy, reached only by zip line.
• The zip lines - long cables strung between ridges, some of them several hundred metres.
• The forest - Nam Kan, a protected block of the Bokeo hills with good primary sections.
• The gibbons - black-crested gibbons calling at dawn, heard reliably and seen occasionally.

When to go

November to March is the dry season and the most comfortable. The wet months make the trails slippery and the lines are run in rain, which is unpleasant rather than dangerous. Gibbons call at first light in any season.

Honest expectations

The walking is harder than most people expect: steep, hot and several hours a day with your own pack. Treehouses have no walls, the shower is cold, and rats and insects are part of it. Seeing a gibbon is not guaranteed and many groups only hear them. Book well ahead, because places are limited.

Nearby

Huay Xai is the starting town and the Mekong slow boat leaves from there.