So we were now on our own and heading to Chiang Rai, Thailand via a transfer in Bangkok. At the Yangon Airport I bought my Ruby Ring, Myanmar has about 90% of the worlds’ deposits in rubies and sapphires.
We had a very quick transfer through Bangkok, unfortunately our checked in luggage didn’t make such a quick transfer but we had it by the time we went to sleep that night. We arrived in Chiang Rai which is pretty close to the border with Laos and had one night there to explore. There are two main attractions there, the green buddha and the white temple. We explored the city; green buddha, food and markets.
We found a bubble tea place so I had to partake in that and they had an awesome shaker.
We had had a long day travelling from Yangon so we had a good sleep. The next day we had worked out what time we had to catch the bus that would take us across the border so we had time to take a tuk tuk to the white temple. This temple has only recently been built and it is beautiful and scary at the same time with weird sculptures .
Also getting into a bit of the time lapse which I think this is very cool.
We then decided to get the local bus at 10am, yes I know you are wondering if that is a wise choice with my track record on buses, well it went surprisingly well, 2 hrs and no A/C. We got dropped off on the side of the road near the border where there are Tuk Tuks waiting to take us to the border. We then had to wait for another bus to take us across the border and the Mekong River to Laos. 
Once there, I got a visa and then walked into Laos and we caught another Tuk Tuk to the border town of Houy Xai in Laos. Yes a lot of transport for about 100km.
We checked in then had a walk around the town, late lunch and checked in for the Gibbon Experience. We had dinner at the hotel and watched the sunset and this is where we would be departing in a couple of days on our Mekong cruise. It was fascinating watching them squeeze their boats in and you will notice they have pieces of wood to protect their boat.
The next day was the Gibbon experience, this is where you walk in the forest, zip line and hope to see Gibbons (monkeys). This was started by a French guy who wanted to save the monkeys as the locals hunted them, so instead of hunting he has turned the Gibbons into tourist attractions with the locals as guides and support, a great idea. Our group got into the back of a Toyota for 1.5hrs, 68km on the road and then 1 hr on dirt roads. We had 9 people in our group, 3 French who smoked constantly, 2 Austrians, and 2 from Hong Kong. We hiked to a waterfall and then zipped lined to our tree hut. Yep, we got to stay in tree huts and the only way in and out was zip lining. We had curries for dinner and hot water for tea and coffee with the kettle full of hot water being zip lined in too. Now that is what I call a toilet with a view. We slept on mattresses under mosquito nets and went to bed very early.
You can see in the right hand picture below where the platform is that you take off from. Niels is giving us a great example of how it is done.
The next day we woke up and waited for our guides to arrive with breakfast. We then zipped lined out and hiked for 2 hr to tree house #3 and then zip lined. One of the other guides had a 1 year old girl that he brought along.
I need say no more. The second line of the day was over 600m long and I got some footage of Niels.
One of the skills with zip lining is getting enough speed so you don’t have to pull yourself at the end, well I think Niels got that part right! We had a great day zip lining and went on about 10 of them in total. We ended up at our second tree hut and the bathroom was very scary, the squat toilet was right beside the edge! We had another delicious meal zipped in and at 1:40am it rained and we got a leak where we were sleeping and then the tree rats came out to play! There are a couple of kitchens located around the forest and that is where are meals are cooked and then zipped to us. Pretty amazing .
After the eventful night it was time to walk out to the village where we started from. Overall we did about 6km of zip lining and we think we saw a Gibbon on the last day high in the trees. Niels showing us how it is done and even looking at the camera, professional. 
We got into the 4wd and headed back to town. We rested back at our hotel, had dinner and got ready for the next day.
We were going to be on the Mekong for 2 days, 1 night to get to Luang Prabang. We started at 9am and didn’t arrive in Pakben until 4pm.
It rained most of the day so we didn’t stop anywhere. One of the things I will remember this boat ride for is finding out the Trump became President of USA!
Docking in Pakben we saw elephants. We had Indian for dinner and a great view over the river.
The next day the weather was better and after lunch we stopped at a village on the river. Niels again was a hit with the locals and I bought a scarf, 50,000 kip ($8.12 AUD). 
I made a donation to the school as most families can only afford to send one child to school. Just before we reached our destination we stopped at Pak Ou Cave which has hundreds of Buddha Statues.
We arrived in Luang Prabang and took a minibus to our hotel, walked around the magnificent town, had a massage and dinner.
Dates: 4th November 2016 to 10th November 2016
Julie Hamilton's Adventures 