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Saturday
We awoke, grabbed a nutella baguette from across the road and got to the reception area for the Gibbon Experience where we were delighted they had some decent coffee and bananas (setting the monkey scene I guess). We had packed a separate little bag to take in with us for the three days, left our big bags in a safe room and sat waiting for the team having technical issues with windows (standard). We then watched in horror as the long safety video plays out - 90% of which I couldn't remember afterwards but the whole room looked slightly panicked so must have felt the same. The classic experience which we were booked on was then directed to where our transport was and we were told it would be around a 2 hour journey to get to, and into the jungle.
Lauren and I climb into the back of a tuk tuk with a father and his two teenage sons from Germany I think it was, and a guy who seemed to be about 68 from Switzerland. After about 10 minutes I ask Lauren when we will get to the coach and her and the Dad both laugh at me and she says we're not getting a coach and we are on this tuk tuk for the duration of the journey into the jungle. I don't believe her and think she's joking, and then 30 minutes later as it starts to dawn on me we don't seem to be driving to a place where there would be a coach station I turn to her and say, "There's no coach is there?" and she laughed again shaking her head and said "No Kirsty, a coach wouldn't fit in the jungle!"….well I was planning on having a little nap and just thought it was mad to be on this little tuk tuk being thrown around for 2 hours. If I thought that was bad, it got even worse when we stopped off outside the jungle and were transferred into slightly longer tuk tuks to fit more people in, we chatted to two sets of young couples travelling (from Australia and a couple from Indonesia I think it was?), who were very pleasant and chatty and also met Ben (Northampton UK) whilst being completely thrown around as we headed deeper into the jungle. I even had to swap places with Lauren at one point so she was on the end as she thought she was going to throw up.
We made it to a little village where I saw my first rabid dog (confirmed as rabid by Lauren after my many times of pointing to animals in the last few weeks asking if they are rabid) and I felt very unsettled as I avoided all eye contact with it and stood behind groups of people who hadn't seemed to notice its crazy-appearance. We were led through some fields and what felt like a long walk (I had no idea of what was yet to come with walking…) into the beginning part of the jungle, we were given a sandwich and then continued to trek to where the first base point was. We then had the choice the split into two groups of 8, and one group of 4 to stay in separate tree houses. There was a younger group of 5 girls and Ben, who we'd briefly spoke to on the tuk tuk who asked if we wanted to go with them, as the other group of 8 consisted of the couple's, two guys and two girls travelling separately from the Netherlands. So we went with the group who'd asked us and realized they were all from around the UK midlands. Saffi, Lauren and Bianca were travelling together and all had been to university in Leicester, Becky and Katy were travelling together and home for them was Leicester and Ben as mentioned before was from Northampton but had gone to school in Warwick at the boys school there so we all had something in common which was a good start.
We did a hell of a lot more walking/climbing whatever you want to call it and a couple of zip lines. For the first zip line I was terrified for and I was shaking as I clipped myself onto the line and threw myself off hoping I'd put it on right as our group leader Jay was very laid back. It seemed to go OK, apart from on the second one my water bottle I had in the back off my bag got caught on the line and for a minute I thought I'd lost my dry bag which contained all my clothes I had attached to me, but it was all good. Having got to the tree house by around 4.30pm, we all took it in turns to shower - the shower/toilet area which was amazing it had a huge beautiful view of the jungle that you looked out onto, and we were told dinner was at 5pm and that it would get very dark very quick. Dinner was brought out which was sticky rice and some pots of vegetables and beef (not that I could eat that part), and we chatted away and then got settled around the table for some evening card games. Jay was right it was pitch black by like 6pm which felt really weird because we all kept thinking it was really late when it wasn't.
Saffi and Ben had brought in a bottle of whiskey with them, and they attempted to make it last by dishing it out and adding some water to it. We all thought it tasted awful so started adding different things to see if it would improve, the first ingredient being orange, and then when Jay and Keung (pronounced 'Gun') came back, they were making hot chocolate for us so we added some of that in - which for me seemed to work but some of the others still felt it tasted awful. It was great to mix with them all who were a few years younger than Lauren and I (22), they had great banter and were all really lively and made the evening really fun. We had nicknames flying around again, Katy being referred to as Bailey (her surname), Becky being called 'Leicester', I've made it to the name of 'Steve' which came from when we were hiking and a couple of the girls asked me my name, as I was out of breath it came out as '-sty' instead of 'Kirsty', so they thought I'd said 'Ste' and then we made a joke my name being Steve.. and well that's it now. As there are two Lauren's, at this point our Lauren is being referred to as 'Lauren 1' as she's the older Lauren, however by the end of the trip she was nicknamed 'Biology', and Lauren and I are later then referred to as 'Steveology' as we come as a pair. We drank the whiskey and ate some snacks, and played the game 'Werewolf', which my friends from back home will know as 'Maffia', and by around 10pm decided to climb into our little bed area's which Jay and Keung had set up for us on the floor. It was two single mattresses pushed together with comfy bedding, and what was like a bed sheet draped around us to protect from mosquitoes. I felt a bit scared and hardly slept as the night before, Kelly had mentioned to us how there was stuff moving around in her tree house when she had stayed, and expected them to have been tree house rats which there were also signs about for us to put the food away in special containers. I was also concerned I'd wake up to a monkey on the other side of my sheet which I could see through, and I was sleeping on the edge. Lauren and I both wedged to try and sleep in the centre of the bed, and after lots of giggling from the other girl's beds and listening to stories, we eventually drifted off to sleep.
- comments
Doreen Thomson Hey darling yet another very humerous read! I can imagine your face after the safety video! Ha ha mine would be the same .. However looks like you had an amazing experience! .. I'm glad your having a slightly quieter time and Chilling now and it's good that you. Are in a nice place .. I can't wait to come out now it will soon come round! .. Bows into Gail and saw Lozs Sunday roast ha ha enjoy my darling speak soon love and miss. You❤️❤️Xx
Auntie loz cant stop giggling at this !!!! you explain everything so well I can see it in my own mind.xxxx