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Gibbons Viewing, 2days/1night Tour
DAY 1
You will be picked up from your hotel at 8am and depart by car from Ban Lung at 8:30am and travel about 45km to Veun Sai town. In Veun Sai town we will take motorbike to travel about 30 minutes to I Tub village, a Laotian community approximately halfway to the Veun Sai-Siem Pang Conservation Area station. Once in I Tub, we will take a short break and meet with a member of the Community based Ecotourism Team. After that we continue to the station by motorbike along a forest path, we might see tracks and signs of some of the local wildlife such as the claw marks of the sun bear on the tree trunks, or footprints of deer and other species as well as local birds. At around 12pm we will arrive at the based camp and then have lunch. You then have time to relax and make yourself comfortable before walking to the nearby savannah for a spot of bird watching.
DAY 2
Today we rise early at 3:15am because the gibbons wake up with the sun and call to mark their territory as soon as dawn breaks. At 4am, whilst it is still dark we following a small trail to the protected gibbon area about 45 minutes away to make sure that we are there in time to hear their call. We then reach the edge of a grassy savannah and wait for the call of a certain gibbon family, currently the only group that accepts people in their presence. The different groups start to call (sing) at around sunrise with some calls carrying up to 2km. Once the habituated groups of gibbons starts to sing, the gibbon guide will try to locate them in the forest as fast as possible and he will guide us to the spot so we can watch them as they go about their morning activities in the tree canopy. In some cases they let you come very close – less than 15 meters – which provides an excellent opportunity to take pictures. This is a special time as the gibbons can travel quickly in the trees and leave in a split second, anytime they want. Once they do, it can be very difficult for us to find them again, however the group can often be followed for a couple of hours throughout the forest. After the gibbon spotting we head back to the station for brunch at about 10:30am. We then pack up and get ready to leave.
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