Sanctuaries and Treehouses

There is something extraordinary about traveling alone. I completed my first solo trip to Europe when I was still a teenager, and I try to book a different solo adventure trip every couple of years. It can get lonely, but the feeling of truly being in control of your itinerary and being left with your thoughts is indescribable. I find it also forces you to be sociable and meet new people. I have had some amazing experiences in bars and cafés and even on the backs of motorbikes with other travelers that I have never met before and will likely never meet again.

It has been a few years since my last solo adventure, so it is time to plan another. I lie; I have already planned this one. Unfortunately, 2020 got in the way of it becoming a reality. But it has not been forgotten; instead just pushed back. Waiting for the new normal to stop being so normal.

If I were to give this adventure a name, what would I call it? Perhaps Elephants and Gibbons? Southeast Asia With a Twist? Sanctuaries and Treehouses? Yes, that last one is perfect!

Although I now live on the USA's east coast, I was born and raised in Australia. I therefore have a deep love and admiration for Southeast Asia. I have traveled to many parts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, and even though I am now further away, I feel a desire to go back and explore a new piece of the region.

The general itinerary for this Sanctuaries and Treehouses adventure is as follows.

1. Fly into Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

• Visit the Killing Fields and learn about the genocide.

2. Travel by any means necessary to Mon Senorom in remote Cambodia (about a 4 hour trip by car).

3. Spend two weeks staying at the Elephant Valley Project (EVP) – a sanctuary for rescued elephants.

• Volunteer program also includes community work at the nearby villages.

• Work with and observe the elephants (easily the most beautiful creatures on the planet).

4. Travel to Angkor Wat temple and spend two days in awe.

5. Fly to Chiang Rai in Thailand (no SE Asian adventure would be complete without a touch of Thailand).

6. Travel by local bus over the Friendship Bridge to Ban Houayxay, Laos.

7. Stay overnight in one of the world's highest treehouses with The Gibbon Experience, included in their 2-day ziplining tour.

8. Catch a slow boat down the Mekong River overnight to Luang Prabang, Laos.

• Slow boat takes two days and one night.

9. Swim in one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world - Kuang Si Falls.

10. Fly back home in complete awe of the past month.

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? It has everything that a perfect solo trip should have:

• Elephants (in a completely ethical way).

• Remote living (the elephant sanctuary doesn't even have electricity or cell service).

• Culture (there's a reason why Angkor Wat is considered the eighth wonder of the world).

• Ziplining (need I say more?).

• Unique experiences (how many people get to say they have ziplined to the tallest treehouse in the world and stayed overnight?).

• Relaxation (the slow boat is exactly that – very slow).

• Swimming in a waterfall (one of the most stunning ones at that).

That's just touching on the main parts of the trip. It's also the little things that will make this trip memorable - catching public transport rather than paying for a tourist trap bus; sleeping in a hostel that is little more than a floor and mattress; having to think on your feet and find a way to get to where you want to go; being able to look into a rescued elephant's eyes and know that you are contributing to their happiness and safety rather than hurting them for your entertainment. Best feeling ever. Trust me. You will never ride an elephant again.

You may have realized that the central part of this trip is the elephant sanctuary. This is how I plan my solo trips – I find one must-do, a major reason for going. And then I find out what is amazing around it and work from there. I have visited the Elephant Valley Project briefly in 2016 and vowed I would return (and make a big trip out of it). It's more than a tourist experience, it's true volunteering - each volunteer stays in the jungle, and there is no electricity or cell service (just a generator that gets turned on every night for an hour or two, and no Wi-Fi). And we slept on bunks under giant mosquito nets. I do not think the accommodations would even get a single star rating, but that's not always the point of travel, is it? It's able to give back and do something entirely out of your comfort zone. I stayed for three days previously, and this time I will be extending it to two weeks. Many stay for a month or more (but that is out of my budget, unfortunately). The photos attached are from my visit.

Laos is a country that I have not had the pleasure to visit yet, and I have read about the Gibbon Experience, and it instantly went way up high on my bucket list. It is two-days, one night, and you literally spend all day ziplining to the treehouse. Then locals zip in (pun intended) with food, and you sleep under the stars. Then in the morning, after a local breakfast, you zipline back to the town. There is only a handful of places with an experience like this, so I am truly blessed to have an opportunity to experience it.

Finally, the third significant bucket list experience is the slow boat down the Mekong River. While a bus is quicker, what's the rush? The slow boat takes 14 hours to get from Ban Houayxay to Luang Prabang, and I will overnight at a tiny town called Pakbeng. Pakbeng is a place where you would only visit as part of the slow boat tour, so I feel this would make me a part of a very small group of travelers, which makes it perfect! The boat tour also stops by some local villages and caves for an extra dose of culture. Luang Prabang is a much bigger city, so it is a perfect finish to what will be an incredible, indescribable trip.

This trip may only be a month-long, but it will be so packed full of memories, unique experiences, and packed with adventure and culture, that I cannot think of a better way to spend four weeks. I hope that I was able to capture what this trip will be about adequately. I may not be the best writer in the world (or even a particularly good one), but I am something more important – an adventurer. A solo traveler. A memory maker. A part of the small group of people in the world who do more than go on cruises and stay at 5-star hotels. And I feel that I am all the better for it.