Trekking in Hsipaw

The next morning, we actually planned to take a short walk around Hsipaw's local attraction, before taking the afternoon bus down to Inle lake at 3.30pm. Hence, after breakfast at Lily's Place (marvellous breakfast with blended strawberry + banana milkshake and fruits), we headed towards the north side of the town. However, after 10 minutes of walking, Lily sent one of her boys to inform us that there would be no bus on that day since it was a Sunday. We were totally devastated, and we had to turn around back to our hotel and replan our itinerary as we had already made reservations in Nyaung U. 

Back in the hotel, we rescheduled our reservations in Nyaung U, booked the bus for the following day, and then decided to rent a bike to go visit the nearby Shan villages for trekkiing. It was then I made a grave mistake.

Remember the elderly Singaporean couple whom I mentioned in my previous post? Well, he woke up late and missed his trip to some other place, and he requested to tag along with us since they had nothing to do, and regrettably I agreed to it. And that became the worse day in Burma!

We walked for 15 minutes to rent 2 motorcycles; one for me and the elderly gentleman, while the other for my buddy and the Singaporean wife. Lily told us the trek was easy, so we thought it was okay to give those 2 a lift. And it turned out that it was one of the steepest route that I have ever biked! Not only it was a dirt path laid with rocks and twigs and ravines and bumps, the road was somehow a bit too steep for 2 ordinary 700cc bikes!

Anyway, going uphill was not too bad, except for certain stretches of the road where it was too steep for 2 person on a bike, so one had to walk uphill while we laboriously steered the bikes up. The journey uphill had incredible views, but looking down from the hill we could only see a vast barren land, with trails of slash-and-burn farming. 

Having arrived at the second highest village, we paid a visit to a local sundry shop, where its owner, U Ba Mae is a friend of Lily's. She offered us tea and we tried to buy a few stuffs for her just to support her livelihood. We agreed to have lunch - local traditional Shan dishes - at her place after we were done with trekking up to the last village.

So, after another 40 minutes ride, we finally reached the last village; I was a bit dismayed as the local Shan villagers here do not really wear their traditional outfit anymore, and were quite shy to see us. So we visited the temple at the hill top to rest for a while, only to be surprised by a troupe of young monk novices who welcomed us enthusiastically! 

These bunch of kids are such friendly and effervescent that they kept us entertained for an hour! They tried to converse with us with their most fundamental English, and cheered us up with their stunts! They even dragged us to their dorm and started posing for us. We regretted for not buying candies or even biscuits for them earlier, had we known we would encounter them. Anyway, after chilling for an hour, it was time to descend, and the nightmare started.

On the way back, we encountered some locals with their pack of horses going downhill; and the elderly gentleman wanted to give it a try. So he mounted up one of the horses while i trailed from the back. After 200 meters, he was still happily riding the horses and I got sick of trailing him at the speed of 10 km/hr, so I overtook him and made a few intermittent stops to wait for him, and yet he was still riding. Hence, I decided to drive down the steep narrow path which was around 1 km far and waited for him down there. 

I rendezvoused with my buddy and the Singaporean lady, and we waited for that gentleman in the shade. After 20 minutes he reappeared, grumpy looking and keep on insisting that he wanted to continue walking and do his birdwatching. Hence, the three of us continued our bike trip down towards the previous village where we were supposed to have lunch there. 

Lily's friend really cooked up some nice dishes for us but it was a bit too salty, and charged us around 1500kyats per person, and we just digged in at the insistence of the Singaporean lady. When the Singaporean gentleman eventually arrived, he refused to eat saying he was not hungry, and that seemed like a bit rude towards our hosts since he initially said he wanted lunch as well. Still, they only charged us for 3 paxes and sent us off our way.

And on our way back, the Singaporean gentleman agreed to go back on the motorbike but  he started whining.

"How old is your father?" I thought he was trying to make small talks. "You know I am the age of your father. How could you possibly abandoned me back there?"

WTF?!? I was kind of dumbfounded. If I really wanted to dump him back there, we would have gone down straight back to the hotel, instead of making intermittent stops to check on him.

The other difficulty I faced while giving him a lift was that he was constantly trying to outbalance me, and he started occupying more and more of my space until I could not really balance the bike. Somehow the bike went out of control and both of us fell, for the first time.

"You know what?" He said coldly. "I think this is your karma for abandoning me back there. Buddha is teaching you a lesson"

I was infuriated but I tried my best to keep calm. If I hadn't I would have just pushed him off the cliff and let him die and rot there. And since it was my fault to let him join us, and it would be so wrong to just leave a 65 years old demented gentleman in some God-forsaken wilderness, I just apologized and insisted to give him a ride back. 

Well, the unforgiving steep road and my obtruding passenger kept on throwing me off balance and we fell again, for another two times. And this bloody idiot kept on shoving me with ungrateful words. 

Bloody hell! 

I held my breath and just persisted until we reached the foot of the hill, back to civilisation so I can send him back in one piece and shrug off this erroneous decision of letting this imbecile join us for the trek. So I told him that he could just go back to the hotel with his wife while me and my friend visited the Shan Palace where we intended to do this morning. Unshamedly he said he still wanted to tag along, saying that it would be rude of me not to make it up for him. I was just too lazy to argue with him, so I gave him a final lift to the Shan Palace. 

I returned the battered motorbike to the shop with an extra charge to compensate for the damages due to the few falls. I was kind of taken aback when the workers in the shop actually took out medications for me to clean my wound! They were actually more concerned of my wounds than me destroying their motorbike!

I limped back towards the hotel with my buddy after we returned the bikes, and stopped for dinner halfway, being glad to be rid of that ungrateful pest. Lily was shocked too to see my wounds and she brought some gauzes and medications from her husband's clinic next door for me.

"Lily, please charge him for all the medications." That idiotic guy said when he saw me dressing my wounds in the courtyard. I just felt him strangling this moron with my own hands. 

We ignored him and went back to our rooms to rest. I reflected to myself for today's tragic itinerary; I should have said "No" to them, but who knew that guy would be such an ass. I should have dumped them halfway along the road had once we realised the road was a bit too tough, but it felt so wrong dumping two elderly people there and the wife was actually much nicer than her husband. And I should have pushed him down the cliff to make him shut up when I had the chance!