It took about ten minutes for all of us to arrive at the treehouse. By this point, the porters had already begun work on our dinner. The treehouse had three floors. The first, the ground floor, was mainly the kitchen area. Above this, was the largest floor. Approaching the treehouse, one goes up a small staircase to reach a lookout area/shoe depository, turning to the left was the living room, including six deckchairs to look out on to the beautiful mountains. Just past this, there was another, larger lookout area, including benches and a table. The third floor, smaller than the other was a bedroom for three, while a few metres away was a second treehouse to sleep more people.
I took my seat, put my feet up and rested, knowing that for the next few hours I would have to do very little.
“Does anybody want to take a shower?” Everybody looked up at our guide. “The shower is 20 minutes away. A natural waterfall.” To my surprise, everybody wanted to walk another 40 minutes, but with my back still not fully cleared up, I decided not to risk it and stayed behind at the treehouse.
*
When everyone returned, we sat around lazily, awaiting our dinner. This took much longer than I thought it would, but what it meant, was that we were able to watch the sunset together and not miss out on it because we were too busy eating. When we’d finished, our porter revealed a bottle of rice wine that he’d brought for us to all share. Over the next hour or so, we drank several cups of this delicious concoction, until finally, our food was ready.
Spread out before us was another platter of vegetables, chicken, soup and aubergine mix, while each of us got an individual bowl of rice. Hungrily, we all tucked into our dinners, not really aware of where we were spilling the food, as the light had all but disappeared. Much like the day before, the food was delicious and well worth waiting for.
As we continued drinking, playing games and talking, the stars began to reveal themselves to us one by one. Living in the city, one rarely gets to see such amazing skies and slowly I began drifting away from the conversation, staring instead at the constellations above. Nonetheless, the drinking games continued in order to strengthen the bonds between us, until a disagreement arose regarding a rule violation.
“No no. That doesn’t make sense!”
“Yes, but if we do that, we can’t really play the game”
“Yes, but it’s a drinking game. Does it matter?”
Tensions and voices rose, until I chimed in…
“Is that the moon?” I said, staring out at a sliver of red creeping over the horizon.
The discussion immediately ended as we all took in the beauty of what we were seeing. True enough, this red scar growing in the sky was the moon and slowly it turned orange, then white, scaring away the stars and providing enough visibility to see the awe in one another’s faces. Not much was left of the night, as we all headed to bed soon after, fully aware that the next day would include even more trekking.
Shades of red and orange burned through the sky, sliding along the clouds and contrasting heavily with the green on the hills and mountains. Smoke played in my nostrils and I could feel heat all around me. It took me a second to realise in my state of slumber that this was an incredible sunrise, that the porters were cooking again and that my blanket had provided more than enough warmth for me. I was the first of the guests to wake up and headed to a deckchair to appreciate the views and read a little of my book.
After a small breakfast, it was time for us to begin our descent. Considering how difficult the ascent had been, I didn’t think this could be any harder. Again, I grossly underestimated the challenge ahead. The day before, I had taken the choice to wear my own shoes, with a lack of grip and immediately regretted this decision. Ever so slowly, I walked down the hill, appraising each and every option before carefully placing my foot. The ground was very dry and with almost every step dirt, mud and rocks fell away, rolling down the hill. As often as I could I grabbed hold of whichever tree, branch, rock or hand was available and lowered myself down.
“We’re all going to fall over today, so you might as well do it now’ joked Carla.
“I will not fall over!” I said, confidently.
A few minutes later however I lost control of my balance and began to wobble. Something in me stopped a fall, instead I dropped to a squat and was able to say that technically, I had not fallen over.
*
We continued this way for some time, until we took a break by a small brook.
“Is this anybody’s?” I asked, picking up a bamboo stick, ideal for walking with.
“Nope” answered everybody I asked. With great joy, I took the stick and when we were told it was time to go again, I walked ahead confidently, this time using my stick to help navigate through the forest.
Unfortunately for me however, sticks don’t help stop you from misjudging the depth of water. At one crossing of a stream I thought that I’d be able to put my weight on one rock that was only glazed by water. It was far deeper than I’d thought and water crept into my shoe and sock.
“Eurgh.” I let out a scream, enough for anyone to think that I’d fallen in the water completely.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just a bit of water in my shoe. Nothing too bad”
*
At around midday, we reached a clearing. There were three small benches to sit on, propped up by logs weakened by the rain, surely too weak to support us humans.
CRASH
I turned around to see one of the benches broken. Definitely not strong enough to support us humans now. One of the porters went off into the forest, only to return with huge banana tree leaves twice the size of a fully grown adult, which he laid down for us to sit on. As spiders and ants crawled around, our guide brought our food to the ‘table’. This time, the food was simpler, noodles with a nut roast to add a bit of crunch. I must admit, I love this combination of the softness of the noodles and the firmness from the peanuts.
Unfortunately, the end of our meal meant the end of our time together and it was time to say goodbye. Viktoria and I had decided to only do the two day trek. The next day the group went tubing, something which I couldn’t do at the time and Viktoria just didn’t want to. Over the next hour, we were guided through incredibly tall grass by an incredibly small man (the fifteen year old porter) until we reached a ‘village’ comprising four buildings, three cats and more chickens than I could count.
Waiting for us in the village was a man cooking our second lunch over a fire. Yet again, we were treated to delicious homemade food (the best food you can get). When we finished, we were told to jump on the back of their motorbikes as they took us back to Mr. Bike.
*
Of all the transport I’ve been on in my life, of all the journeys and trips, I have never felt closer to danger than on the back of this bike. The road was incredibly bumpy and uneven. At one point, we went vertically up a rock and at another through inches of thick heavy mud. When we finally reached a proper road, I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was only when we reached Mr.Bike’s office were we able to completely exhale. When we got there, Mr.Bike was full of smiles, just as we’d left him.
“I have a gift for you” he said as he pulled out a pair of t-shirts out of a bag. We unfurled them to see the picture we’d had taken at the first village.
“Aww, that’s so sweet. Thank you!”
*
All in all, I must say, this is one of the highlights of my trip so far. Mr.Bike’s hike was challenging, but not too difficult. The view from the treehouse was an excellent reward and the food we ate was of very high quality. Hsi Paw is out of the way for the ‘standard’ trip to Myanmar, but if you have the time, I would certainly try to get there.
*
Thank you for reading! Much like last time, many of these pictures were taken by Viktoria. A huge thank you to you! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you have, please give it a like and a share!
Backpacking Around 