Kachin Tribal Village Trek, Burma/Myanmar - Hiking in the Jungles of Burma

We made it to Ziya Dum with a bit of daylight left two days later. So in the fading light, I decided to make myself human and shave at least down to a goatee. Combined with a baby wipe bath, I was almost presentable. After a bit of reorganizing, I was now ready for the more enjoyable and relaxing portion of our trip

We spent the next day in Ziya Dum. For some reason their true Christmas holiday is on the 26th. Given that we were a day early, we decided to stay for two days. Remaining in one place had a lot of advantages. The most obvious is the rest to our bodies. My right knee was pretty sore. Nancy and Kirk both seemed equally worn down. The less obvious reason for staying was the growing comfort the people of Ziya Dum developed with us. It was a treat to watch the rethatching of the roof of a house. It was amazing to see how quickly they removed all the old forest grass and then knotted the new thatch back in place on a skeleton of horizontal poles. To our surprise we found out many of the men working spoke English. The owner of the house proudly showed us all the plants, fruits and spices he was growing on his property.

As I explored the village, I went down to the river and watched the porters wash some of our clothes. As I was about to leave, a young girl and her younger brother came down with a five gallon water jug to fill. After taking some pictures of her and showing them to her I felt we had built a little bit of a bond. After she filled the jug, I gestured an offer to carry it up the hill. She seemed to agree, so I grabbed it and I lugged it up the hill. Simple things like clean drinking water are taken for granted in the States. If we had to carry all our water uphill, I’m certain we would conserve more than we do.

The story continues...