Shortcut

by Alex Scott (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Making a local connection Myanmar

“Shortcut!?” Came the shout as we wandered down the dusty winding path, turning around to see a short smiling Burmese man emerge from the thick jungle, his teeth stained blood red from chewing betel leaf. “Shortcut to waterfall” he asked myself and my brother, just beginning what we believed to be an easy, quick hike from the nearby hilltop town of Pyin oo lwin to what had been described as a spectacular multi tiered waterfall. As it was already late we were losing light fast so we decided to take him up on his offer and followed him into the thick bush not completely sure of what we were getting ourselves into. “Come, this way” he excitedly exclaimed once again showing his teeth which made him appear slightly more terrifying than his small frame would initially give off. After taking just a few steps off the beaten path and into the jungle whatever light we had left quickly disappeared as we struggled, slipping and sliding on the steep trail he had set out on, which was sodden from the afternoon rains. We were immediately forced to use our hands to grab anything we could to try to keep up with him, huge tree branches, dangling vines, moss covered boulders anything available as he moved off at a blistering pace. The humidity made it almost impossible to keep up with him, he seemed to move so naturally though the dense jungle, “are there snakes around here?” My brother asked, “snakes, no, spiders yes” he replied, smiling again as if taunting us. 15 minutes had passed but it seemed like an hour, as we struggled to make our way along the trail our legs now covered in mud, sweat dripping all over whilst our guide looked as if he was simply taking a brisk walk. Doubt began to creep in as to whether this was actually a shortcut or if we were even heading towards the waterfalls at all or something more sinister. But we persevered as we knew we had to, we were far too committed now to stop. Without his help surely we'd be totally lost. As we continued along the trail our paranoia slowly started to disappear as the sounds of the jungle; a bird call, a mosquito buzzing by your ear began to be drowned out by the sound of rushing water, not much further now surely. The light mist spray synonymous of a waterfall began to shower us as we edged closer and closer trying not to lose our footing on what became apparent to be a sheer drop. The penny finally dropped that our ‘shortcut’ turned out to be a trek to a viewpoint in the middle tier of the waterfalls, peering over the edge we could see the base of the waterfall, filled with locals jumping and diving into the refreshing pools where we had intended to be 100 feet below. As beautiful as it was it quickly because apparent we would have to somehow make our way to the bottom which would be no easy task. With very little time to take in the gorgeous view of the sun setting over the vast plains below our guide beckoned us to follow him once again down a steep cliff face, desperately clinging on to anything we could we slowly zig-zagged our way down what could be described as a path at a push. we eventually made it to the bottom of the falls and burst out of the jungle in-front of a group of backpackers in a similar fashion as our guide had emerged before us. There was only one thing on our minds after finally reaching the base of the waterfalls and that was jumping straight into the cooling pools. After taking some time to relax in the water and regroup I saw my guide complete with an outstretched hand asking for a tip. Having turned what should have been a simple 30 minute walk into an hour long strenuous hike I begrudgingly I handed over 10 Burmese kyat (around 10 dollars) shook his hand and we began the walk back, him smiling at us one last time, some shortcut that was...