The Trek

Getting Ready

The plans for the trip were finalized however Sithu, Timothy, and Zack are yet to know the plan. Domin texted Sithu to meet us at Junction City and to pick up the others along the way. I ordered myself a cup of milk tea from Amazon Café and took a seat overlooking the big shopping mall. Domin got himself a cup of hot milk tea, the cashier girl returned the change and he took a seat beside me. He asked curiously," Hey man, what do you think of this place we are going and I worry about Mia, yesterday during our discussion, she looked worried!". She does not seem to completely agree with our plan, he continued. I have talked with Mia so I knew she has already agreed. I took a deep breath and replied, "Man don't worry about that, I will take care of her alright?"

After a while of sipping our tea, watching other people talk, and a match of PUBG, we saw our squad on the escalator coming to our place. I waved at them in a way that only they would see but well, it failed of course. I quickly texted Zack that we are waiting at Amazon Café and surprisingly he replied in an instant this time. The squad came closer to the Café each second and once they arrived, they ordered their own drinks and came towards us and took a seat. Sithu energetically asked, "mate we're here, let's talk about the plan!". Sithu has a really brotherly feel and is quite adventurous. He have a optimistic and ambitious personality but there is always something that holds him back. Anyways, my other buddy Timothy wears round glasses and have this really positive energy around him. He makes jokes often and keep the people around happy.

My bag was leaning on Zack's chair unable to reach it myself. I told Zack to pass me my bag towards me. I unzipped it and took my laptop out. I placed the laptop in an angle that everyone could see and I opened the itinerary file that we created yesterday. Domin started, "Alright mates, we have planned to explore this hidden waterfall somewhere around Maymyo which is said to contain properties of special healing powers." The faces of these young lads looked doubtful but in the same time curious and their pupils would widen. I could see their optimism shone on their faces and I was grateful that they love this idea. Zack used his left hand to grab my laptop struggling since the right hand was holding coffee. He read the information provided by the google search about the discovery of the waterfall and the fate of the exploration team. Sithu and Timothy joined him to read as well.

They agreed with this plan and Domin quickly asked for any other places they might want to suggest for exploration. All of them were extremely interested in this waterfall that they wouldn't shoot out any other places. Sithu created a list of gear and supplies that would be required for such a trip. All of us made a quick scan, took a picture of the list and everyone headed home to pack up for the trip tomorrow. I sent the picture of the supplies list to the group for everyone to see and went to a hobby store to purchase these materials.

I read out the list made by Sithu to the shop owner. The materials include a "sat phone" which is a phone that can be used without signal because it connects to orbiting satellites. It is useful for this trip because there maybe no phone towers around the place we were exploring. Another useful item was a high beam torch light and "flares" to signal anyone around if we required rescue. "Water filtration devices" were also needed in scenarios we would ran out of water and needed to drink stream water. Going old school but useful, walkie talkies are to be purchased as well which is extremely useful when we get separated. I asked myself, well its nice to have this Sithu guy with us, he seems to know what we will be going against. I bought myself a big hiking bad to put all necessary supplies including a sleeping bed and a tent and notified the group to purchase their own sleeping bags as well. As the trip will take two full days as known by the information from Google.

The location of the waterfall is unknown because the recorded information were all lost. However, an estimation could be made by judging the approximate areas Captain Turner was last seen. I called Sithu and Zack over to create a map of the exploration area. The terrain have to be researched and significant sites should be noted to find the way back. "X'"s were marked to show the possible location of the waterfall however, in reality the waterfall have to be searched blindly as there is no exact locations whatsoever. The map was finalized and sent to the group to make everyone familiar with it. We also had to be careful about wild native tribes that eat people as we learned from the weird theory from the Google's story. I went home to prepare and pack up my bag as the next day will be the day we depart from Yangon to head up towards Maymyo which would take us approximately nine hours of car ride.