The Bocklock Chronicles: Day 1

Pickup time for the Libra Tour's "no tourists" trek left at 9am sharp on Wednesday morning. They call it the "no tourist" trek because we wouldn't see one tourist for the next three days. And they weren't kidding.

On my tour was Max Meisel's long time friend Vikki Young, a great Welsh couple Chris and Rachel, along with one guy and three girls all from the UK. Leading the tour were our guides Nu and Lasso, both raised near the jungle having ties to many of the locals in the villages we were to visit.

After our big meet and greet we drove 3 1/2 hours up to the border of Myanmar where we had lunch and then immediately immersed ourselves into the jungle. After about and hour of trekking we came across a waterfall where we all got to go swimming and jumping. The waterfall was small but humble with two tiers and ice cold water. When everyone was surely freezing, we decided it was time to leave and venture on our 3 hour hike to the Lisu Village.

This was where the journey got interesting. Leona, the only fit looking member of the UKer's, was the single most out of shape individual I have ever seen in my life. We were nearly 200ft up a climb and she began to feel faint. At this early in the trek, I was immediately alarmed as to how she was going to handle the next 3 hours, but also how she would handle the next 2 days! So I was very sympathetic and helpful, providing support, water, and breathing exercises. We ended up having to stop nearly every 10-15 minutes to wait for her to catch her breath and prevent her from fainting. But she was a trooper and made it all the way to the village. When we arrived we were greeted with kids running around and playing, adults working the farm, and animals roaming freely around the village.

After a home cooked, village-style meal, we prepared a small fire while playing jungle puzzles. These puzzles were made up of matches and bamboo and required a certain "outside the box" strategy of thinking. They were surprisingly hard and we were only able to figure out maybe 3 out of the 6 or 7 they showed us. The entire time, Nu and Lasso were saying the word Bocklock, which they could not really explain but we think it translates as a mixture of fun, play, confusion, and silliness. Everyone in the jungle knew this word well and said it all the time to us. Eventually we used the word Bocklock for everything and it became an ongoing joke.

We closed out the night chilling by the fire with some dogs and baby pigs while finishing the last of out jungle Chang Beer and went to sleep to recharge for what will be the biggest day of the tour. Tomorrow is trekking, bamboo rafting, and mountain biking.

Stay tuned!