various: "Is this a wind up? The Burmese Army trekking stick" Cameron Highlands Shopping Tip by sourbugger

Various gift-type shops sell the Burmese Army trekking stick, which is useful for jungle walks in the Cameron Highlands as it is :

"indispensible for safe trekking particularly when negotiating sharp inclines and fording quick-moving streams."

It is constructed of baby bamboo with a solid row-boat handle.

What to buy: A little paper 'biography' comes with a purchase of the Burmese Army Trekking stick of its founder : Sir Jeffrey Hillpig-Smyth, but I am still trying to find out how much of it is a wind-up.

Anyway, here is a shortened biography :

1910 Born, London

1918-28 Schoolboy, Harrow. Overweight, few friends, poor student, non-athletic yet polite. Called "Hillpiggy" by the staff.

1930 Sent down from Oxford for "indecency."

1934 Unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as an Independent from the small constituency of Looting on the Thames, finishing fourth in a field of three.

1935 Alcoholic

1936 Published at his own expense an angry and spirited collection of short essays entitled Sticks and Stones.

1937 Alcoholic again

1938 Published a second collection of short essays entitled Mudpuddles and Other Outrages

1939 Joined Military Intelligence & Engineering, the elite I&E Group
1940 Assigned to British Special Forces, Burma

1941 Recovering from a minor fall, designed the Military Trekking Stick

1944 Disappearance

1953 Knighted in absentia

Unofficially there have been periodic sightings of Hillpiggy in the Burmese Jungle. A reward of 25 pounds sterling for information confirming Hillpiggy's status remains in effect.

Eccentric or what ?

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