So this weekend was a lovely trip out of town to a province about 2 hrs West of Bangkok, in fact Kanchanaburi Province borders Burma itself. There were 5 of us in the big group: me, Hannah, Travis, Kirk, and Elliot. Doug ended up sick and the couple went on their own as usual and for the best. The adventure began with us attempting to catch a taxi at Victory Monument, apparently the only place in Bangkok it's illegal for them to stop. Eventually we walked far enough away to get one to stop, then it was the excitement of Fri afternoon traffic. The skytrain is fabulous but it doesn't cover near the area it should - for goodnessake at least connect all the bus/train stations! So an hr later we made it to the terminal, and in true Thai style were immediately pointed in the correct direction by people who noticed our lost/out of place look. No other toursists on this bus so we knew we had a winner. All of $1.50 for the aircon ride out.
Arriving in town around 9:30pm we wandered around a night market near the bus station. After finding a vendor selling a buffet of bugs we decided it would be culturally inept not to try a few. I had a couple of crispy meal worms - they taste better at Purdue's bugbowl! Kirk and Elliott were daring and got the largest bug available - about the length from my thumb to forefinger - and devoured it... That's really why we keep the boys around, for entertainment purposes. Next we walked about 1.5km to the main guesthouse area in Kanchanaburi. Luckily we caught the travel service open and a nice lady named Mickey let us set up a 2day/1night tour before hooking us up with a cheap guesthouse down the street. Delcious food from a stand with tables sitting on the edge of the road and a beer or two before our mini slumber party.
Up early on Sat for our 8:30am departure. The minibus was full from the 5 of us and a few day trippers also headed out to Erawan falls which is one of the big attractions in this province. Our guide, Tree, was also there and we learned this was her first 2 day trip and she hadn't even been told before that morning! It was about an hrs drive out to Erawan natl park where we commenced the 2km hike up to the 7th and topmost level of the waterfall. On the initial path we got surrounded by another tour group of what at first appeared to be all women but we soon noticed were all men dressed as women.... Apparently you have to be careful of who is actually a Thai woman... They took quite a fancy to our boys and after not too long all 3 found themselves holding hands with the Thai transvestites. Hilarious!! Hannah and I were safe for obvious reasons but it was really hard not to laugh at the boys' ackward embaressment at their predicament. Lucky for them, we managed to loose that group at the first level of the waterfall. It wasn't too difficult a hike including stops for scenic photos. We even ran into a few monkeys - gibbons which didn't attack! Every level of the falls seemed like another version of a Disney-esque fairyland. After reaching the top, we all jumped in and swam for awhile before hiking down. Swam more at the 4th level where there were natural slip n' slides formed from some huge rocks nearby - just had to be careful of not being eaten by the fish.
From the waterfalls we had a huge lunch and then traveled further North to an elephant camp where we rode elephants for about 30 min - really rode! I just kept thinking that it would totally not be allowed in the US, not so many seatbelts/straps. Towards the end we even got to get out of the seat and ride bareback on the elephant's head! Plus we decided to do the option of giving the elephants a bath so after harness and seat were removed we clambered back on and each rode a separate elephant into the river to scrub it down. Totally awesome as they would almost completely submerge and then rise up a bit and spray you with water from their trunk... Hard to beat that! Afterwards we hopped in the back of a pickup to get taken up stream and ride back past the elephant farm on a bamboo raft. Actually most of the time it was swimming beside the raft as we went down the river. Absolutely glorious! The scenery was full of small mtns covered with jungle folage - out of any SE asian movie ever! Apparently scenes from the Deer Hunter were shot in this area, but I've not seen the movie.
Saturday night we stayed on a rafthouse on Kaom Laem resevoir. No other Western tourists in the vicinity, it was incredibly peaceful. The resevoir leads right up into Burma and apparently is a hotbed for illegal immigration. Sunday morning we had breakfast on a houseraft while being towed around the lake on a longtailed boat. No big town or city just a few huts here and there and plenty of rafthouses. From there we went to Hin Dat hotsprings which was discovered by the Japanese in WW II. Enough time to jump in the river, in the hottub temperature hot spring and back a few times before moving on to Hellfire Pass. Hellfire Pass is one of the deepest cuttings made during the completion of the "Death Railway" in WWII. Tens of thousands of British/Austrailian POWs as well as local laborers died making it - our cultural/historical part of the trip. On the way to Nam Tok we stopped at Sai Yok Noi waterfall - thronged over with tourists so we didn't stay long at all. At Nam Tok we ate lunch before boarding the last train back to Kanchanaburi. A scorcher of an afternoon, the 2 hrs on the train, even with all the windows open, were killer to stay awake during despite the gorgeous scenery. Got out at the Bridge over the River Kwai for a photo op. Just enough time for dinner and running to catch the last train back to Bangkok, although I don't think any of us would've minded missing it for another day out of the city. Tree ended up meeting up with us at the station and giving us a whole bag full of mangosteens, voted one of our favorite Thai fruits. It was great not having to worry about travel plans and have the 5 of us get carted around in our own private minibus with private guide.
So a short week of work on our request - leaving Thurs night for Krabi, a good 12 hr bus ride away!
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