First: apologies that this post is so overdue...Blogger has not been functioning the past couple of days.
Now then, onto the fun stuff:
Due to fantastically over-the-top political unrest, school was closed beginning Tuesday. For many reasons, by the time Friday rolled around, I was in desperate need of a city-escape. So my sweet friend Morgan and I decided to take a 3-day weekend to the western province of Kanchanaburi. And so the adventure begins...
Our trip was off to a good start...we easily found the Southern bus terminal in Bangkok (though cab fare was quite expensive) and were pleasantly surprised to find efficiency and organization! After a mere 10 minutes of waiting (in a/c!!) we turned over our 112 baht tickets (approx. $4) and began the two hour bus ride to Kanchanaburi.
Upon arrival, we big-time bartered for a bicycle taxi...what you cannot see in the photo above is that we are squuueeeezed into a "2-seat" buggy with a rather large Thai woman struggling to pedal our load. We kind of felt badly at the end that we had bargained for such a rock-bottom price...especially considering this woman could have suffered cardiac arrest at any moment.
Anyway, we spent our first night at The Jolly Frog hostel (highly recommend), enjoying yummy dinner and a couple beers overlooking the River Kwai. Kanchanaburi is famous for its fresh water fish, so we ate it for every meal. Here's the view:
I have found many people in Asia have a difficult time with "Phyllis" so I commonly go by my nickname of "Bobbi." Well, the staff at the hostel mistook this for "Barbie" and so always greeted me with, "Good morning, Barbie! Barbie Doll!" I guess you could say, it kind of stuck.
Day 2: For our Saturday, we forked over a load of cash to the tune of 1,000 baht ($30) for an all-day tour. Money well spent! We left Jolly Frog at 8:00 am with about 8 other folks. Our first stop was at the most visited national park in Thailand, Erawan. The park is famous for it's 7-tiered waterfall, that resembles the three-headed elephant god of Hinduism by the same name. We were given a couple hours to freely explore. Mo and I got straight down to business and started hiking the densely forested mountainside. We took photos of each waterfall tier, but were determined to make it to the top (most folks stop at about 5). Toward the summit, it became a precarious trek, indeed! After tier 5, the man-made path disappears and we had to crawl over giant roots, cross streams and scramble the side of boulders. We began leaving a trail as we shed backpacks, cameras, shoes, and eventually, clothing. Finally, we made it to tier 7...there was only one other person there. Seems most folks were discouraged by the challenge.
As I said before, we had to abandon our belongings, so I don't have photos of the waterfall and lagoon. In many cultures, there remains a belief that photographs can steal a subjects soul. For once, I agree. A photo of the 7th waterfall and lagoon would have simply killed it. It is one of those things that, had I looked back on a photograph, it would be disappointing...it couldn't possibly do justice the feeling of swimming in the crisp water, having giant fish nibble my toes. Looking up, seeing nothing but big sky and sheer cliffs. And I cannot even begin to describe the color of the water...in the waterfalls and beaches of Thailand, clear, brilliant, aquamarine is the norm. But this lagoon was almost a powder blue...I've never seen water this color. It was amazing and almost sickly sweet.
After a refreshing lunch, we rode elephants for maybe an hour. Then, it was off for bamboo rafting on the River Kwai. We didn't swim in the river, which apparently was wise: it is high-season for leaches right now. So a bit of floating down the river and we were transported to a temple cave and then a train-ride on the Death Railway. We arrived back at Jolly Frog around 6:00 pm, utterly exhausted. I had forgotten how satisfying little things are when you are physically spent. The cold shower was nothing short of amazing...the beer tasted as good as if I had made it myself. There is just something about having sun-kissed skin and sore-aching muscles from tough physical demands that make resting that much more enjoyable. Unlike mental exhaustion of work you don't enjoy, which makes everything seem like a chore...physical expenditure allows you to take pleasure in the simple act of being alive.
Day 3: Sunday morning, we awoke bright and early, enjoyed breakfast with real coffee and set out to rent some bicycles. We leisurely cycled around town for a bit, but our ultimate aim was to ride over to Wat Tham Mangkorn Thong. With the Lonely Planet map as our guide, Mo and I decided we could definitely pedal there from Jolly Frog. Here's a rough guide to our logic:
Morgan: hey, wanna rent bikes and cycle to the Wat tomorrow?
Me: yeah, totally. A nice Sunday ride sounds awesome! How far is it?
Morgan: *rustling with map* well, let's see...the scale says 0.3" is 1 km.
Me: hmmm...where's the Wat?
Morgan: oh yeah, it just goes off the page a bit, I think just an inch.
Me: sweet! So, let's measure...I heard once that the length of your knuckle is about an inch. Ok, about 8 knuckles on the page, and then maybe the Temple is one knuckle off the page...so 9 km? What's the conversion?
Morgan: That's gotta be only 4 or 5 miles. Max.
Me: Dude, we could definitely conquer that in 30, 40 minutes, TOPS.
...and off we rode into the horizon. After about 20 minutes, things are not looking quite right, where we pull into a gas station and ask for directions. The attendant is nothing short of horrified that two foreigners are trying to bicycle to the Temple. As evidenced above, our math was a bit off. Turns out, the Temple is a few inches off the map...and we forgot to multiple by 3. Sooo, our destination was more like 30 kilometers out. We decided to give ourselves an A+ for effort and promptly returned the rented bicycles and stopped for Italian Sodas before hiring a taxi to take us to the Wat.
After climbing no less than a kazillion stairs up the foothill, we found ourselves at the mouth of another cave temple in the limestone. There were times when the passageways got so small, we were literally crawling on all fours to make it through...and the bats. So very, very creepy. Anyhow, we climbed up a steep ladder that opened up onto the hill. We wandered down, admiring Spirit Trees and shrines all along the way.
Eventually, we returned to our cabby...where we left him to idly clip his finger nails. We finished off our excursion with perhaps the best fish & chips I have ever had the good fortune of eating and then Jolly Frog bid farewell to Barbie Doll, as we went back to the city.
Till next time!
p.s. I tried to post more photos, but my worthless Internet connection means this is all you get for now =(
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