Kanchanaburi is about a three hour drive outside of Bangkok. The first part of the day included a stop at the bridge over the River Kwai (made famous by the movie "Bridge over the River Kwai" which I have yet to see), War Museum, Memorial Cemetary, and a train ride over the River Kwai. I enjoyed the bridge and the train ride (especially because they don't bother to close the train doors while in motion and I sat with my feet dangling out of the train as we went over the river), but not so much the other parts. The museum was an odd collection of found artifacts and objects from the Japanese occupation (watch the movie to get the story if you don't already know) but it looked as if the museum had been abandoned years ago-it was a very strange place. And while a stop at the cemetary was nice, nice to honor those who perished, I really didn't feel that I needed thrity minutes to walk around and inspect/photograph every gravestone. Anyhow-the bridge was awesome-even the part when the rotting wood underfoot cracked and I almost fell twenty feet below into the River Kwai.
The latter part of the day was my favorite though. After eating lunch on a floating restaurant we paddled up and down the river on a bamboo raft, walked across another even more sketchy bridge and then stopped by a beautiful waterfall before riding elephants!
Floating restaurant and hungry puppy:
Paddling downriver and our awesome guide:
Sketchy Bridge II:
Waterfall to refresh ourselves:
And then the elephants:
I think the best part was when Joe dropped is shoe off the elephant. Both of us thought it was gone for good, but our elephant driver (trainer?) muttered something softly in Thai and the elephant behind us picked up his shoe with her trunk and reached it over his shoulder to hand it to him. It all happened smooth as silk without any of the elephants stopping or skipping a beat. It was incredible! I wanted Joe to drop his shoe again so I could video tape it, but he wasn't into it. At the end of the ride we fed them bananas (about 10!) which they inhaled.
That evening we stayed at a totally rustic, floating inn. Our room was shared by several gekkos and probably some other unknown creatures. The toilets didn't flush-just the bucket of water method, no hot water-actually the shower/sink water came straight from the river and went straight back into the river. Our front and back doors opened up to spectacular views of the river. It was beautiful in it's own simple way.
The second day was spent at Erawan National Park. I was so excited for this because it was the main reason that we joined the tour, and the place I wanted to see most. What is so special about the park are the seven main levels of waterfalls. You start hiking at the first waterfall, and as you ascend the mountain you pass the remaining six as well as a few other, smaller waterfalls. The hike itself was beautiful, but never in my life have I seen so many beautiful natural waterfalls. Most of them literally took my breath away. There is something so humbling about being in the presence of such great natural beauty.
My week in Bangkok was perfect and I think one week was just the right amount of time to see everything I wanted to. At the end of the week I felt like I had another separate vacation awaiting me as we headed down to our island destination: Koh Pha Ngan.
Stay tuned for Thailand: The Trilogy Part II-Koh Pha Ngan!!
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