Education time
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
120
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Kanchanaburi,
Thailand
Sunday, February 10, 2008
From Bang Pong we got a bus straight away to the town of Kanchanburri, home of the bridge over the river Kwai and steeped with history. We stayed downtown at a place called Nita Rafthouse, a favourite in the old LP but we still hadn't learnt our lesson and once again we were let down. The room was OK and the whole place was built on a floating platform in the river Kwai (hence the name) and had a nice DVD lounge but you could only watch a DVD when they said it was OK and they weren't watching TV which was between around 7 and 9 each night. We decided to watch Deja Vu, something which I thought I hadn't seen but hal;fway through the movie I got just that - I realised I'd seen bits of it in the hostel in the Witch's Hat in Perth.
Friday we decided to split and have a bit of retail therapy although the only thing I could justify spending money on was a couple of pairs of nice earrings. We met up at the Death Railway museum which was extremely interesting and informative and full of lots of artifacts belonging to some of the POWs aswell as old parts of the railway. We went back to the shopping area of town as Ollie wanted to look for some trekking shoes and we came across a store selling games, Now since we always found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands in the evening and we were missing some intellectual stimulation (yes Ollie's conversations were getting quite silly) we decided to share the cost and weight between us for a scrabble board and a Thai to English dictionary. That night we'd just picked out the movie we wanted to watch when the owner told us it was too late (it was 8 at the latest). Truth be known, they only let you watch movies during a 2 hour slot in the evening as they want to watch the TV themselves which was a bit annoying since we were stuck far away from the main part of town and didn't have much to do. We settled for Scrabble yet again.......
Yesterday we decided to see The Death Railway for ourselves. We took a bus to Nam Tok, walked past some nice looking cool springs (although full of local children and families on holiday) and meandered up a dirt track that supposedly lead to Tham Wang Badan Cave. Now......we'd chosen to come here as we'd read it was free to enter, you just need a torch to see and you can explore it yourself......however....famous last words again from the Lonely Planet and we came across a guy in a hut next holding up a piece of paper saying we had to pay money for a guide to light a gas lamp and show us around. I proudly produced my headtorch and politely explained that since we had a torch we didn't need a guide and hence didn't need to pay for the lamp to be lit. He wasn't budging. Ollie hen tried his charm on the Thai but after 10 minutes realised he wasn't getting anywhere either. We begrudgingly paid and started trekking up the dusty track in the soaring heat. After a few minutes we heard a motorbike and realised that it was the guide heading up to the cave for us. Shortly after a large vehicle came from behind us so we moved into the bushes to let it pass, however the driver stopped and opened his window. He didn't speak much English but we understood that he was offering us a lift to the cave so since he had aircon and didn't have 'axe-murderer' tattooed on his forehead we jumped in. We were faced with a lady, probably his wife and a boy of about 12, obviously his son and another girl. We had a brief conversation between bouts of silence since we didn't have an extensive Thai vocabulary and they didn't know much English - a refreshing change really after all the hounding you get from local tour operators.
At the cave we had to tackle a bit of a steep climb up to the entrance and were met by the guide who took us into the cave lit by the light from his gas lamp (which took a few efforts to light - should have offered him my headtorch!). It was quite a cool cave with steps and ladders but the Thai girls were very inappropriately dressed in heels and the young girl tripped and dropped her camera which fell into pieces and the batteries fell out. Luckily I managed to retrieve it all and I think it still worked! In the main cavern the guide tried to explain some things to us and we all posed for a picture. The Thai family desperately wanted their picture with us all and on the way out back to the car the father told us that his name was Eed and explained that he only speaks a little English but wants to improve and should we ever visit Bangkok he would like us to contact him. We exchanged e-mail address an told him that we were actually heading there in the next few days so hopefully we'd see him again. How lucky was that and a very nice experience of the stereotypical friendly Thai culture!
Back at the road we walked a while to the train station where we could catch the train back to town traveling on the Death Railway. Yet again we begrudgingly paid over the odds for something as a tourist - we'd read that the train was a local train and very cheap, however next to the ticket desk was a big sign stating that since a few months back the fare had increased (about 5-fold) to 100baht for tourists (compared to 17baht for locals). To be fair most of the locals wearing nice clothes and driving around in fancy cars could easily afford what we paid but that's tourism for you! You would think that for our 100baht we got: comfy padded seats, a reserved tourist carriage and some free food and drink......wrong! Just wooden benches and much less comfortable than the cheaper trains we'd used to get here! The first 20 minutes provided some spectacular scenery however, although for some reason we stopped for a good 30 minutes and most people got off and disappeared somewhere.
Plastic bag drink
We were clueless but luckily an ice-cream man came to our window. Going back into Kanchanaburri we did get to ride across the famous bridge over the River Kwai which was packed with tourists of all nationalities taking photos of the train. We got off and took some pictures of the bridge as the sun was setting which looked amazing. I tried to persuade Ollie that we could walk back to our accommodation despite it being a good few miles but he wasn't up for it and on a whim he popped into a shop, had a quick chat with an old lady and hired a motorbike for 200baht (about £3 for 24hours). It was a bonus having wheels and we had a lot of fun whizzing down tiny side streets around the town. We whizzed back to ours in time to see a movie - we picked the Aviator and it can't have been that good as I don't remember much about it apart from that it starred Leonardi DiCaprio as an airplane designer trying to outdo the competitors within the airline industry. Not a 'must-see' movie. We made the most of the wheels and headed to the main tourist area to check out another place to stay. We reserved a room at Blue Star Guest House and told them we'd drop off our bags in the morning. Today we got up early and Ollie somehow managed to get both our huge heavy backpacks to our new guesthouse on the motorbike. We then drove to Erawan Falls. The road there followed a beautiful river and I got to see parts of the countryside we'd seen from the train yesterday - the view from the road was far more beautiful than that we'd seen from the train! Unfortunately for Ollie he had to keep his eyes on the road but for me I could relax and enjoy the cool breeze and the view.
The waterfall is supposedly one of the most famous in Thailand as it is indeed very beautiful turquoise water, flowing down at least 7 tiers and an inviting temperature for swimming on a hot sticky day. However, being there on a Sunday probably wasn't the best idea as it was heaving with locals and buses and buses and buses of tourists, I tried to be nice and offered my help to an old lady seemingly in distress only to discover that she was unhappy that she'd gone there on a trip only to discover that they were staying for a good hour or so and she didn't want to stay and she couldn't find her guide. Luckily she was with her husband so I left her complaining to him. I'm sure you'll agree from what you see in the photos that this wasn't the kind of place you want to visit for only 5 minutes! We swam in almost every tier, jumped off ledges, slid down slopes and tried to climb higher up to find a quieter spot but were soon stopped by the park ranger as it is 'dangerous'. 'We're in Thailand where there are no silly health and safety laws and barriers everywhere, not America or Europe!' I thought. I saw a brief glimpse of a monkey climbing his way up to the quiet spot but we decided to call it a day.
We went back to the carpark when Ollie was hungry yet again so he bought some beef jerky and decided that now would be as good a time as any to give me a driving lesson.....in a carpark full of tour buses. I have to admit I didn't have a clue, having never ridden anything like it. It felt heavy and I found it difficult reaching to change up and down gear with my toes and heel plus I cornered badly! I think I got it into 3rd gear before Ollie made the decision that he would drive us back!
Back in Kanhanburri we checked into the guesthouse which was really nice for the price and quite plush compared to the last place. As the football was on we headed to a bar in town, got some food (which took forever) and decided to test out the local tipple AKA The Samsong Bucket. Now.....any of you that have been to Thailand will know what this is. Take 1 half litre bottle of Thai whiskey, (yes the whole bottle), pour into the kind of bucket you'd take to the seaside, add some ice, coca cola and Red Bull from something that looks like a medicine bottle......et voila! This cost us 200baht so was actually very inexpensive for an alcoholic drink in this country. A relaxing end to a great stay in Kanchanaburri!
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Weird sickly coconut treat
