From Temple creatures to mountains

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So this will sum up our last few days of adventure! We are now in Kanchanaburi which is 100kms West of Thailand. But before we get to that, let's back up a few days. On Monday we decided to head to Wat Pho which is where the giant gold covered reclining Buddha is housed. We walked there from our hotel (about 25mins) So we know that when you go to any temple men..and women especially should dress conservatively, which means long pants, no sandals and covered shoulders. So we obliged...having entered the grounds of the Temple, or temples as there are a few smaller ones around. I notice groups or might I say hoardes of Euro tourists...the women are wearing basically glorified bathing suites. So here I am wearing fishermen pants and a black tshirt with covered shoes, sweating like crazy! while these girls are parading themselves in a holy temple..oh well atleast I felt good about my decision to follow the rules. The temple was very impressive. Ornate stones covered all the temple buildings and the reclining Buddha itself was really cool. Also there were these stone carved creatures scattered all over the ground, I found them slighly creepy yet humurous and cute. We enjoyed spotting them out as some were hidden in shrubbery. So now that we finished out "cultural" part of Bangkok it was time to nap and get ready to go out!

That same eve we met up with a couple from Toronto who were finishing their trip. They wanted to celebrate our recent engagement so we headed down to Baiyoke Hotel Sky Bar, which is the tallest building in Bangkok with an open air rooftop bar (Hangover 2 styles)..it was fantastic! We opted for the buffet combo for $20 per person. It was nice, nothing amazing but we got full from it. The views were just spectacular being on the 84th floor! Good times.

Next morning we woke up at 4:30am..not being able to sleep (still that damn jetlag!) so we got up..packed up, checked out knowing that we had a 7:50am train to catch we had time for breakfast. We chose a small street restaurant off of Khao San road and had an awesome omlet each with tea and toast for $1.50. We then took the water taxi for 15BHT (50 cents) and got off at the right stop..?? not quite sure where we were we asked several people how to reach the train station...it's funny how in Thailand no one seems to know where anything is but are all willing to take you there...hmmm! We found another couple from Germany in the same boat as us (no pun intended!) and we joined forces trying to find this mysterious train station. With 10mins left until the train departs we finally found it! and got our 100BHT ticket for the 1.5hour ride. The 3rd class trains are awesome. Wooden benches, open windows and vendors get on at most stops to sell snacks and drinks. The ride was really lovely. Beautiful countryside all along the way. We met another couple from Peterborough that sat with us.

We got to Kanchanaburi around 10:00am and quickly found our guesthouse. It's called Sam's River Rafthouse and it's really nice. We got a riverfront rafthouse for 700BHT (23$) that has AC a super comfy queen bed and a patio facing the river and mountains! So serene..and every time a boat passed our rafhouse swayed a little with the waves.

We met 2 amazing Brit girls staying beside us and ended up having dinner and drinks with them. We really enjoyed hanging together and decided to head to Erawan Waterfalls about 50KM from Kanchanaburi the next day. We got up early walked to the bus station, which was a huge mission in itself to find. After asking about 6 different people (2 of which pointed in the opposite direction) we got to the tiny station and boarded our 50BHT ($1.50) 1.5hr bus ride. This was the little bus that could...and half the time we wondered if we would end up pushing it up the hill. It sputtered along the mountainside veryyyyyy slowly. Nonetheless we enjoyed seeing the soaring mountains all around us.

We picked up a French solo traveller who is travelling for 2 years. Amazing! the 5 us set out in the national park towards the waterfalls. Now these aren't regular falls...there are 7 tiers which you have to hike to and each tier has it's own blue pool that you can swim in. The pools also have fish that like to nibble at the dead skin of your feet. This may sound sort of fun...but it ain't! some of these cute fishies are a foot long, and when that sucker (or 10 suckers) are headed towards you..you freak. Or atleast most people did. I just kicked around the water very hard until they backed off. Still it was soooooo beautiful. We really felt like we were in a wild jungle, with monkeys zooming about in the trees. The hike was difficult but it was nice to finally work up a sweat. That meant the dip in the falls was that much better. Dave went under one of the bigger falls and just hung out under the water..he loved it and didn't want to get out! One of the levels has 2 slides in the rock which were super fun to go down.

When we got back we all went for lunch and then later met up for dinner also adding another member to our group, a cool German dude.

So today we will be starting our trek down to the islands mon! we will catch a one hour train to take us to the stop where the night train leaves from. Then take our first sleeper train! woo hoo can't wait. Trains are awesome 😊 Then we will get to Surat Thani and take an hour ferry over to the island oh Koh Samui..

We will update once we get there.

xoxo D & A

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Comments

[Kris]

Wow
K, getting a little jealous... here I am working like a chump. Can u believe u cant find a full time job around here without working 40hrs a week?

[Sveta]

So I went to those temples...tried to dress as conservative as possible...but they still said "NO TOO SEXY TOO SEXY" LOLOLOLOL and gave me and my gf clothes to cover up, and even tried to colour code it with our original outfits! great success!

[Sveta]

LOL I have the EXACT same picture!!!! you fotoshopped it didn't u!!!!

[Sveta]

So...was that a desert or an appetizer?

[Sveta]

KRASOTA!!!!! HOCHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY