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Day 4 and 5
So much seems to have happened so I thought I would run these two days together.
We had an early start yesterday morning…I have already forgotten which day it is. We met again as a group and met the new person Tracey for the first time and I also found out that I would be rooming with her. She appears to be very nice and does not snore so that is a bonus.
The first adventure for the day was a trip down the river in a long boat to explore the scenes behind the city. We were all expected to don life jackets making the trip a little uncomfortable.
It was interesting to discover that some of the streets in Bangkok have houses with backyards sitting on the water. The water is decidedly clean these days with little in the way of plastic bags and other detritus, living in its waters. The houses appear to range from floating pieces of wood that sort of look like someone might live inside the walls through to fine, solid, large two storied wooden and concrete houses fit for a king or queen. You could
see late model cars and bikes parked in yards waiting to drive onto the narrow streets and at one stage we saw a parking area for the boat. Who said Thailand was poor?
We stopped off to feed the fish with large loaves of bread at 10 baht each. The fish came in their droves and are protected with some being enormous. It seems they know that they are safe in this particular area as they teem here. Down the canal further a fisherman was trying to catch a catfish in an unprotected section. You could see they fish coming to the surface for a peek and look around but they were much less numerous.
After leaving the long boat we visited the reclining Buddha. The Buddha was enormous and dominated the whole temple. The feet of the Buddha were also enormous and ornately and beautifully carved in mother of pearl. I thought it funny that you could buy for 20 baht some 1 baht coins and if you placed them in the numerous bowls that lined one wall of the room, you could expect to have great wealth come to you. I just thought what goes around
comes around because both times the monks would be the receivers of the money.
Some of the stone statues that were displayed outside of the temple were as old as the 15
th century and over three metres tall. They were of chinese men of the day dressed in their finery. Quite amazing. We had it explained to us about the cremated ashes of the dead and how they were stored at the temples too.
Here at this temple the monks train the Thai people in massage techniques. They spend three months there before going out to their own towns and villages to practise. With that in mind we headed back to the hotel for free time and I used mine having another massage. Very relaxing.
The rest of the day was spent travelling to Kananchiburi before hoping off the bus and on to some bicycle rickshaws cycled by men but there was a woman too and with bikes that were fit for the wreckers yard and no gears. The leg muscles on these guys were amazing.
Today we were ready to go about 9.30 and we headed off to the Erewon National Park to the 7
waterfalls. Each of them slightly higher up than the last one. To travel to the highest one the people needed to walk over one kilometre. I didn’t have the right shoes so I decided that I would stay at the second waterfall and as it was very hot have a swim there. You had to sign in your drink bottles and give the administrator a minimum of 20 baht and when you came back down off the area as long as you could produce your bottles empty or full, you were given your money back.
The swimming there was interesting as the pool at the bottom of the waterfall was full of catfish from 2cm to 40 centimetres at least. They appeared to be congregating near the entrance that people would use to get in the water. This was very disconcerting and made it very hard to get in and other people were saying that they bit at your toes. I had shoes on so they said the fish wouldn’t bite me, but it felt creepy. Finally I slithered in after trying to splash them away from my feet and having made deeper water was pretty proud of myself
as I adjusted to the temperature which was refreshing. Then next thing I feel little nips and it felt freaky. The little fish were right on you and to me it was like being in a river with piranhas, so out I got. A guy from Alaska was feeding the fish that we were swimming with so I got a photo of them.
On the way back from the park we all decided to go kayaking so this was duly arranged and we were about to embark on a truly intrepid experience, kayaking on the River Kwai. Earlier in the day we had visited a centre just short of the “Bridge over the River Kwai” and we walked across the bridge which was about 300metres long. Actually our accommodation is just down the road and tomorrow morning I will walk across the bridge up the road and across the next bridge and it will take me about one hour.
So I ended up being paired with Harold in the double kayak. He is a large, well built and strong man so I didn’t have to do too much of the paddling. We seemed to be able most of
the time to steer our kayak in the right direction. Stuart and Casper were together and they wanted to splash us and the other girls, Emma and Tracey were too busy just getting themselves down the river. Thomas and Kathleen decided at the last minute not to come. The water although quite dark in colour was surprisingly clean and the scenery from the river was worth the trip.
Well we finally had the Bridge come into our view and there were many people on the bridge, so Harold thought we should be impressing them with our speed and skill so we upped our pace and passed the others and next thing we were out of the kayak and in the water…the only part I had dreaded although I had checked with Sar our Thai guide the previous night, if there was anything lurking in the water that we should be afraid of. Initially he said anaconda, but he is such a joker we did not believe him and rightly so. So it was a comfort at this point that it was fairly safe. I was wearing my glasses and shoes and had to rescue my shoes, but my glasses
it seems stayed intact for the whole time. Harold had his wallet in his pocket but it seems his money dried out quickly. Oh dear, everyone thought it so funny and Emma reckoned it was the highlight of the trip to see us in the water. Well at least we pleased people and it was not such a bad experience as I had anticipated….just a wet one. Emma very kindly offered me the photos for my blog.
Tea was lovely and uneventful with us all trying new dishes, but my favourite of satay chicken was my first choice and tonight I also had a curry with jasmine rice and it was delicious.
I am off to bed now as there is more adventure tomorrow and I want to be ready.
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Deb
non-member comment
Having fun
As I sit here at 6am on a cold Melbourne morning and read your blog Lynnie I so wish I was there too! Today I will be supervising an exam and rushing around trying to get everything ready to leave for raro on Saturday so so much to do! Guess what? I have an interview for Waikato job. Will let u know more when I do. Sounds like the people are good on the trip and the adventures worth having. Would have loved to see the spectacular 'roll' in the canoe but glad someone had a camera nearby! Carpe diem D