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Published: October 28th 2007
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So we arrived back in Bangkok and as i'm writing my section Scott is writing about the sights and activities that took place while we were back there. I on the other hand am going to write about one of the side trips that we took while we were here. We decided once we got back that we had plenty of time to do some small trips around the area, that way we can actually say we did some other things besides just sitting around here. Although there is plenty to do just in the city center if we really wanted.
Our first side trip was kanchanaburi a small town about 2 hours west of Bangkok. For 200Baht ($8) each we got on a bus that took us there, conviently the diver dropped us off at a resort that was charging 800Baht a night for a double, declining we walking about 5 minutes next door and found a cute hostel that was charging 200 Baht for just about the same there, we stayed there. Since we had limited time our first priority was to make sure we were on a bus getting back into Bangkok and then either book a
tour to the Erawan National Park or find an alternative way of getting there. We accomplished both while we were eating lunch in the hostel. That done with we left to go explore the town, which isn't really much bigger than Bayville. Basically there is one main street that runs straight through, so we took that. Towards the end of it was a cemetry dedicated to World War II veterans that we went to go wander around. On the way back Scott stopped at a really cheap internet place to put some pictures online while I decided that I would go for a foot massage. We had done a sufficient amount of walking the past few days. It was fabulous! For about 40 minutes this Thai woman rubbed my feet down and Let me tell you these women have extremely strong hands! The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed hanging out at the hostels restaurant having dinner. It was right along the river so we have a beautiful view as well.
The second day we had in Kanchanaburi was probably one of Scott's and mine favorite days traveling so far. It started 8:00am when we got picked up
to head over to Erawan National Park, one of the most visited parks in Thailand. Most likely for its 7-tiered waterfalls, which were spectacular!!! It started off pretty small but my the time we were all the way at the very top the waterfall must have dropped about 100 feet! There were plenty of places to go swimming but we decided to head all the way up first and then slowly make our way down. Our first stop on the way down was at tier 4 where there were rocks for us to slide down into the water. From a distance it looked nice and smooth, however doing it was completely different, and both of us got into the water with a few more bruises than we started with. Next we stopped at tier 3 because that waterfall looked like all the ones you see on the movies. A nice long cascade down, not too deep or too dangerous. We hung out there for a bit and took some pictures all the while the fish were nipping at our back and legs. Finally we stopped at the one on the second tier, alson the most popular for swimming. It was
filled with Thai families relaxing and picnicing around the water. This was our favorite one of all. We both jumped in and swimming to where the water came down, and with a little help from Scoot we were both able to jump up onto the rocks. We were behind the waterfall now. Something I have always wanted to do! Damn those movies. It was almost like we were in a cave with stalagitas overhead, it was amazing! We just stood there for a few minutes taking it all in. By the time we got out of the water and back to the bus it was lunch time. Free Thai food, you can't go wrong with that! I of course had Pad Se Eiw my favorite. We were also served fresh fruit and something to do. The next stop on our trip was to go bamboo river rafting. Not really much too it. We were dragged up the river to a certain point and then let go, and the curent brought us back down. But we were on a bamboo raft, which was actually pretty cool, and it's really strong. The second part of that was elephant trekking, something what Scott
and I were looking forward to doing up North. Since we didn't get there, this was going to make up for it. For starters we climbed up into the "saddle" of an elephant. Our "driver" then tooked us for a little walk, straight down into the river. The elephant was almost completely under water. Once we got back onto the main land our driver got off and let our elephant just wander around as she pleased. The driver then let me sit where he was sitting up by her neck. I was really worried that I was going to hurt her but was assured that I won't. It was so much fun! Like I was in charge while Scott was just chillin' and going for the ride in the back. Our driver took my camera from me and took plenty of pictures of us riding the elephant. Ours was a bit temperamental, but not to the point where she would get hit for not listening. Old enough to know exactly what she could get away with. Forty-five minutes later we were down and off to our next stop. This was the Death Railway Bridge, famous becuase it was built by
POWs from World War II. I also read something that it was one of the most dangerous curved railroads. So what did we do, we went for a ride and our tour bus picked us up on the other side. From there we only had one more stop left back in the town of Kanchanaburi, the Bridge of the river Kwai. We made it there just in time to watch the sunset behind it. And that was the end of one of our favorite days so far. That night again we relaxed sitting along the river eating dinner.
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