Last weekend I went to Kanjanaburi, a small city about 3-4 hours west of Bangkok. It was a gorgeous town with a lush, mountainous backdrop above the River Kwai, famous for the bridge built by American POWs during WWII. That particular story was made into a movie with Alec Guinness (the original Obiwan Kenobi from Star Wars) in the 50’s – we tried to watch it before we went, but it was a lot of dialogue and we got bored.
The second day was perfect weather for our planned hike up the waterfalls at Erawan National Park. Because of the holiday, the park was full of Thai and European tourists, the latter being a constant source of amusement with their overly revealing speedos and ghost-white skin (not to mention the rolls of fat I would rather have not seen). But at least there were quite a few side paths you could take to escape all the people and really enjoy and appreciate the amazing nature.
The jungle here is so thick with tall trees and thin, twisting vines, or huge round trucks that lay dead and fallen over the river. The water was as blue and clear as I have yet seen in this country, where most rivers and canals near the cities are brown with mud and pollution. It was so refreshing to cool our bodies in the splash during the hike. I was worried I wouldn’t have the right shoes, but most people had flip-flops or went bare foot.
I had my first real monkey sighting there!! There was a whole pack of the light brown furry creatures jumping from tree to three, and on my way down, one of them stopped with her baby, and the father came down too and tried to take the baby monkey while it was sucking on its mothers teet. I tried to get a video but was too late. I thought it was cool, but there are a lot of people I have met who have had horrible monkey experiences, and are quite afraid of them.
On Sunday we rented a scooter and went driving around the town. We saw a pretty cool cave, and also spotted some bats and shrieked in terror. We are such girls when it comes to those things, also ants, spiders, snakes, and giant river lizards. We ate lunch at a floating restaurant and realized that the last bus was leaving soon, so we had to pay our bill in a hurry and make it to the bus station, only to wait on the bus for another hour before it finally left. Next time I come here, I am going to ride the elephants and swim with them, and then I want to go on a safari and feed the giraffes and pet the tigers :) All in all it was a fabulous weekend, I lived like a queen and only spent $87 on everything. Here is what I got for that small amount of money:
Transport to and from Suphanburi and Kanchanaburi
A few random taxi rides
Two nights at a backpacker’s hotel
The best fried beef in oyster sauce of my life, with rice of course
Several bottles of water
Several bottles/cans of beer
Two ivory and turquoise bracelets
A small hand purse
A magnet
A Spiderman hat
Six postcards
A mediocre Fish Spa experience
Beef pepper steak with mushroom sauce and a salad
Several 10baht shots
Scrambled eggs with cheese, baked beans and toast
Transport to and from Erawan National Park
National Park entrance fee
The most delicious Pad Thai of my life
One-hour traditional Thai massage (better than a chiropractor)
Massaman curry and rice
Winecooler
More 10baht shots
More bottles of water
Fried banana rolls with ice cream, chocolate sauce and honey
Coffee
Scrambled egg and cheese sandwich
Motorbike Rental
Cave Entrance Fee
Not very awesome Cat Fish dish at the floating restaurant
It’s amazing how far the dollar goes here! Safe travels my friends, and chok dee!
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