Thursday the 25th we started our way to Kanchanaburi, a city located 150km north-west of Bangkok. We took a train at Thonburi Station on the other side of Chao Phraya river, and bought a bunch of mini bananas and a couple of mangos as a snack. During the 2,5 hours of train we had time to take some pics.
As we arrived to Kanchanaburi we went directly to our hostel, on the shore of the Kwai river. Our hostel street was full of shitty pubs and bars with flags of different countries, Lloret de Mar style. Luckily enough, we were on the opposite side, in an small floating bungalow on the Kwai river. Small and rusty but we actually liked it, plus the double room costed 7€ per night, hella cheap.
In the morning of the next day, we woke up early and rented a motorbike for the day. We rode one and a half hours to Erawan National Park, north of Kanchanaburi, where we paid a 300 baht (8€) entrance fee each. The park mainly consists of gorgeous waterfalls divided in 7 levels. In each level you can find these stunning melting waterfalls that look like the scenery of a Lord of the Rings movie. In fact the name of the park comes from here: Erawan son of Elrond. True story! Step by step, we carried our asses to the top (the 7th level) and here’s what we found!
There is this massive waterfall, about 20 meters high, followed by two smaller cascades that give way to a charming pond. We had the pleasure of arriving here and having the place almost entirely for ourselves. We took a shower (with enviable water pressure) in one of the cascades, we enjoyed the sunny weather and we let the flesh-eating fishes smooth our feet’s skin. We had mixed feelings about these fishes, it felt like someone was pinching you under water out of nowhere. Sticking one foot in the water, 3 or 4 of these fishes would come and start their feast.
After a while, the place started to get crowded and we went down to the 6th level which everyone had skipped on their way to the top. Again, we found ourselves almost alone in this beautiful spot.
Just when we were picking our things up and preparing to return to the base level, a macaque came down from a tree behind Joan, jumped at his arm and stole one of Laura’s bikinis. We (Joan) panicked and some of our clothes and the camera fell inside a stream, leaving them all wet and muddy. The camera was fine though. After rescuing our things we looked up just to find that fucker attempting to eat Laura’s red bikini on top of a tree. After throwing a branch at it, the monkey let the bikini fall to river, which quickly got out of sight. We were shocked when we looked up and saw there where like 12 macaque jumping around fighting and screaming. We couldn’t believe we hadn’t seen them before!!
When we got back to the bottom of the waterfalls, a woman from the park staff disinfected the scar the macaque had left in Joan’s arm. Looking at it with some perspective the whole monkey thing was pretty funny and we also had the chance to see wild monkeys for the first time in our trip, although we couldn’t take any pictures of them.
To round the day off, we got back to our hostel just to find that our computer wouldn’t turn on. So we said to ourselves, fuck it, let’s get some food and tomorrow will be another day. We had the best Pad Thai so far in the trip there and as for desert we had an awesome coconut smoothie.
Not much to explain about the last day in Kanchanaburi. We went to the see the Bridge on River Kwai. This bridge was built in terrible conditions by Allied prisoners captured by the Japanese during WWII, and was meant to supply the Japanese forces during their invasion of Burma. We also visited the JEATH War Museum and a couple of Allied cemeteries in town.
That was it for Kanchanaburi!! We’d say that if you go to Thailand at some point, Kanchanaburi is a great spot worth visiting.
Fins aviat!!
Joan & Laura
