Kanchanburi - Erawan falls trip

Monday 6th February

Today we had a tour planned. Alarm didn't go off (typical!) so we were awoken at 8.20 am by our tour guide banging on our door! Panic! Nothing ready but got ourselves together in ten minutes and ran up to our mini bus....praying it wouldn't be full of evil looks, thankfully there were only three other on it and they were cool about the whole thing.

So off we set. The other three in the group were Aaron from New York, Julia from Germany and Hourhay (probably spent completely wrong) from Spain. The days plan was to go to Erawan national park, Elephant treck and bamboo raft of the River Kwai, Krasae Cave via the Death Railway and crossing the bridge over river Kwai by train.

We got to Erawan park first, it was about 9.30am. Absolutely stunning place. We got off the mini bus and started our trek. I walked ahead and got chatting to Tao (our tour guide who woke us up that morning!) Lovely girl from Kanchanaburi, 22 studying business tourism. She works a couple of days with the tour to fund her studies. She was wearing skinny jeans and a denim jacket. It was first thing in the morning and i was already sweltering, I don't know how they do it!!!!!

The main attraction in the national park is Erawan falls. It's an seven tier waterfall that you trek through the forest to get to. Tao came to the foerst three tiers with us, most tourists usually stop here, but we continued on and arranged to meet her back at the bus. You can swim in each of the natural pools at each tier. We ere all roasting and wanted to jump in straight away but decided it would be more satisfying to get to the top then jump in! The trek took about 2hours, 38degrees!!! Thankfully most of it was in the shade due to all the trees overlapping the path..and when i say path, there was none, more so you will cross a sign ever now again with an arrow pointing in a direction and you find your way through the vegetation until you reach another sign!!


the ponds are full of fish...they enjoy the taste of western skin!!


Each tier was beautiful. The vegetation is stunning. Long vines dangling down from the highest of high trees, knotting in all different shapes and loops. Monkeys swing from tree to tree above our heads and we listened to the strangest sounds from all the crickets singing together in unison. Butterfly and dragon flys fluttering in front of our eyes.

The vegetation got really thick after the 5th tier and the hike from there to the 7th tier was quite difficult, but not so much so that you needed to be an accomplished explorer to do so, although Lukey did enjoy using his bear grylls knowledge whenever possible!!!!!

The 7th tier was epic...probably more so that we could finally get some relief from the heat!!! Had a quick dip there, the water wasn't so deep so we headed back down to the 3rd tier for a proper swim. . The waterfall here was incredible. We climbed up under it and stood uder the water. The strength of the water pounded down upon us, I stretched my hands high into the air and thought- BLOODY HELL IS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We met Tao back at the entrance to the park and had some lunch. I have no idea what it was, what I do know is all the Thai food here is beautiful!!!



kids playing soccer by the River Kwai

 Next we went to The elephant trek and river rafting on the Kwai River. We didn't enjoy the elephant trek at all. Firstly the landscape where it was wasn't nice at all. There was no vegetation, just landed scorched by the heat. I hardly imagine it is the ideal spot for such an animal. We got on and walked around a dusty path, the guide shouting at the elephantt from time to time. He had a stick with a big hook on the end of it and there were a couple of bloody marks on the elephant's head which we guessed was from the previous trip where he obviously hit him a few times. We got back and I was grateful to get off. Would not recommend doing such a trip and would not do it again.

We went on to do the bamboo rafting then. Again, we expected hands on rafting, you know, everyone paddling down an adventurous path on the river, but it was basically a big engine powered bamboo raft where we could just sit back and take in the views. I thought I was actually going to fry!!!!



bamboo raft

 Next we went to the Krasae cave via death railway. This cave housed prisoners of war during WW2. The cave itself didn't seem to special but the momentous structure of the railway outside was spectacular. The railway was constucted during the war to link Thailand and Burma. I won't get into the history but it really is unbelievable to think of the hardship that must have existed when they were cutting through rock building this structure.



bridge over river Kwai

 We boarded the train crossing the bridge over river Kwai and headed back towards Kanchanaburi.


lady sitting across from us on train to Kanchanaburi



Two more points of interest!....

I told Luke when we got to Thailand that I bet Tesco are over here.......



...and I was right!!!

and...there are little lizards everywhere!!!!