trip report: kanchanaburi province

Originally, my plans for this weekend were to visit the "dark heart" of Thailand, the rich forest and national park of Khao Yai. However, on Friday morning my plans changed drastically after Tyler didn't feel up to the trip. So... I hopped onboard another traveling group for the weekend and took the first bus to Kanchanaburi.

Upon arriving at Kanchanaburi I soon realized that the trip group was too big of a group for my tastes. I've been on some reasonably sized excursions but I decided early that this group was just too big. Skylar was of a like mind regarding the too-large size of the group, so we set off on our own. Our first stop was to rent some motorbikes in Kanchanaburi. And, as chicks dig scooters, Vanessa hopped on Skylar's bike and came with.

At this time in the story I need to mention a sub-plot regarding FATE. You see, many of my comrades started poking fun at me after they discovered a fantasy book amongst my belongings in my room called "The Dragonbone Chair." Ever since, I have acquired a sort of self-depreciating humor regarding dragons; constantly referring to them as my favorite thing. Skylar, on the other hand, actually has a legitimate fate centered around his holy number of "four." He decided that after numerous instances of four playing a part in his life, that he would adopt it as his "fate number," so to speak. Therefore, he uses it as his lucky number, and constantly notes his run-ins with the number. He even has a tattoo, circular with four wings made up of four rods each (see later picture). Vouching for his instances with four, at dinner we were numbered off to keep track of bills. True to his trend, Sky was number four. You may wonder how my dragon-liking fits in here. Well, after renting our scooters, Sky approached a table full of helmets to pick his out. All helmets were plain... except one. Of course, it had a dragon painted on it. As Sky didn't know abot my dragon-jokes, he snatched it up (as any sane person would) and tried to put it on. By this time I had begun to weep slightly as I wouldn't receive the dragon helmet. Providence was on my side, and the helmet did not fit Skylar. Needless to say, it fit me perfectly, thus becoming mine. Things were looking down for Sky, until we sat on our scooters, realizing Sky was on number 18 and I was on number... 4. This was obviously some sort of astrological error, so we switched bikes. Fate!

But I digress!

We set off on our super-fun Wave 100's for "Hell's Pass," build by the same POW's featured in the motion picture "A Bridge Over the River Kwai." Sadly, the park was closed upon our arrival (only 100cc engines on our scooters!), so I will have to come back another day (which is easy because Kanchanaburi is only a few clicks away from Bangkok)!

So, we continued our ride north, soaking in the scenery and relishing being away from Bangkok. I even saw a corn field! This wasn't the only thing that reminded me of home this trip. While riding my scooter, I got cold for the first time ever in Thailand. As we rode, there was a slight sprinkling of rain.

This, coupled with the higher altitude and wind from the scooters, gave me a chill which felt just like autumn back home. This had the surprising effect of making me miss home quite a lot, in particular the fall, which is my favorite season. Here the colours do not change; the weather does not change (except to get even hotter); and there is no Labor-Day visits to orchards!

We bedded down in a northern city (I believe called Tha Pa Phum). As we bedded down for the night I realized something funny about our covers (I have a feeling they were made in Thailand). True to my caracterization of Thailand and bad translations:

"We want to sleep and make us happy dreams."

Now, because the second part of this entry deals with a waterfall, I know what everyone is thinking. True to what I've said about Thailand, it is (apparently) made up of three things: badly translated signs, waterfalls, and monkeys. Believe it or not, we didn't see any monkeys this trip, but we did see a: badly translated sign eluding to the presence of monkeys, which I think counts. Oh... and it was at a waterfall.

And what a waterfall it was!!!

It was made up of seven tiers (count them with me!): ...

7:

6:

5:

4:

3:

2:

1:

I know you may think I have digitally alterred these photos. Let me clarify that the water you see here is the natural colour of the water. It had some mineral in the water that made it a very bright blue. You may also see photos in black and white with blue as the only colour, this was not coloured in, but was taken with a special setting on the camera which isolates a colour and removes all others. It worked very well here as the water was so blue!

The waterfalls were in Erawan Park in Kanchanaburi (a very nice scooter ride away from the town proper). I do recommend it if you would like to see a park that looks man-made it is so nice. It is best described as a delightful collection of scenic waterfalls, rocks, roots, vines, and (the cherry on top, so to speak) butterflies fluttering everywhere. It looks far more like something Disney created than anywhere I've ever been. I don't know if I'll be able to match the caliber of this waterfall on the rest of my journeys, so I took a lot of pictures (they're free).

Vanessa and the blue water.

Nice freeze-frame of the second tier.

Sky in a cave behind a waterfall (almost as good as ruins with monkeys!).

Me getting ready to dive in for the swim back (these fish nibble at you BAD!).

Emerging from swimming with the fishes on the fourth tier.

Sunlight filtered through the forest.

Nice shot of the fifth tier.

Me gingerly climbing the falls (which were very grippy where the water flowed fastest, but dangerously slippery where the water slowed).

Sky and Vanessa playing.

Sky and his tattoo of fortune fate four.

Me saying goodbye from the falls!

In the next entry I'll talk about the name Erawan and connect it with my apartment (I'll explain later).