Day 121 - Tuesday, May 22
I left Singapore around noon (on Tiger Airways, which I prefer to AirAsia as far as budget Asian airlines go) and arrived in Bangkok around 2. My plan was to catch a train on the
Death Railway to Kanchanaburi, but I hadn't checked the train schedule to see what times they left. Turns out the last one leaves Bangkok before 2pm. Upon learning that bit of info, I headed to the bus station and grabbed a minibus for the couple-hour drive to Kanchanaburi. By the time I arrived it was dark out and I hadn't booked a room. I paid 25 cents for half an hour of internet time and did some research about places to stay and decided that most places were close enough to walk. Perhaps I underestimated the distance or how heavy all my stuff was, because before I had come across any of the places I was planning to check out, I was quite tired and soaked in sweat. I walked past another tourist about my age, who asked if I was looking for a room and mentioned that his place wasn't bad and pretty cheap. So I followed his directions and ended up at a place that unfortunately looked like bug heaven, but I was tired of carrying my bag around and it was a reasonable price, so I opted to stay. It was a floating hut type thing, on the Kwae River (alternately spelled Kwai or Khwae). No pictures from inside the room, but it was quite primitive. Surrounded by shallow stagnant water, The area looked like a mosquito haven, but I didn't see any in the room and hoped for the best. I took a few pictures in the daylight the next day:
By the time I got checked in, I was starving, and ventured out to find some food. The only real option that I saw when I got to the main street was this bbq buffet type place where for $3, I got served a basin with hot coals with a special cover on the top that allows you to both grill meat and cook soup or cook noodles/vegetables in the soup/broth, and then there is a buffet of raw ingredients - noodles, sliced meat, vegetables, etc. I think I made 5 or 6 trips to the buffet, and the last 3 times, the guys running the place just stared at me with increasing amazement/concern and would make comments to each other in thai, presumably about my gluttony and how they were losing money on this transaction. When I went to pay, all of a sudden, it was $4 for the buffet (ostensibly the 1$ extra was because I was by myself) and then for the first time in all my time traveling, I was charged for ice. With a rather marked-up price for water, it ended up being like $6, but I'm pretty sure I ate as much as about 3 average Thai adults, so I didn't really mind the inflated price. I debated going back the next night because it was delicious and I was curious how they'd greet me, but I think they probably would've made something up about how two nights in a row wasn't allowed or the 2nd night of 2 nights in a row, the price is tripled or something.
Day 122 - Wednesday, May 23
Kanchanaburi is probably most known for being home to the famous bridge over the River Kwai, and the related
novel and
movie. The bridge itself isn't particularly spectacular:
(For those that have seen the movie and are wondering why it looks nothing like the bridge in the movie, the movie was actually shot in Sri Lanka where they built another bridge that looked quite different.) Once again I rented a moped for the day to go check out the sites. After the bridge, which is more or less in Kanchanaburi, I headed north and west, with the plan to check out a handful of the various tourist attractions a little outside the city and hopefully do some hiking in the process. The first stop was Lawa Cave, a large limestone cave, with multiple chambers, a handful of resident bats, and a lot of cool rock formations. I was the only one in the poorly lit cave without a flashlight, which was a little unnerving:
I then headed to
Hellfire Pass, another historic landmark, related to the Death Railway. Hellfire Pass was the longest and deepest of many passes carved into the mountain by POW and local labor forces working in horrid conditions during WWII that gave the Death Railway its name.
Once again I was caught in the rain on my moped, but at least this time I had a windscreen, which helped a lot. The rain didn't last too long, but I was still soaking wet - loving this wet season thing. The next stop was Soi Yok National Park to check out the Soi Yok Yai waterfall, that flows into the Kwae River.
I was planning to do some hiking around the Park, but I had misjudged how far apart the sites were and how long it would take me to get there. I knew that the first stop was about 60km from Kanchanaburi and all the sights looked like they were pretty close together, so I was thinking 60km out, maybe 2-10km between each site and then 60km back. In actuality, the entrance to Sai Yok National Park was 104 km from Kanchanaburi and everything was a bit spread out. So I ended up traveling about 250km, which meant about 4 hours of the afternoon were spent on the moped - a bit more than I was expecting. After Sai Yok Yai, I headed back towards to Kanchanaburi and stopped at the Sai Yok Noi falls, which are much more visited because they are right on the main road and only 60km from Kanchanaburi. But seeing as how the rainy season had just started and there hadn't been a lot of rain recently, there wasn't much water pouring over the falls:
Apparently later in the year, they look more like this:
On the way back to Kanchanaburi, I stopped by the
Tiger Temple, even though it was likely closed - just to kind of see what it looked like. Part of the reason I had wanted to go to Kanchanaburi is because I was thinking of visiting the temple, but it is the source of quite a lot of controversy as most animal activist groups are opposed to the temple for many reasons. So I had decided not to go. But I did take a photo of the giant tiger statue they have out front.
After a rather full day, when I got back, I took advantage of the hammock on the back of my room, overlooking the river. It may have been the dirtiest place I stayed yet, but a well-placed hammock can make up for a lot.
I had decided one full day in Kanchanaburi was enough and planned to head to Ayutthaya by bus the next morning.
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