This past weekend, Becky, Shelby and I journeyed 11 hours south to the Kanchanaburi province and visited the famous and beautiful Erawan Waterfalls.
We took a night bus from Kalasin to Bangkok on Friday evening, and let me tell you we travelled in luxury! We went through Nakhonchai Air and experienced almost full recline seating, food, drinks, and our own personal television all for 400 baht. People, that is about 13 USD for an 8 hour bus ride. YAY Thailand. The one downside was the unbelievably hokey Nakhonchai Air theme song that played on repeat for a good part of the ride.
We arrived in Bangkok at about 4:30 in the morning and were able to catch the first bus to Kanchanaburi at around 6:30. We made it into to Kanchanaburi at around 9:30 and from there it was another hour bus ride to the falls. You guys, I never thought I would be this person, but the sight of other white people, wow, it was exciting. You do not see other farangs in Kalasin, you just don't, and if you do, it is a whole hoopla and everyone says omg who is that. But yea, we got to ride in a bus chalk full of them white folks for a whole hour!
As the bus entered the park, a park employee boarded the bus and had us all pay the entrance fee which is normally 300 bhat or about 10 USD. Becky, Shelby and I whipped out our work permits and got a whopping 200 baht off!!! It went from 10 dollars to 3 dollars, noice. We felt pretty badass too, bein loc's and all (totally not true, but more so than the lamo tourists on that bus). Even with all our early morning travels, we didn't get to the falls until 11ish, and it was already quite crowded. The place we were spending the night at was even further from Kanchanaburi, and so in an effort to save time, we decided we would just hike with our backpacks.
We made sure we had enough snacks and then began our walk. The falls are made up of 7 distinct layers, and the walk to the 7th level was about 2000 meters. The first three falls are very accessible, so they were quite crowded. As you moved on to four, there was a plastic water bottle deposit, so for every bottle you took, you payed a deposit of 20 baht, which would be returned upon successfully bringing the water bottle back. A pretty smart system I suppose. We were also not allowed to bring any food up, cool, I just bought all these snacks for nothing! No worries though
The river just kept getting more beautiful the more we walked. The trail switched from concrete to rooty dirt, which we hoped would deter some people (it didn't really). The walk itself was rather easy, and in about 40 minutes we were at the top!!!!! Holy mamoly, utterly stunning. Just as we reached the final plateau, I looked up into the trees and saw a whole pack of monkeys! The male was being rather aggressive, and attempted to take some items from various tourists. Then he promptly began fornicating with a fellow female monkey, jesus have some decency. There were a bunch of freshly born baby monkeys as well, so little!
Anyways, we managed to pass by the monkeys unscathed, and immediately jumped into that beautiful ice blue pool. Within seconds, the resident fish began sucking on our toes, in search of some delicious protein rich dead skin, which I have plenty of! They were not gentle either, really went to town, and I absolutely loved it. The river is made up of a ton of different pools and waterfalls that are so perfect for scrambling about. I was having the time!!! In the main top pool, there is a slight overhang, forming a cave that you can swim under. MAGICAL. No other words. The milky blueness of the water illuminated the underside of the mineral formations of the cave, and soft silky moss and ferns grew along the sides. Becky, Shelby and I all had a moment together in which we were like "yes, this is one of those life moments". We felt like mermaids. It was stupendous.
I could have lingered in that pool the whole day but there were so many more to explore! We descended down to layer 6, which had this almost infinity poolesque sensation, because the trees opened up somewhat revealing the view of the valley below. We decided this was a good place to have a photoshoot for all our social media antics, and spent more than a few minutes being like "wait, can you take another" oh girls. Again I could have spent a lot more time here, but there was more to see! We wandered back down the trail, entering a few pools along the way. Halfway down I realized I had lost one of my shoes, which I had stupidly attached to the outside of my pack (I prefer bare feet). The velcro must have faltered. At that point I was feeling really weak and shaky and the shoe was the EXACT same color as the trail. I said heck, I don't have the energy to fruitlessly search for this right now, oh well, I shouldn't be attached to material things anyways. (although I was annoyed cause those were super great hiking sandals.............................)
There was one final pool that I had wanted to visit that had a natural water slide!!!! I was gonna do it, but in my hangry state, I decided I would rather not be stared at by 30ish people as I slid down, so I skipped.
We called our hotel and they us up from the park. Just as we were leaving, we hear our names called and turn around to find Ajay a really good friend from orientation waving hello! Again, what a coincidence, and also not at all. I'm pretty sure every weekend I have travelled, I have run into someone I know.
We rode in a Som Tao (I think that is how it is spelled), a converted pickup truck that has two benches in the back, for the 25ish minute ride to our hotel. There is something so wonderfully free about riding in the back of a truck. The warm wind was blowing our hair all about and incredible mountains surrounded us and I was happy.
The Green River Hill Resort was situated on the shores of the main lake (I don't know the name oops) of that region. I kid you not, the view looked like a postcard of what Thailand is supposed to be. I took a walk along the shores, and it was utterly peaceful. We were all somewhat tired so we had a beer, watched the sunset, read a little and passed out.
We still had some time before we needed to leave so we decided to go to the falls again the next day. We new the drill and were able to arrive early in the morning, before the crowds. Basically I just wanted to do that dang waterslide. On the hike back up, I kept an eye out for my shoe, but to no avail. We reached the water slide pool and what do you know, it is full of 30ish Thai folks, all swimming fully clothed as the Thai do, and I was like fabulous, a group of three bikinied white girls, we will really blend in. But heck I wasn't gonna let that stop me. As I sat at the top of the slide the whole pool cheered haha. And the slide was great! I did it a few more times, then floated in the pool below as the fish nibbled my feet, legs and booty. I wondered how exfoliative they actually were. I really could have lingered in that pool for hours. The presence and interaction of these little water friends was the best.
But yes, the time had come to make our way back to the Kok. Just as we reached the end of the trail, the wind began to blow, and the rain began to pour, what perfect timing. We were able to secure a som tao back to kanchanaburi for 300 baht each. Fortunately this one, had a cover and tarps lining the sides, so we were able to stay relatively dry (emphasis on relatively). I loved the wildness of the wind and the rain hammering against the car, and us huddled in the one dry corner of the truck bed.
We secured a minivan back to Bangkok and arrived at Don Muang airport with time to spare, so the natural thing to do was have a subway sandwich. Friends, family, loved ones.... what a beautiful thing this was. I had the veggie delight on honey oat, with mustard and mayo, and a CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE AHHHHHHH. It was so worth the 7 dollars we paid haha.
So yea that was our weekend. SO much traveling in such a short period but that is kinda what you have to do. The weekends are short and the country is large, and it was so very worth it. I felt like this was the first weekend in which things went well, or somewhat according to plan, which was a nice change from the randomness that is Thailand.
As the bus entered the park, a park employee boarded the bus and had us all pay the entrance fee which is normally 300 bhat or about 10 USD. Becky, Shelby and I whipped out our work permits and got a whopping 200 baht off!!! It went from 10 dollars to 3 dollars, noice. We felt pretty badass too, bein loc's and all (totally not true, but more so than the lamo tourists on that bus). Even with all our early morning travels, we didn't get to the falls until 11ish, and it was already quite crowded. The place we were spending the night at was even further from Kanchanaburi, and so in an effort to save time, we decided we would just hike with our backpacks.
We made sure we had enough snacks and then began our walk. The falls are made up of 7 distinct layers, and the walk to the 7th level was about 2000 meters. The first three falls are very accessible, so they were quite crowded. As you moved on to four, there was a plastic water bottle deposit, so for every bottle you took, you payed a deposit of 20 baht, which would be returned upon successfully bringing the water bottle back. A pretty smart system I suppose. We were also not allowed to bring any food up, cool, I just bought all these snacks for nothing! No worries though
The river just kept getting more beautiful the more we walked. The trail switched from concrete to rooty dirt, which we hoped would deter some people (it didn't really). The walk itself was rather easy, and in about 40 minutes we were at the top!!!!! Holy mamoly, utterly stunning. Just as we reached the final plateau, I looked up into the trees and saw a whole pack of monkeys! The male was being rather aggressive, and attempted to take some items from various tourists. Then he promptly began fornicating with a fellow female monkey, jesus have some decency. There were a bunch of freshly born baby monkeys as well, so little!
Anyways, we managed to pass by the monkeys unscathed, and immediately jumped into that beautiful ice blue pool. Within seconds, the resident fish began sucking on our toes, in search of some delicious protein rich dead skin, which I have plenty of! They were not gentle either, really went to town, and I absolutely loved it. The river is made up of a ton of different pools and waterfalls that are so perfect for scrambling about. I was having the time!!! In the main top pool, there is a slight overhang, forming a cave that you can swim under. MAGICAL. No other words. The milky blueness of the water illuminated the underside of the mineral formations of the cave, and soft silky moss and ferns grew along the sides. Becky, Shelby and I all had a moment together in which we were like "yes, this is one of those life moments". We felt like mermaids. It was stupendous.
I could have lingered in that pool the whole day but there were so many more to explore! We descended down to layer 6, which had this almost infinity poolesque sensation, because the trees opened up somewhat revealing the view of the valley below. We decided this was a good place to have a photoshoot for all our social media antics, and spent more than a few minutes being like "wait, can you take another" oh girls. Again I could have spent a lot more time here, but there was more to see! We wandered back down the trail, entering a few pools along the way. Halfway down I realized I had lost one of my shoes, which I had stupidly attached to the outside of my pack (I prefer bare feet). The velcro must have faltered. At that point I was feeling really weak and shaky and the shoe was the EXACT same color as the trail. I said heck, I don't have the energy to fruitlessly search for this right now, oh well, I shouldn't be attached to material things anyways. (although I was annoyed cause those were super great hiking sandals.............................)
There was one final pool that I had wanted to visit that had a natural water slide!!!! I was gonna do it, but in my hangry state, I decided I would rather not be stared at by 30ish people as I slid down, so I skipped.
We called our hotel and they us up from the park. Just as we were leaving, we hear our names called and turn around to find Ajay a really good friend from orientation waving hello! Again, what a coincidence, and also not at all. I'm pretty sure every weekend I have travelled, I have run into someone I know.
We rode in a Som Tao (I think that is how it is spelled), a converted pickup truck that has two benches in the back, for the 25ish minute ride to our hotel. There is something so wonderfully free about riding in the back of a truck. The warm wind was blowing our hair all about and incredible mountains surrounded us and I was happy.
The Green River Hill Resort was situated on the shores of the main lake (I don't know the name oops) of that region. I kid you not, the view looked like a postcard of what Thailand is supposed to be. I took a walk along the shores, and it was utterly peaceful. We were all somewhat tired so we had a beer, watched the sunset, read a little and passed out.
We still had some time before we needed to leave so we decided to go to the falls again the next day. We new the drill and were able to arrive early in the morning, before the crowds. Basically I just wanted to do that dang waterslide. On the hike back up, I kept an eye out for my shoe, but to no avail. We reached the water slide pool and what do you know, it is full of 30ish Thai folks, all swimming fully clothed as the Thai do, and I was like fabulous, a group of three bikinied white girls, we will really blend in. But heck I wasn't gonna let that stop me. As I sat at the top of the slide the whole pool cheered haha. And the slide was great! I did it a few more times, then floated in the pool below as the fish nibbled my feet, legs and booty. I wondered how exfoliative they actually were. I really could have lingered in that pool for hours. The presence and interaction of these little water friends was the best.
But yes, the time had come to make our way back to the Kok. Just as we reached the end of the trail, the wind began to blow, and the rain began to pour, what perfect timing. We were able to secure a som tao back to kanchanaburi for 300 baht each. Fortunately this one, had a cover and tarps lining the sides, so we were able to stay relatively dry (emphasis on relatively). I loved the wildness of the wind and the rain hammering against the car, and us huddled in the one dry corner of the truck bed.
We secured a minivan back to Bangkok and arrived at Don Muang airport with time to spare, so the natural thing to do was have a subway sandwich. Friends, family, loved ones.... what a beautiful thing this was. I had the veggie delight on honey oat, with mustard and mayo, and a CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE AHHHHHHH. It was so worth the 7 dollars we paid haha.
So yea that was our weekend. SO much traveling in such a short period but that is kinda what you have to do. The weekends are short and the country is large, and it was so very worth it. I felt like this was the first weekend in which things went well, or somewhat according to plan, which was a nice change from the randomness that is Thailand.
Bus dashboard, squid clock (I thought of you Al)
Level 1
Tarantula den
The infinity pool
Macquaqes
Where is your decency
View from our hotel room
six o'clock in the morn
Downpour as we left!
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