Kanchanaburi: Day 1

After a solid nights sleep in Bangkok, we woke up and were ready for our 6:30 am minibus pick up to take us to Kanchanaburi. After waiting for about 15 minutes, we found some coffee, and after another 15 minutes we were ready to call, but the bus showed up just in time. We climbed in to learn that our only other company for the days’ adventures was Chad from California, a slightly overweight middle aged man in desperate need of a vacation from his job in Oakland. On the two hour ride to Kanchanaburi, we talked about our life stories, travel plans past and future, books, Thailand, and, of course, California.

Our first stop of the day was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated to all those who died during the WWII invasion of southeast Asia by Japan, as well as those who died building the aptly named Death Railroad. Anyone who has seen the movie or read the book “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” knows the story, and if you don’t, feel free to google it. I’m not sure anyone can honestly say they enjoy visiting cemeteries, but it was a good history lesson and the place had a very peaceful, almost serene quality to it that may have been from the colorful flowers and shrubs planted between each headstone. While at the cemetery, we had our first experience with real Thai toilets. The ladies toilets very much resemble a normal toilet, expect for two things: they are about three inches off the ground and have foot grips on either side. I’ll let you connect the dots there. Let’s just say I will have very strong quads by the end of the trip!

We hopped back in the minibus for a short ride to the actual bridge over the River Kwai in downtown Kanchanburi. On the way, our tour guide Hoy informed us that it was somewhere between 40 and 45 C (roughly 105 to 115 F) and that we were in the hottest part of Thailand… so hopefully the rest of the trip won’t be any warmer! We wandered around a museum dedicated to the old wooden bridge with the new steel bridge looming in the background, seeing and feeling an important part of Thai history. Some of the highlights from this stop were the floor to ceiling murals in the Thai History part of the museum, the view from the top of the five story building overlooking the river and the new bridge, an authentic Willy Jeep from WWII, and a lazy iguana about four feet long. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Justin paid 100 baht (about three dollars) to cuddle with and feed a fully grown leopard. No big deal…

Next we drove out to hitch a ride on a slow old school train with wooden benches, big ceiling fans, and open windows. The air was just as hot as it had been all day, but at least it was moving! We had incredible views of the river, the rugged limestone mountains separating Thailand from Myanmar, and some dark thunderheads rolling across the horizon. After we got off the train, our minibus picked us up and we shortly realized that the train we were on had over heated before it reached the next stop!

We had lunch on a floating restaurant with wonderful home cooked, traditional Thai food (including a bunch of hungry flies). One of the highlights of lunch (and almost every other meal we have had thus far) was the fresh fruit for “dessert”. We have had pineapple, watermelon, dragon fruit, and rhombutans to our hearts content!

After lunch, we headed to the Tiger Temple. As we walked along the trail through the temple grounds, we saw signs leading to “Tiger Canyon” and decided that was to be our first destination. There were about ten fully grown tigers lounging near a waterfall, and the Thais working led all the tourists (including us!) to pet the tigers and take pictures with them. One of the Thai men standing around decided to jump in and take a few pictures with me and a tiger, and then took me over to the biggest tiger in the canyon. We hadn’t seen anyone pet this one, so I was getting a little bit nervous. He told me I had to “pet firmly”, but I guess I didn’t because as soon as I touched him he rolled over and put all four paws up in the air! Scared the living daylights out of me, but apparently he thought my hand was just a fly. We also saw peacocks, water buffalo, really skinny cows, goats, and the cutest baby tigers. Isn’t it strange to call potentially very dangerous animals “cute”? After our encounters with the tigers, we visited the actual temple, and basked in the glory of a golden Buddha statue.

Our last stop for the day was the Saiyok Noi Waterfall. Gorgeous blue green water as warm as a bath tub cascaded over mossy rocks and into quiet pools. It was the perfect end to a rather busy day!

We headed back to the floating restaurant, ate dinner, and took a boat up to the Kitti Raft in time to see the sky turn orange and pink. We took a quick dip in the very fast moving river, celebrated Justin’s birthday with a few beers, and were sleeping in our rock hard bed on our houseboat by 8 pm.