Kanchanaburi and Erawan National Park

Well, since I needed to get out of Bangkok, a trip off to Kanchanaburi seemd like the thing to do, since it was just a 3 hour train ride to hop over. The main attraction here is the Death Bridge over the river Kwaii (spellings vary everywhere). This is a bridge that was built in WW2 by prisoners of war. Since the Japanese Empire wasn't so keen on the keeping them fed, a large number of them died, meaning there are also a large number of grave sites around. For all that, it is a quiet, pretty spot. A nice change of pace from all the cities and big toursist spots I'd been going too





Oooooh yeah, definitely still sick in that picture.

Now, after reading all of the helpful Engrish language literature on the area, finding out (for the most part, the translation IS hard to understand in a lot of places) about all of the atrocities, horrible conditions, and numerous deaths and maimings of prisoners of war in this area, not to mention that this was a part of a deal the Thai government had with the Japanese, the thing that upset me MOST was this:



Now, this little guy is tied by less than a foot of chain. not being able to move at ALL other than rocking back and forth, she/he is picking at the tight metal ring on her/his ankle all the time, and trumpeting a bit of distress every few minutes. The only time the handlers will look at her is when they have the chance to rush some tourists with bananas, offering to let them feed the elephant for a low low price. I guess reading about mistreatment and then seeing it are two very different things. It's kind of the difference I found in Cambodia between hearing about the slums, then WALKING them.

Words mean nothing next to the real thing. They might as well be lies.

Not that I'm being melodramatic, or at least, not trying to be. It's just easier to be angry than not sometimes. That's all

As I said, the town has very little too it. I ended up getting a good Thai massage (first one in Thailand, though definitely not the last one I'd have while I was there), then hanging out in a restaurant with a Dutch girl just talking for a few hours over a meal (Thai salad, which involves lots of stir fried meat with chilis and lime... not sure how it's salad, but it was good anyway. Better with local beer). I ended up buying a book to read in the garden for later that night ("A Prayer for Owen Meany" , since I hadn't actually read the thing while it was in the bookshelf at home), and hitting the hay with a plan to go to the Erawan Falls the next day, first bus out in the morning.

It's only a an hour or so of hiking to get up to the top level of waterfalls (the falls aren't one big sucker, they're actually a series of 7 different falls.) Not that impressive to look at, but that's not the appeal.









SWIMMING!

You can climb in the caves around, or just look up and listen to the chattering monkeys that are around (look around, you'll notice one). A day of snacks, swimming and climbing help one feel better I think. And it was prettier than Kanchanaburi to boot. (apologies in advance for graphic image to follow)
































What the heck, just one more water picture ( Did I mention I thought it was pretty?)







After that, it was just back to town for knosh and sleep. The next day I booked a bus ticket for Chiang Mai...just had to kick around 'till it left in the afternoon. Hammock duty is such hard work.







PS: this blog is NOT in real time. I'm in Singapore in week 3 of school right now. This is just recap of where I was, since I was to lazy to do it while backpacking. Sorry for any confusion (there'll be time for Singapore later, I'm here all year after all). Take care all, hope to hear from you soon (and thanks for the comments already on here!)