Today was probably one of the best days of my trip so far,
it wasn’t without its ups and downs but overall it was a great day! It was a
very long day that required me to get up at 6am but again a great day.
I made my way downstairs for 6:30 like I was told to do
expecting to find a group of people who were as excited about the day as I was
but I was alone. No one else had booked a tour. I was a little disappointed but
figured there was no way I would be the only person going and I would just have
to make friends with people from other hostels. The minivan, not the bus I was
expecting, arrived shortly after 7 meaning I could have gotten another half
hour of sleep but it was ok I was too excited about the day ahead.
I was made to sit in the front seat next to the driver,
which I wasn’t very happy about. I wanted to sit in the back with other people
so I could make friends, plus the driver was a total creeper who kept talking
to himself and was a terrible driver. I was pretty sure we were all going to
die the entire time I was in that seat. We picked up a few more people and a
short while later we arrived at Khao San Road, a famous road in Bangkok but it
didn’t really do anything for me. This stop wasn’t on the itinerary I read so I
was a little confused but it appeared the tour hadn’t actually started yet. A
woman came to the van asking for our tickets and started assigning us stickers,
different colours for different tours. At this point it would have made sense
to separate us into our respective tours but they just shoved us all back in
the same van and we were off again. Luckily I was able to make my way to the
back and get away from the scary driver.
The drive to our first stop was a few hours in length and
very quiet as many people were trying to sneak in a bit more sleep. We finally arrived at Kanchanaburi War
Cemetery around 10am. The cemetery is used for people who died during WWII,
which didn’t really make sense to me since that happened in Europe so I asked
someone and they told me these were the people who were killed by the Japanese.
I guess I didn’t pay enough attention in my grade 10 history class because I
still didn’t understand why the graves were in Thailand so I looked it up when
I got home. It turns out the Japanese were using their POW’s to build a railway
connecting Burma (now known as Myanmar) to Thailand, to support its forces
during the Burma campaign. During construction about 180,000 Asian labourers
and 60,000 allied POW’s died. Thanks to Wikipedia, you learn something new
everyday, and hopefully it’s at least somewhat accurate.
From there we moved onto our next stop where we were given
free time to explore the war museum and the bridge over the river Kwai. I opted
out of the museum visit since the cost wasn’t included in the tour and headed
straight for the bridge. I walked across the bridge, which offered some pretty
stunning views, taking pictures along the way. Apparently a train crossed the
bridge but I had already wandered into the nearby markets so I missed it, but
I’ve seen a train or two before so I don’t think I missed out on much. Although
it would have been interesting to see how they went about clearing tourists
from the bridge to prepare for the oncoming train as there was no separate path
for pedestrians, you just walked right on the tracks. While I was perusing the
markets I had a deja-vu moment, which was pretty freaky in a country I have
never been to before.
When our free time was up we all loaded back into the very
cramped van, built for people under 5feet in height and were on our way. Our
next stop was a train station about 30 minutes away. The itinerary I read said
I would be going on this train ride so I was a little surprised when I was
ushered into a different van when we got to the train station. I told the guide
I was supposed to be on the train and she told me if I got on the train I
couldn’t see tigers so I shut my mouth and sat in the van that was built for
normal sized people but smelt like an outhouse.
I was pretty frustrated at this point. Not only was I not getting
to do something I felt I had paid for, but I had started to make friends in my
old van and none of them were in my new one. Plus it quickly became apparent
that I was the only English speaking person in my new van. Not exactly a
winning recipe for making new friends but I didn’t have much of a choice so I
made the best of it.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at a river for a buffet
lunch. We were offered plain rice, egg fried rice, sweet and sour chicken,
green curry, and something else I can’t remember but you can be sure I thought
it was gross whatever it was. I filled my plate up wit both types of rice and
some chicken. The chicken might have been good if it was hot but it wasn’t so I
was happy I had only taken a small portion. I wolfed down my rice and went back
for seconds, before enjoying a desert of watermelon, something I haven’t eaten
in years. During lunch I sat with Rani and Nael a nice couple from France who
were just a few years younger than me. They didn’t speak much English and my
French is terrible but we somehow managed to have a conversation and suddenly I
didn’t feel like such an outcast in my new group.
Immediately after lunch we put on some sexy camouflage life
jackets and boarded our bamboo raft. The experience started out a little differently
than I had expected and we were pulled down the river by a motorboat but I
guess that was just so we could actually enjoy the leisurely float down the
river to our next destination a little longer because eventually the boat that
had been towing us went its own way and we were being paddled down the river in
the opposite direction. Taking pictures on the raft was a little tricky while
we were being towed as it was quite rocky and was best just to sit still but
once the boat left and the paddling started you could walk around the raft
fairly safely as long as you didn’t move to quickly and kept all side of the
raft balanced.
A short while later our raft had arrived at our next
activity, elephant trekking. This was just a bonus for me as I already have an
elephant riding experience booked for later on in my adventure but why not do
it twice? Elephants are not nearly as sturdy as I thought they would be and I
found myself hanging on for dear life as he thudded along the path. We rode for
a few minutes and climbed up a hill before my ‘driver’ as I would like to call
him offered to get off and take some pictures for me. I was thrilled with this
until I learned that I had to get off the seat and climb down onto the
elephant’s neck, and my elephant started to run away. I started to panic but my
driver was able to get him under control from the ground before he went rogue
and was able to take some good photos as well. Overall it was a good experience
and I learned that elephants are covered in long coarse hairs. Look at that I
learned two new things today! Man I’m good!
Once everyone had taken a turn on the elephants we piled
back into the outhouse van and head roughly half an hour down the road to a
waterfall. This waterfall was quite the tourist attraction and was full of
school kids pushing each other in the water and laughing hysterically. There
was an opportunity to climb to the top but it looked really slippery and I am
incredibly clumsy and decided I didn’t want to experience the Thai medical
system so I wandered the area around the falls rather than climbing them. As
our free time here came to an end I got myself an ice-cream and hopped back
into the van.
It was now finally time to head to the main attraction. The
tiger temple! I was ridiculously excited, I had been looking forward to this
for a few weeks now and it was finally here. It was a bit of a drive from the waterfall so
the breath of fresh air after I stepped out of the van was almost as exciting
as the tigers. I threw some jeans and a t-shirt on over my shorts and tank top
(knees and shoulders must be covered when visiting temples) and headed inside.
The line up to enter the tiger canyon was long but was
moving quite quickly. There was an option to bypass the line and for 1000baht
have your picture taken with a tigers head in your lap but I wasn’t brave
enough for that one plus there was no way I was spending any more money, this
day had already cost more than my accommodation for the entire week. I waited
patiently in line and finally it was my turn. A volunteer came and grabbed my
hand and walked me to several different tigers, telling me where and how to sit
before snapping several shots with my camera and leading me to the next. I’m
afraid of normal sized cats so I was very proud of myself for how calm and
collected I was through the entire experience. Sure the tigers were all as high
as a kite but I still did it.
Once I had my
pictures taken I raced up the hill hoping to see the baby tiger before they
took it away for the day. I made it just in time and was able to get a few
pictures petting it. I think this was probably the bravest part of the day as
this animal was definitely not sedated, he wouldn’t look at the camera for
pictures, but I repeat not on drugs, I had achieved legend status in my own
mind.
It was soon time to head back to the van to head home where I
was luckily assigned to a new van. This one wasn’t built for normal sized
people but it didn’t smell like an outhouse so I guess it was a small victory. The
group in the van was similar to the one we started with in the morning but a
few people who had booked a two-day tour were missing and a few new faces had
been thrown in. Everyone was pretty chatty for the first twenty minutes or so
but the chatter died down and most people slept or put headphones in to unwind
from a long busy day. The ride home took a little over three hours so by the
time I got home I had been gone for almost 14 hours and my bed was calling my
name.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but believe it or not I actually
skipped out on quite a few details or observations from the day. Thanks for
reading if you actually managed it make it this far. And for those of you not on Facebook that know what a wimp I am when it comes to animals here is some proof:
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