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Thailand backpacking adventure part II

Kanchanaburi, Hellfire Pass and Erawan National Park

 

The train ride to Kanchanaburi took about two hours. We disembarked at the river Kwai railway station.. the train waited a while and we were able to take some pictures of it crossing the bridge. We then walked to our resort, ‘Bamboo house Resort, were we would stay in one of the bamboo huts. The first morning and afternoon we chilled before we headed to town.. we rented a moppet for a day what gave us the freedom to cover the range between town and resort, also we wandered outside of town to the international cemetery were 1200 people are buried from the 2nd world war, amongst them 200 Dutch soldiers.

We had lunch at a real Thai restaurant place with funky high seating area.. the restaurant was situated at crossroads near the river Kwai bridge.. no foreigners just us and Thai people…

After lunch we backtracked to the resort for a nap and at five in the afternoon we went to the bridge and walked over it to the other side of the river, filming the train when it came passed…

I returned the moppet and reserved a bigger one for next day.

At night we ate at a nice restaurant called Ave were Thong was the lady owner…she had some cute furry Thai dog pups, that where sometimes wandering over the terrace. The food was good and service great.

The next morning I went back to the rental place and picked up a bigger scooter, this time a 150 cc. This would carry us comfortably enough ( a bit of a sour butt after a couple of hours ) Say Yok Nam Waterfall to Hellfire pass and the Erawan National Park.

We followed the 323. First stop was the Say Yok Nam waterfalls right next to the road and just passed the end of the existing railway line..

We wandered around for a bit and had a drink. We continued our way for another 17 km to the Hellfire pass museum and walk way, dedicated to the POW who worked on the Siam – Burma railway line, constructed by the Japanese in WW II.

The walkway is a 2.5 km stretch of the railway cleared in the eighties by one of the Australian survivors. It took him a while to find the pass where so many died creating this stretch of the line, as it was reclaimed by the jungle. The Nicknamed hellfire pass was a cut 100 meter long and 24 meter high, hand cleared by the prisoners and Thai labourers in 12 weeks times only.. thousands died of beatings and mall nutrition..

Next to hacking away the passes they had to create embankments and a total 432 bridges…

After the visit and the 5 km walk in 35 degrees jungle temperatures it was time to climb back on the motor scooter to our next adventure near Erawan National Park, 75 km away. It took us around 1 and a half hours before we arrived and Found! Shanti farm 6 huts in a cleared field along the road to Pra That cave. We passed it a few times as we could not believe that was our stay for the night… by the time we arrived it was nearly dark… the accommodation was not more then a room with a bed and a clamboe, a table and below a toilet with buckets to flush the water…

Mr Hey and Wanpen were the care takers and Wanpen did the cooking too.. it looked like green curry was the dish of the day together with a papaya salade and some beers to flush it all away, as poorly the lodging was, as good was the food. I managed to get some sleep, but Dhyana did not that much, maybe it was the rat that poked its head out on the top of the wall under the tin plated roof… waking up groggy and ragged we walked to the bar and had a tasteful filled omelet. After breakfast we payed said goodbye and descended the 11 km to the entrance of Erawan National Park

 

Erawan National Park .

Erawan National Park, is a Park with its main feature a waterfall, or 7 prominent waterfalls laid out over a stretch of slightly more then a kilometre.

We arrived at the park gate and paid the 620 Bath entry fee. We descended further to the car park and parked the motor scooter.

After rearranging our belongings we walked the path to the first level, here the path is still wide, paved and reasonable flat there are changing rooms, toilets and coffee stalls near the first fall. After ascending some steps, we came to the next level only 100 meters further. Even when it was still reasonable early in the morning there was a good amount of people around.. third level was to the side of the path and pavement has ended by now, but the path was still bordered by sleepers. The next level needed a firm climb up some steps and some down again…, halfway level four and five we took a side track that led to a nice peaceful part of the fall, with some small falls and nearly , or no people. We had a swim and when we would stand still the little fishies would nibble on your skin.

I left Dhyana with our bags behind and started to continue up the track to the next level, the path made way for a track and the track made way for a rock crawl, wading adventure, passing tier for tier until, after an hour I reached the final level.

I thing personally number six was my favourite, wildly coming down on all sides of the mountain, with green jungle plants hanging of his boulders..

there were still lots of people up the higher level, even a woman and here half year old baby, clambering around over the falls

After filming and photographing the cascading water I returned down to where I had left Dhyana and together we returned to the entrance while busloads of people still entered the park. We had a refreshing smoothi at one of the shops at the car park before hopping on our motor scooter for our 65 km return to Kanchanaburi. We stopped at a mall near the outskirts of the city to buy some nail polish, but there was nothing to be found, all we noticed was a lot of kids shouting and yelling, while bouncing around in an inflatable castle. We escaped and returned to our previous sanctuary, the Bamboo house. We had a little break, before we scootered over for our last dinner in Kanchanaburi. The next afternoon we would go on our way to Ayutthaya.

Next morning I returned the motor scooter back to the rental place, we had breakfast and two coffees in town, one close to us and one in the centre at the ten o’clock bar, this time we ordered a white and Dark chocolate cake with it, what a bliss!!

We went back on a tuc tuc scooter side bike of a very jolly lady..

at the resort we met with Keith again, ready for the minibus to Ayutthaya…