Kanchanaburi, Thailand

I neglected to post this in chronological order because I am an idiot. It belongs in between the Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan posts; I went from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Anyway, Kanchanaburi, Thailand...

I had heard about Kanchanaburi and the waterfalls around it from many people so it was on my list of places to make a significant effort to go to. My visiting friend was more interested in nature than cities so leaving Bangkok to see some waterfalls seem to make senses as well.

Kanchanaburi contains more than its fair share of war museums and cemeteries and a "death bridge," more commonly known as The Bridge Over the River Kwai, which, yes, is where the book/movie got its name and is about. (A photo, a walk over, and done.) Neither of us were too interested in becoming more depressed than are normal selves so we skipped all of this kind of stuff except for the obligatory photo. We spent most of out time wandering about, either on foot or motorbike.

What I had heard from others was that there are two main waterfalls; one that the tourists go, which is also the more beautiful of the two, and one where the locals bring their families. Which you prefer depends on the person and the circumstances/situation when you are there. I could not remember, by name, which was which but this hardly mattered since I wanted to visit both anyway.

The first we went to see was the "more beautfil" one and that it was. There were tons of people there. It was impossible not to see another person unless you went off the track (or into the information office), both of which we did. The vast majority of the people were Thai, probably 90%, but there were still plenty of Westerns. The crowds diminished the experience a little, but it was still enjoyable.

The waterfall is seven layers and took us about an hour from the bottom layer to ascend to the top as there are plenty of turns, uneven steps, and distractions. Once at the top we put our stuff down and went for a swim. Working our way down we went on some offshoot of the path we discovered and followed it. It did not take us anywhere particularly exciting but it was nice to get away from the crowds for a bit. Once we returned to the main path we continued descending stopping periodically for another cooling-down swim. At one such stop there were rocks to skip down, much like the ones I encountered in the north of Thailand in Pai. Of course, I indulged again and, I was later told, I received the biggest applause of all rock-sliders for my head-first plunge into the water below. It was not particularly special other than the fact that I am white. Apparently, however, that is nearly all it takes.

The second waterfall was less spectacular but still nice. Other than the two of us we saw a couple other Westerners but everybody else was Thai and most of them were with their families. We did not swim here as the sun was getting low and did not want to be all wet for the motorbike ride back. We explored the area some but there was not much to write about.

After some trouble locating where we parked the motorbike (near the 7-11 did not prove as helpful as we had hoped it would be) we headed back to town. As today was my friend's first time riding a motorbike and he had never ridden at night, it was decided that I would ride back. (I need to write this here before I forget: earlier in the day, either the first or second time he drove the motorbike, my friend was past by an ice cream truck. It was funny.) About 30 seconds after we started our way back, it started raining. It was just a light drizzle and did not phase my confidence or comfort level of riding so we pressed on. Then it rain picked up and I no longer felt we should continue. I verbalized this concern saying I would pull over at the night place I saw we would could eat so that we would have an excuse to sit for an hour while the rain passed. Unfortunately no restaurant materialized. My friend sitting behind me had his eyes closed because the rain was coming down so hard. He told me afterward he did not know how I was able to see let alone drive in that rain. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure how I did either. When the rain was strong, I just slowed down. After awhile, the rain eased and then it was just the drizzle it was before. We made it back safe and sound and with a cool story.

Kanchanaburi was a pretty cool place. I wish we had an extra day or two in the area so that we could have gone to Sanghlaburi, which I had also heard good things about but because of my expiring visa and my desire to minimize backtracking it just could not happen. Maybe people get more out of the town by going to all the depressing stuff but I am happy with the decision to avoid it and stick to the natural beauty of the area and getting caught in the rain on a motorbike, of course.