OMG I thought buses back at home were bad but this one! So we finished at about 12.30 on Friday (after lunch obviously) and waited for about 45 minutes (I mean come on I know theres Thai time, but really??) to catch a bus into Kanchanaburi central. We were charged 20 TB this time each for the journey... Being a proper tourist we didn't realise we shouldn't pay extra (so shame on us once but never again as it only usually costs 15 TB). We then got the two seater taxi from the bus station to Noble again as we knew the others were staying there (we didn't feel so bad this time for the driver as he was a lot younger and was taking his time about getting us there too). At Noble we were given a crappy room (like an actual hut on the river with a shed as a shower). I mean come on, here was me looking forward to washing my hair (do not mess me about with that) so we went back to reception, met with Charlotte and Olivia and decided we'd just look somewhere else and asked for our room money back (little did I know, the cheeky little taxi driver got 50 TB for dropping us there and she gave us 350 TB back instead of 400... I wasn't going to argue for £1ish so we just took it and left).
Enter a brilliant little place, Tara's BnB- literally round the corner from Noble and was just 250 TB for two nights for a room with shared showers and loos (first time for everything as I've never done this before... actually I may have done but not in a country far from home on my ones... and it was really good actually, would definitely do it again).
(Just got totally distracted from writing this blog and just watched One Direction's performance on the X Factor... multiple times).
Before we came across Tara's we walked past Peng Pong and spotted someone eating a tasty looking plate of fish and chips... So after we'd checked into Tara's we made our way back there and nommed (yep you guessed it) a cheeky fish and chips and went back to the room, showered up and knocked out as tomorrow was going to be a long day.
So Saturday morning.
Rain.
Rain, the one thing all of us were not hoping for because we were going to do a waterfall and elephant trekking day for Olivia's birthday! We met with the rest of the group for a 8.00am pick up and also had a little happy birthday sing song as Olivia got onto the bus.
A little rain was not going to stop us! We got to Erawan Falls (fun fact: Its called Erawan after a three-headed white elephant in Hindu mythology. The seven tiered falls are said to resemble the Erawan- thank you Wikipedia!) and unbeknown to us the guide failed to mention we would have to trek up to the of the waterfall and that the road to beautiful scenery would be hazardous and frightening. The rain had made the paths a little muddy and it was a little fun slipping and watching some of us slip here and there. Now I'm not much of an outdoor walking person and the weight of my bag clearly reflected that. In it was my tablet, passport, camera and phones (none of it was waterproof by the way. Clearly not one of my brightest moments but anyway...) Typical me slipped and landed on my fat ass as I went to step over some stones in the water to take a 'better' picture... I wasn't impressed. Walking around in a wet pair of jeany shorts are highly not recommended.
But all seven waterfalls were worth the Indiana Jones trek up to the top waterfall (along the way myself and Charlotte thought it'd be good to get a cheeky selfie or two and accidentally lost the rest of the group. We made it to the top 30 minutes after they did more weathered than the rest of them) and as they say... What goes up must come down! It was an experience, an experience you should all endure I mean endeavour, trekking up and down a waterfall hill/ mountain thing in damp pumps and wet jeans... And poor Charlotte at one point had to be gently helped by a German man who kindly over took us in the next opportunity he had. Like I said if I was to ever pitch this to anyone I'd say don't read this and just look at my pictures... joke. It's beautiful and even the walk up, past the six waterfalls to the top one is worth every minute. Just remember its a jungle and there is mud so take someone with you to carry your stuff and watch out for the fish in the water. Its a little odd at first as they surround you and 'suck' on your skin but they're harmless and takes nothing away from the beauty of the waterfalls and location. Not even the rain could dampen our spirits... My hair and clothes maybe but not my spirit... Well at certain points it did but I got past it, I admit I had my moment (maybe even moments I'd say).
After being told we only had six minutes to eat, when we eventually made it back to the bottom, we shovelled in our complimentary lunch (delicious... well I guess anything would have been nice as I was starving- I know hard to believe but you can't take food up with you after the second waterfall) pad thai with chicken. We were waved back into the minibus for the second part of our day... Elephants.
Elephant Camp:
So we got to the elephant camp and I was dying for the loo (having full swimming gear on was not going to make it easy! Anyhoo...) we quickly realised it wasn't as amazing as we thought seeing elephants would be. Here's why. We seen the elephants get poked and kicked -and ok I know they have thick skin- but it's an animal still right? I couldn't even bring myself to place my foot on the elephant to sit on it. Have no idea what came over me... I think its that's same feeling I get when I have to step on a spider (for those that know me... Absolutely not true! Spider equals fear. Well I think I'm slowly getting ok to spiders, theres a few living in the bathroom back at the hut and I'm pretty ok with them there, even though the first thing I do is still pop my head round the door to check there are no beasts in there! Again, anyway...) It was myself and the birthday girl on one and we were in so much shock and despair throughout the whole ride. Our 'driver' of the elephant was poking the elephant to go down some steps which it clearly didn't like the look of (after getting kindly pushed by Ed and Marks elephant, scaring the crap outta us!) and kicked because it didn't want to go in the water (at this point both myself and Olivia were screaming no, don't make it). So all in all, by the end of it we had Justin B's Baby song in our head and so much sympathy for the elephants kept there. It wasn't the elephant experience we wanted but an elephant trek it was. And to remember the experience we brought a photo which has our elephant driver making a heart sign with his hands... ironic really.
(Also did a little bamboo rafting, not the kind of rafting you expect... Just a bamboo boat which was tied to the back of speedboat which took us out down the river then left us with a boy to paddle us back to shore- we weren't quite sure what to make of it to be honest).
So back onto the minibus we jumped en routed to the death railway. Still a little damp from the waterfall, hair in disarray and all of us feeling the hunger, the death railway was really the least thing we were interested in. But the history behind it was impressive, the reasons for which it was built and the short amount of time it was built in would have been interesting to hear if the guides voice was loud enough to reach the back of the minibus. Beautiful views and a little opportunity to buy elephant print trousers and mini elephants were all perfectly timed as the train was on 'thai time'. We got on to the train and off the train 20 minutes later to then go see the bridge over the river Kwai (my uncle gently reminds me its a film I should watch... When I get back maybe). I brought a coconut and enjoyed a little Indian style coconut water and off we set back home, the only discussion home was to decide if we should get changed, ready to go out, or eat first (EAT FIRST). Enjoyed the best vegetable spring rolls ever (up until then) and then showered (washed my hair again) and was off to enjoy a night out for Olivia's birthday.
We really enjoyed the food and ambiance at Peng Pong and decided why not have breakfast there too. Beans on toast with a bacon rasher (why are they called rashers?) and wrote a postcard or two and off we went back home (well not the UK...).
Back to school for week two!
Also just an FYI... I'm still waiting to upload my camera pictures. All these pictures I post with my posts are all just taken on my phone. I'll have a pure picture post soonish.
Images
1. Mango smoothie (mmm icy and refreshing)
2. Journey to the hotel from the bus station
3. Fish and a little portion of chips
4, 5 & 6. Waterfalls (can't remember which one)
7. Wooden bridge (not going to lie, it was a little scary)
8. Little selfie before we got repeated from the rest of the group
9, 10 & 11. More terrain and waterfall
12. Making our way down bamboo to a bamboo raft
13. Train to Kanchanaburi on the death railway
14. Nice little path en route to the waterfall
15. Bridge over the river Kwai
16. Coconut
17. Spring rolls and noodles (burger... Not mine... I mean I was hungry but not that hungry)
The elephant pics are on the camera... Sorry, hopefully upload some soon! x
Enter a brilliant little place, Tara's BnB- literally round the corner from Noble and was just 250 TB for two nights for a room with shared showers and loos (first time for everything as I've never done this before... actually I may have done but not in a country far from home on my ones... and it was really good actually, would definitely do it again).
(Just got totally distracted from writing this blog and just watched One Direction's performance on the X Factor... multiple times).
Before we came across Tara's we walked past Peng Pong and spotted someone eating a tasty looking plate of fish and chips... So after we'd checked into Tara's we made our way back there and nommed (yep you guessed it) a cheeky fish and chips and went back to the room, showered up and knocked out as tomorrow was going to be a long day.
So Saturday morning.
Rain.
Rain, the one thing all of us were not hoping for because we were going to do a waterfall and elephant trekking day for Olivia's birthday! We met with the rest of the group for a 8.00am pick up and also had a little happy birthday sing song as Olivia got onto the bus.
A little rain was not going to stop us! We got to Erawan Falls (fun fact: Its called Erawan after a three-headed white elephant in Hindu mythology. The seven tiered falls are said to resemble the Erawan- thank you Wikipedia!) and unbeknown to us the guide failed to mention we would have to trek up to the of the waterfall and that the road to beautiful scenery would be hazardous and frightening. The rain had made the paths a little muddy and it was a little fun slipping and watching some of us slip here and there. Now I'm not much of an outdoor walking person and the weight of my bag clearly reflected that. In it was my tablet, passport, camera and phones (none of it was waterproof by the way. Clearly not one of my brightest moments but anyway...) Typical me slipped and landed on my fat ass as I went to step over some stones in the water to take a 'better' picture... I wasn't impressed. Walking around in a wet pair of jeany shorts are highly not recommended.
But all seven waterfalls were worth the Indiana Jones trek up to the top waterfall (along the way myself and Charlotte thought it'd be good to get a cheeky selfie or two and accidentally lost the rest of the group. We made it to the top 30 minutes after they did more weathered than the rest of them) and as they say... What goes up must come down! It was an experience, an experience you should all endure I mean endeavour, trekking up and down a waterfall hill/ mountain thing in damp pumps and wet jeans... And poor Charlotte at one point had to be gently helped by a German man who kindly over took us in the next opportunity he had. Like I said if I was to ever pitch this to anyone I'd say don't read this and just look at my pictures... joke. It's beautiful and even the walk up, past the six waterfalls to the top one is worth every minute. Just remember its a jungle and there is mud so take someone with you to carry your stuff and watch out for the fish in the water. Its a little odd at first as they surround you and 'suck' on your skin but they're harmless and takes nothing away from the beauty of the waterfalls and location. Not even the rain could dampen our spirits... My hair and clothes maybe but not my spirit... Well at certain points it did but I got past it, I admit I had my moment (maybe even moments I'd say).
After being told we only had six minutes to eat, when we eventually made it back to the bottom, we shovelled in our complimentary lunch (delicious... well I guess anything would have been nice as I was starving- I know hard to believe but you can't take food up with you after the second waterfall) pad thai with chicken. We were waved back into the minibus for the second part of our day... Elephants.
Elephant Camp:
So we got to the elephant camp and I was dying for the loo (having full swimming gear on was not going to make it easy! Anyhoo...) we quickly realised it wasn't as amazing as we thought seeing elephants would be. Here's why. We seen the elephants get poked and kicked -and ok I know they have thick skin- but it's an animal still right? I couldn't even bring myself to place my foot on the elephant to sit on it. Have no idea what came over me... I think its that's same feeling I get when I have to step on a spider (for those that know me... Absolutely not true! Spider equals fear. Well I think I'm slowly getting ok to spiders, theres a few living in the bathroom back at the hut and I'm pretty ok with them there, even though the first thing I do is still pop my head round the door to check there are no beasts in there! Again, anyway...) It was myself and the birthday girl on one and we were in so much shock and despair throughout the whole ride. Our 'driver' of the elephant was poking the elephant to go down some steps which it clearly didn't like the look of (after getting kindly pushed by Ed and Marks elephant, scaring the crap outta us!) and kicked because it didn't want to go in the water (at this point both myself and Olivia were screaming no, don't make it). So all in all, by the end of it we had Justin B's Baby song in our head and so much sympathy for the elephants kept there. It wasn't the elephant experience we wanted but an elephant trek it was. And to remember the experience we brought a photo which has our elephant driver making a heart sign with his hands... ironic really.
(Also did a little bamboo rafting, not the kind of rafting you expect... Just a bamboo boat which was tied to the back of speedboat which took us out down the river then left us with a boy to paddle us back to shore- we weren't quite sure what to make of it to be honest).
So back onto the minibus we jumped en routed to the death railway. Still a little damp from the waterfall, hair in disarray and all of us feeling the hunger, the death railway was really the least thing we were interested in. But the history behind it was impressive, the reasons for which it was built and the short amount of time it was built in would have been interesting to hear if the guides voice was loud enough to reach the back of the minibus. Beautiful views and a little opportunity to buy elephant print trousers and mini elephants were all perfectly timed as the train was on 'thai time'. We got on to the train and off the train 20 minutes later to then go see the bridge over the river Kwai (my uncle gently reminds me its a film I should watch... When I get back maybe). I brought a coconut and enjoyed a little Indian style coconut water and off we set back home, the only discussion home was to decide if we should get changed, ready to go out, or eat first (EAT FIRST). Enjoyed the best vegetable spring rolls ever (up until then) and then showered (washed my hair again) and was off to enjoy a night out for Olivia's birthday.
We really enjoyed the food and ambiance at Peng Pong and decided why not have breakfast there too. Beans on toast with a bacon rasher (why are they called rashers?) and wrote a postcard or two and off we went back home (well not the UK...).
Back to school for week two!
Also just an FYI... I'm still waiting to upload my camera pictures. All these pictures I post with my posts are all just taken on my phone. I'll have a pure picture post soonish.
Images
1. Mango smoothie (mmm icy and refreshing)
2. Journey to the hotel from the bus station
3. Fish and a little portion of chips
4, 5 & 6. Waterfalls (can't remember which one)
7. Wooden bridge (not going to lie, it was a little scary)
8. Little selfie before we got repeated from the rest of the group
9, 10 & 11. More terrain and waterfall
12. Making our way down bamboo to a bamboo raft
13. Train to Kanchanaburi on the death railway
14. Nice little path en route to the waterfall
15. Bridge over the river Kwai
16. Coconut
17. Spring rolls and noodles (burger... Not mine... I mean I was hungry but not that hungry)
The elephant pics are on the camera... Sorry, hopefully upload some soon! x
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