Christi's Travels: Adventure time: Kanchanaburi

Today has been big. I've waded through waterfalls, hiked mountains, rode on the heads of elephants and relaxed on bamboo rafts as we glided past alligators basking on the bank.

Lets back up:
The waterfalls

We started today at the waterfalls, a grouping of seven major falls that are accessible by hiking. Even though the seven big ones are the highlighted stops, there are countless smaller ones along the hike. Some are open to swim in, some are just to look at, all are incredibly beautiful.If you hike from first fall to the top one, not stopping to take photos, it supposedly takes an hour up, and an hour down. I wanted to hike to the top most one to see them, but since we had something of a time limit, I just meandered through them, stopping at the ones I was interested in for photos, looking at the tourists at the other ones, and just enjoying the nature.

One fall was pretty cool because the rocks actually served as slides for people who braved it, sending them sliding down into the clear pool beneath. I saw this one guy who started to go, then backed out and ended up holding onto the rock on his stomach all spread eagle as he struggled to stop himself and crawl back up. A lot of people were laughing, and as he finally righted himself, this older woman came past him, sat down, and just slid right off the rock like a pro. He watched her all astonished, gathered his courage, and went screaming down the rock, lol. It was pretty fun to watch.

The water felt AMAZING, and was just this clear turquoise blue. As I waded around out through the water, little fish would come up and start sucking on your feet. It feels insanely odd, but a lot of people will pay to have it done. Fish massage, they call it. The fishes are actually eating your dead skin. Yummy!

I was hiking up to one of the falls when I saw a smaller path, not quite so visible but still definitely a path. So I decided to follow it down and I am so glad I did.

I came to this private set of falls, no other tourist around, and perfectly suited for swimming/wading around in. You have to step around a few tree roots, but thats nothing, and for some private waterfall action it was something i'd gladly do again. If I was a local, this spot would be such a huge part of my weekends, I can't even begin to tell you.

The Elephant Ride:
After the waterfalls, we worked our way down to the elephants, which were about 45 minutes away. Once there, we bought some bananas to feed them while we waited. I fed the baby.

Sarah and Victoria were on an elephant together, while Jill and I took another. We actually got the person I had wanted, this extremely cute and knowledgable guide:

If she looks like she's 6, it's because she probably is. I had been watching her sitting atop the elephant earlier, just eating a Popsicle while she waited. I asked her her name in Thai, as well as introduced myself. Her name is Ahm, and she then pointed out her papa to us, who was guiding the elephant behind us.

It was pretty funny because Jill was very much unsure of what the safety of this whole operation was. With each tilt of the seat, she would go "mm. Okay. Alright."

Our child driver clamored down off the elephant to take our photos at a certain point, and it was really cute to see her go into full photographer mode. It was also fun for me to climb down the back of elephant and sit on her neck.

The elephants were everything you expect them to be, but there's something about the setting that just really makes the difference.

Ahm pulled flowers out of a tree and gave them to us, and they were super pretty. Once the ride was done, I tipped her for her help and watched as she ran off to buy another Popsicle. While getting to know the adults on this trip has been fun, its really the children i've been meeting who are giving me some real memories.

Bamboo raft:

This kinda made me really excited. The raft was literally bamboo shoots tied together with a man in the front and on the back paddling the boat.

Some sections were under a thin layer of water, with places to sit on the raft. We passed one of the elephants bathing in the river, which was cool to see. I spent the majority of my time shifting and walking around the raft to see the views, all of which were incredible. We rounded the bend on this raft, and the mountains were just stretched out in the distance, with banana trees and various palms spotting the banks. Once I sat down I got some fun pictures.

On our way up the river, the kid of one of the men was enjoying the back current created by the raft.

The man saw me smiling and watching the kid and nodded a hello. I nodded back before basically doing the same thing the child was doing because, lets face it, it was cool. Then I hear the man going, "hello, hello!" So I look up from my play time and he points to the bank. Under the shade of some strangler tree roots, camouflaged amongst the shadows, was a crocodile. Or maybe an alligator. I can't be sure but I will look it up.

I was surprised and just started laughing, and thanked him for pointing him out to me. I had asked while in Cambodia if they had alligators or not, as I saw some amongst the carvings. One might figure that if they're in the carvings then obviously they have them, yeah? But they also have half man half demons carved on the walls so. Now I at least know for certain they are in Thailand, which puts Cambodia not too far out of question. (Edit:
Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) is a freshwater crocodile native to Indonesia (Borneo and possibly Java), Brunei, East Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. The species is critically endangered and already extirpated from many regions.)

Lastly, Death Railway and the cave temple.

Back during WW2, multitudes of people died while being forced to build this railway. Inside the caves close to the rails, sick and dying prisoners used to be left to their fate. After the war, the Thai people put a statue of the Buddha in the cave to remember the people, and to bring luck to the place instead of all the death that had surrounded it for so long.

While waiting on the train, I watched this whole village of people strip off their clothes and just run screaming and laughing into the river. They all seemed pretty happy.

We rode the train for about 20 minutes or so, past a few stations and farm fields.