Day 88 – Going to Kanchanaburi (30/10/2015)
We got up and ready, had breakfast and then we finally made a plan for our escape out of Bangkok. The owners of the hostel helped us a lot with it. We took the sky train to Mo Chit, from there we got a taxi to Mo Chit Bus Terminal and then we took a mini van to Kanchanaburi. We were actually planning on taking a bus but they already left in the morning so we had to do it the kind of unofficial way. The mini van was packed, we were way too many people and backpacks for the amount of seats, which made the ride pretty uncomfortable. About two and a half hours later we arrived at the bus stop of Kanchanaburi. We tried to take a taxi there because our hotel was 3 km away from the bus stop but because they tried to rip us off like always we decided to walk. After sweating like crazy and having sore feet, backs and shoulders we regretted not taking one but we didn’t give up. We only had a quick lunch break in between. It was time to try some new Thai food. We got one plate of chicken rolls and two portions of Pad Thai. Including a small bottle of coke it cost us CHF 4.30. The food was great and obviously the prices were even better. We only had another ten minutes of walking left and we finally made it and checked in at Blue Star Guest House.
We booked a double room for THB 350 (CHF 9.70). I have to admit that the room was a bit shocking. We’re not used to those kind of rooms anymore, as we were spoiled in Indonesia but we will get used to it again and now that we’re in a new country I’m ready for it again.
As you already know, on traveling days we don’t really do anything else than traveling. We just relaxed in the room, had dinner at our place and finally made a plan for Thailand. It’s so hard to decide on where to go if you “only” have one month’s time. It literally took us hours and I really hope to not miss out on too much.
Day 89 – Erawan-Nationalpark (31/10/2015)
We had breakfast at our place and then the search for a scooter started. Apparently it’s more expensive to rent scooters here than in the past country, so after we went to about five different places, we gave up and got one. We had a long ride ahead of us. It took at least 1.5 hours to get to Erawan-Nationalpark. We payed THB 300 each, 20 times more than Thai people pay. The dual price system for tourists makes me angry already (read more about the dual price system at http://www.2pricethailand.com). When we got there we were quite hungry and decided to have lunch, which was surprisingly cheap for a touristy place like that. It seems like Pad Thai is always the cheapest so that’s what we went for.
One of the biggest attractions at Erawan-Nationalpark is Erawan Waterfall, a seven level waterfall. While you’re hiking up, you pass all the seven steps of the waterfall. The area is nice made and the waterfalls are amazing. Unfortunately there were way too many tourists. It was really hot and we wanted to give up more than once but we’re no quitters, we made it to waterfall number seven, the end of the trail and it was worth it. All along the way people were swimming in the different waterfalls but the water wasn’t clear and because we wanted to make it to the top before it closed, we didn’t go in the water before we got to the last one. There we finally sat “in” the waterfall and cooled off.
Because we arrived at about 1 pm and the park closed at 4 pm, there were no people anymore on the way down and we could finally see the real beauty and take pictures without photo bombers. At first the plan for today was to go to the Tiger Temple after the national park but it closed too early, so we used all afternoon at the waterfalls.
At about 4 we started driving back. We tried to get back before sunset but we didn’t make it. Close to our hotel we stopped at a pretty big mall, called Big C to get some snacks. On the way out we were looking at the different restaurants but everything was too expensive for our budget. When we got to an All you can eat-running sushi/steam boat restaurant, we changed our mind and said “forget the budget”. We paid THB 359 per person. So that you can imagine how expensive that is, a plate of Pad Thai costs THB 35. But it was fun and exciting and we were still in our low budget range, which by the way is THB 2’155 (CHF 60). Our maximum budget is THB 3’593 (CHF 100).
Back home we had a drink and Caleb made us some Ninja Turtle masks out of green plastic bags because it was Halloween! 🙂
Day 90 – Death Railway Bridge (01/11/2015)
As soon as we got up we figured out how to get to the South of Thailand. We booked a night train for tonight and we’re really excited about it. We decided to stay in Kanchanaburi for today because we still wanted to see the Tiger Temple. But because Caleb did some research about it and read that the tigers get treated really terribly we decided against it.
After breakfast we had to check out of our room but we could leave our bags at the reception. We went on a twenty minute walk to the Death Railway Bridge. The Death Railway Bridge is a 300 meter long bridge, which got partly destroyed by a bomb in Word War II. We walked across it and waited for the “famous” rainbow colored train to pass but we weren’t patient enough and left without seeing it. We went for a coffee, walked trough a market and got back to the guest house. When our feet were ready to walk again we went for lunch. Our plan after that was to go to the Allied War Cemetery but we were too lazy, so we went back “home”. Because we didn’t have a room anymore we had to sit outside and we still had about an hour and a half until pick up. At 5:15 pm we finally got picked up and after about an 1.5 hour drive we arrived at Ban Pong train station. We thought that we can grab some dinner there but there was nothing so we had to run through town because we had a 10 hour ride ahead of us. There was nothing that was good enough looking for us so at one point we had no other choice than getting something from a super sketchy food stand.
Back at the train station they told us that our train is delayed so we there was another hour of waiting before we finally got on the train. We couldn’t wait to see where we were going to spend our night at. The train was really cool. It was kind of like a hostel. Lots and lots of bunk beds. We were so excited about it, which made it hard to get tired. At one point we did fall asleep though. The beds were very clean and quite comfortable but still, we didn’t sleep that great.
The Travelling Smiths 