Kanchanaburi and Erawan National Park

On Sunday morning, bright and early, Jenna and I hopped on one of the two trains that goes from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. We got to the the station with time to spare and met a few other backpackers heading to Erawan National Park.

The train ride was a little over two hours and was quite scenic.

Once we got to Kanchanaburi, we headed for a guesthouse that was in our guide book, dropped our backpacks and then rented some bikes. Our bikes were 60 baht and we had access to them for 24 hours. Unfortunately my bike did not have any breaks but luckily, nothing eventful happened. After a rather close call going down a steep hill a couple of kilometers away from our guesthouse, there was nothing much to worry about. We headed first to Chungkai Cemetary, which is across the Mae Khlong River. This Cemetary is built upon the site of a former POW camp and there 1750 POWs are buried. The grounds if this Cemetary are beautifully and meticulously maintained to honor those that lost their lives within the Japanese labor camps.

Biking and taking pictures. Ben, you would have been so proud :)

The following morning we took a taxi truck to Erawan National Park. It is about an hour and a half drive from Kanchanaburi. Thus taxi truck was just like the one Chuck used to rent when the Keisters and the Scheils went to St John. Well except that it was just Jenna, the driver and me. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride there and the way back was a bit more jostling but no cookies were lost, luckily.

The next series of pictures are of the falls along the Erawan Waterfall trail. This is the dry season now, so during the wet season the pools are overflowing and it can be difficult to get to the upper water falls, 6 and 7. Most waterfalls are quite beautiful and Erawan did not disappoint. I did not end up taking as many photos as I thought but below are a few of the best ones that I took.

About a quarter of the way up the trail. Feeling great and glistening with some perspiration ;)

At the seventh tier we spotted this little guy noming on oranges that some other hikers gave him. Feeding monkeys is not permitted but there was no official there to stop it. Feeding wild animals is not good for the animals themselves or for the people that will have to interact with them in the future because these animals have learned to associate people with food. This has happened all over, and maybe the best documented case is in Yosemite where bears were fed for decades. There were more beer attacks as a result and finally after years and years of strict enforcement by the U.S. National Park Service have bears started to disassociate people with food.

Here we are sitting behind the waterfall that is in the first waterfall photo.

Next we went to Death Railway, which was built by POWs and Asian laborers during WWII to connect Thaikand to Burma via land. According to Rough Guides, 38 POWs died for every kilometer of track lain.

I took a somber walk along the railway. It is important to remember past tragidies so to make sure not to repeat them in the future. Every person has a voice, an inalienable right to be treated with respect, and a unique story. Namaste is a greeting that is used often in Southeast Asia and it has a beautiful meaning. The divine light within me sees and recognizes the divine light in you. If everyone lived by this and respected others the idea of world peace would be much more tangible.

We stopped at two temples on our way back to Kanchanaburi. Wat Tham Phu Wah, in the photo above and below, and Wat Metatham.

The original temple of Wat Tham Phu Wah was built within a cave and later a building was added to the complex. It is difficult to see in this picture, but there is a Buddhist monk meditating in the background by the bright, blue light.