Singapore-Bangkok-Kanchanaburi-Bangkok-Singapore

Its raining out there and i am waiting for 6.30 to come. What better to do than post about my recent weekend getaway.

Friday, March 24. Finally I met my 2 other travel mates and we boarded the plane. Lucky for us that we managed to get seat near to each other. Thats the drawback of travelling on a budget airline, no seat number. The almost 3 hours journey didn't feel that long due to the great conversation I had with cindy. Reached Bangkok and straightaway we hailed a cab - almost got cheated by one that we decided to join the airport taxi queue heading to our hostel. A clean place though the bed and pillow was hard but we managed to sleep and prepare for the real excitement the following day.

Saturday, March 25. The tour bus picked us up at 7 AM as it's a 2 hours journey to Kanchanaburi. We stopped at dumnernsaduak floating market and had a ride along the canal for around 40 minutes. Did some stopping during the way and its so funny travelling with these 2 caucasian guys as the focus of the locals were turned to them which was quite fun for us to see.
From the market, we did another stop at the wood and carving factory before heading straight to the floating restaurant along the river kwai for lunch. Lunch was good especially with the view of the dead railway. For those who follow history should know about this bridge being bombed during the world war - I only knew about it when I reached this place :D. After lunch we checked in to our hotel where we were given a superior room .. haha so for the backpacking trip ruined by the tour package. Back to the road - we headed down to the Kanchanaburi war cemetery before taking a longtail boat to visit the Kao Poon Cave. The sun was blazing hot and we had to walk quite a journey in and out, up and down the cave that we felt all our lunch were gone just like that. After the cave, we visited the Jeath war museum before taking the longtail boat back to the dead railway and had a walk from one end to another end. From there we went to a local elephant camp for a ride on the elephant along the mountain and river. Our elephant was so naughty that it always strayed from the path and the trainer had to kept on coming back and pull him back to the right path. Once we reached the river, we were asked to prepare ourselves for a bath with the elephant. It was soooo fun, sitting on them then together we went into the river. We were given a brush so we start brushing its head after it was sprayed with soap. Being the naughty elephant, it kept on diving in so we have to pull its rope harder as we too were pulled down. It was fun .. so very fun. It will then use its trunk and sprayed water on us. There were few times that I felt I was going to fall into the water when he dived in and move around. Ended the day with a dinner served on the river bank. Back to the hotel and after having shower and all, the guys knocked on our door asking if we want to join for a walk. So 4 of us then headed to the night bazaar before heading back home and sleep preparing for the fun awaiting us the following day.

Sunday, March 26. After having our breakfast we went to one of Thailand's finest's waterfall - Erawan Waterfall. Wearing a swimsuit underneath we're prepared for another fun day. Apparently there's 7 waterfalls and Erawan is the 7th one, which mean hours of hiking for us. We stopped at each waterfalls but decided to have a swim on our way down. The path was so tough that we know we need a huge lunch to get back all the energy we lost. Once we reached the Erawan waterfall, the guys had a swim while me and cindy decided to swim at waterfall no. 5 as its more tranquil and less crowd. On the way down we stopped at waterfall no. 5. Lucky for us no one was there so we 2 girls decided to swim at one of the lake (can i call it lake?) where we were being bitten by fishes!! so funny that they really bit on us. From there we went to a small area surrounded by stone that it looks like a perfect nature-made jacuzzi and spent quite a time there with the guys sitting on the stone. After having enough of fun we continued our way down where our lunch is waiting for us. From the waterfall, we went to the tiger temple where we can see tigers up close without them being caged or chained. Of course each of us were assigned a trainer that accompanied us walking around them. I was quite afraid when I wanted to take a picture the tiger that I touched moved around and trying to look behind where I was squatting. The trainer pushed its head back and it was quite annoyed of it. After some picture taking we seated awhile before going to the wildlife sanctuary and headed back to the car for a trip back to Bangkok. Back to our backpacking hostel, we had shower and took a cab to lumphini night bazaar for dinner and walked around the night market. Headed down to city and went to a bar recommended by one of cindy's boss. There cindy realised that her camera was gone and so did her mood for fun. Poor cindy, lost her 2nd camera in few month's times. All she could think of was the picture she took and she felt sorry that I too lost all the elephant pictures taken with her camera. Well I got my tiger shots she got her elephant shots .. fair enough right? Spent few hours there before going back to our hostel.

Monday, March 27. Started the day with a breakfast before heading to the city area. Spent most of the time at the shopping centre before heading back to our hostel to get our bag, went to the airport and get back to reality.

All in all it was a great weekend getaway. Really a good time to let go of all the problem we had at work or for some of us in their life. Its a great escape for me as well as I always want to do this kind of trip - those close to nature. Elephant, Waterfall, Tiger - what else can I ask for!!