The Elusive Giant Tree

It feels like it's been a while since we've been on the internet, though I'm sure it's only been a few days. There was a noticeable lack of access in the mountains of Sangkhlaburi where we've been since the weekend. Before that we had a couple of very active days to wrap up our visit to Kanchanaburi, where we finally made some friends as everyone was moving on. We met three Aussie men with great senses of humor on vacation from their wives back home followed by a handful of young people from everywhere that enjoyed rum. Now that we've become so comfortable with our surroundings and daily necessities, we're having a better time meeting people and sharing experiences. One couple, an Irishman and a girl from California, had pretty much traveled the entire world on their way to southeast Asia and had a lot to say. Another Irishman shaved my head for me. He did a horrible job, but hey it was free.

We did some more motorbike riding to see some attractions in the area. Now that we're
comfortable riding and with the local roads it's nice to be able to just hop on and go someplace. It was a good 80km out to get to Hellfire Pass, site of a free museum and hiking trail down to the actual pass itself. The museum was small but full of information and a small room with benches acted as a mini theater showing a short documentary on the pass and the Death Railway. The hike down to the Pass was around 5km and it was an awesome sight considering how it was dug out. So not only did we see the free museum and trail, but on the way back stopped at the waterfall Soi Yak Noi which was free to enter. We were unprepared to come here so we didn't have our bathing suits, but I figured since all the Germans were running around in their Speedos I could just swim in my underpants and no one could complain. The ride back to town had us frightened we would run out of gas, but we made it, watching a really great red sunset over the mountains.

Jenny in Hellfire Pass

Me in Hellfire Pass

Outside Soi Yak Noi

Me in my Unterhosen

The next morning we still had the bike for a few hours so we tried to find something we saw on the map: the Giant Tree. We had no idea what the Giant Tree was, and we still don't, but we figured it would be a good way to kill a few hours. We spent the whole morning riding on the beautiful back roads around Kanchanaburi, never quite finding the Tree. We did see a sign for the "Giant Monkey Pod Tree," which may or may not be related, but that only led us to what may have been a military installation. So really nothing was accomplished other than some sunburn but the sights along those roads really felt like Thailand.

Finally leaving Kanchanaburi, we got on the air-con bus to Sangkhlaburi, around 200km away in
the mountains. It was about half-again as much as the normal bus, but I couldn't stand sitting in those tiny seats for five hours, especially since we couldn't find any english-language newspapers to occupy us. Even on the nicer bus, the ride was scary when it wasn't plain nauseating, winding up the mountain roads without ever seeming to slow down. The bus dropped us off on a corner in Sangkhlaburi which we would later learn was not the bus stop, as seems to happen to so often here. One kilometer later in the dark we found P Guest House, which we had called ahead to hold a room, and hit the sack.

All in all we found Sangkhlaburi to be a nice place but there definitely wasn't as much to do as Kan'. After our two days we pretty much felt we had exhausted our options. Up to that point however it was a really good time, just hanging out, riding motorbike and swimming in the lake. The guest house had really great views of the lake which was beautiful at night and was a great place to just sit. It was fun to just sit and watch the lights from the Mon village across the water and the brightly lit Mon pagoda which we would visit later. That's pretty much the list of attractions in Sangkhlaburi right there: the lake and the couple of temples. En route to the other side of the lake by foot though you run into what they claim to be the world's longest wooden bridge(1.5km) and you're reminded why the rest of the world doesn't use wood for bridges of that size. It was pretty creaky and scary, with boards all over the place covering holes.

One thing that was a nice part of visiting Sangkhlaburi was the hospitality. Everyone seemed much more friendly than anywhere else we've visited so far. The children especially seemed to love saying "Hello!" and waving to us. One Burmese man in the Mon village across the bridge was making us banana pancakes at his cart, and actually invited us to eat inside his home and sit in his only chairs. He then proceeded to give us water from his fridge. It was really odd but a very nice experience. At another point, we ordered some tea in what was pretty much a Thai family's home and then proceeded to sit on their couch all night and watch Escape from Alcatraz. We experienced further niceness at the temples around the Mon village, including the Pagoda which was not nearly as cool in daylight but had pretty bad-ass statues outside. We wished we knew more about Buddhism really just to know what the statues represented, but I figure we can pick up a book or something as we go along.

Our last adventure in Sangkhlaburi was our motorbike ride to Three Pagodas Pass, the (closed to tourists!) border between Thailand and Burma. Pretty disappointing. Apart from three very small pagodas, bland food and some Burmese jewelry there was nothing to do or look at. On the way back, however, we tried to follow a sign to a waterfall and wound up taking a back road like 15km off to the side to what we suspect was another border crossing into Burma. We didn't actually ask the locals on the sides with AK-47s where we actually were, but that's the best guess we can muster. Jenny made us turn around but I'm sure there was an adventure ahead.

Mon Bridge

A kitty in heat that we befriended

Jenny on the dock

Lake Sam Sob sunset

The next day we took some time to figure out where the bus would pick up, ate really good fried chicken and pretty good red bean paste doughnuts for breakfast, and had a ride back to Kan' in the rain. We looked forward to the 2-3km walk in the rain to the guest house, where we'd wait for the next day and our trip back to Bangkok.