Taking as Long as Possible

Kanchanaburi

What a relief.

That was our first thought once we got to Kanchanaburi. At right is our room with private bath and Jenny settling in. Hell, there's even an armoir. Sort of. My favorite part is the bucket and bowl next to the toilet for manual flushing and how I keep finding other people's poop in my toilet due to shitty plumbing. I feel good about that last bit because I know if I find other people's poop, that means someone is finding mine.

The Jolly Frog where we're staying is full of backpackers, so we haven't escaped the tourist areas. But it's full of them for a reason. There's a great view of the river from the courtyard (below) and the area is littered with lawn chairs and hammocks hanging on palm trees(right). Another tree in the yard also appears to hold bunches of tamarind seed pods. Do they grow on trees or is it something else entirely? It's that question that keeps me from just digging in, since who knows what could happen.
[edit]I looked on Wikipedia and it does indeed grow on trees. Tonight I will put trust in the wisdom of the internet and eat some![/edit]

The view of the river from our courtyard

It's also easier here than in Bangkok to get away from the other farang. They seem to stick more to the area around the guest houses and tour group things. In our own first adventure in the area, we took a local bus from Kanchanaburi to Erawan National Park. Remembering the bus number and communicating through hand gestures with the guy behind the ticket window got us what we needed and we met a sweet middle-aged Thai couple with their extra friendly puppy sharing our bench. None of us understood a word the others were saying but we communicated effectively (I think) that we had a dog too and showed them his picture.


Erawan Falls

The bus ride was super uncomfortable, with the world's hardest seats. Unfortunately for me I'm a bit taller than your average Thai so there really wasn't room for my legs, and unfortunately for Jenny my lack of legroom forced here nearly out the window. The ride was over after a mere 1.5hrs and we took a hike into the park(Jungle!), towards the waterfalls. The park was beautiful, with all kinds of unfamiliar flora and fun steep hiking routes that got to the same place eventually as the wussy ones. With our lunch packed and cheap-o flip-flops we hiked around 1.5km over variably steep and rocky terrain to take some pictures and do some swimming.

The water was beautiful, clear and cold and since we were there so early it wasn't yet crowded with hairy European tourists. Jenny was the first to make it in, lasting about 2 minutes before something bit her feet and she got out. We couldn't figure out what it was. The fish seemed friendly enough, and swam away from my hands when I tried to get them to bite me. I told her she was being a wuss and we climbed up to a higher tier to see if maybe the fish were friendlier. This time I went in and something bit me too. Hard. A bunch of times. I took a closer look and swimming around with the tinier fish were these little shrimp-looking crustaceans with tiny pincers. Territorial fuckers didn't want us splashing around in their sandy river bottom. I don't know if this is a seasonal thing, but we didn't read word one about it in any guide book or website. We'll be sending an email on the matter to Lonely Planet and maybe we can receive credit for contributing to the next edition.

Around the fifth tier of seven Jenny was winded and we retreated to the bottom to eat our lunch: bologna and cheese. Neither of us have probably had that since we were twelve years old, and in Thailand of all places. In the hurry to get to the bus that morning though, there weren't many other options at the 7-11 that wouldn't be gross in the heat by the time we ate it. At least we had the Thai snack of Ovaltine peanuts to make us feel like we were experiencing local cuisine.

Another observation about Thailand: lots of things don't make any sense. As a whole group of farangs waited for the 3:00 bus back to Kan city in front of the bus, the driver of the actual 3:00 bus walked right past us to where he was parked on the completely wrong side of the parking lot and just took off. As a result the 4:00 bus was packed to the brim and we were immediately surrounded by at least four different languages which was just plain fun to observe. Anything to make me forget about how uncomfortable the seat was. And there was the positive point of meeting Luke and Holly, an English couple who turned us on to Elephants and Friends which we're trying to work out monetarily. Read that website and tell me your heart doesn't melt.

One of the tiers of the waterfall where Jenny was attacked by crustaceans

The pose that you always see in pictures of Erawan Falls


Victory!


I am paaaaaaale

The rocks had a built in waterslide


Everything was beautiful here

A panorama shot of a wonderful spot we found a bit off the beaten path

Local Things

Since our last blog entry we have also had the pleasure to experience our first Thai massages. My most extensive experience thus far had been Chinese massage in Manhattan, which I received daily after class at the FCI. This was a completely different experience, seeming more like yoga than massage. First we stepped into the air conditioned room(those are always a relief) and changed into these huge comfortable pants that tie around the waist. Laying on a mat with a pillow, my feet sticking completely out from the bottom and my arms over on the mats to my sides, a small Thai woman began to use her entire bodyweight to bend me and twist me. Something we noticed quickly here is that Thais giggle when something is embarrassing or awkward, aside from being so good-natured in general. The whole hour of massage saw everyone laughing together as she tried to bend me, at one point jumping onto my back with her whole body to stretch my hamstrings. At one point she used her bodyweight to press down on major arteries in my legs and arms for as long as a minute, gently releasing the pressure once the pulse stopped resulting in a really neat warming sensation as the blood flowed back and she rubbed the area. On the way out they said in English "See you tomorrow!" which is fine by me.


On the way home we were to meet a really interesting local artist and fall asleep early after all our fun at the Falls. The artist spoke some English and was selling his very attractive large paintings for the equivalent of ~30bux but we're not sure about the costs to ship it home. We'll try to make it happen though. It would be a wonderful reminder of our trip here.





There is so much more that we experience than we have time to write up here, and so many more pictures. We're already having the time of our lives and we've barely been here a week. It's very exciting and we can't wait to see what we do next, because we don't really know any better than you do. Looking forward to sharing trips to the markets and stories of riding motorbikes on the left side of the road.