Thon Pha Phum and Khao Laem National Park

Over the weekend of October 8-10, I took a trip with my friend Jack up into the far northwest part of Thailand, almost in Myanmar. Our goal was to go camping in Thon Pha Phum National park, but as i've learned in Thailand, sometimes plans don't work out and you just have to go with the flow. It always works out and is an adventure anyways.
So, we woke up early friday morning at around 6 a.m to take the 7 hour bus ride to Thon Pha Phum, a small one road town surrounded by mountains. The town really was incredible- because of its close locality to Myanmar, you could see a mix in the Thai and Burmese cultures that existed in the town. Most people actually spoke Burmese who lived in the area. There were shops selling hiking gear, fishing poles, camping equipment, and just about everything you needed to go out and survive in the jungle for weeks at a time. We were probably the only foreigners within 100 miles- the town was way off the beaten track. As a result, the people in the town were extremely friendly and wanted to help us in any way they could. For example, after eating lunch, we were walking around trying to find where the bus was that took us to the national park. The first person we asked could not speak any English, and although we tried to explain what we wanted in Thai, it was unsucceful. The lady walked down the entire road with us asking everyone if they could speak any english until we were finally introduced to this older man selling machetes and fishing gear on the road. Rather than trying to explain the directions to use, he hopped up out of his seat and walked with us all the way to the station.
When we got there, they announced that the last bus to the national park had already left. The man that was with us explained that there was another national park, about 2 hours further north along a lake, and the bus was leaving soon. So, quickly we changed our plans and headed off in the bus for Khao Laem National Park. The park was beautiful- the lake was surrounded by limestone cliffs and the sunset over the lake really was something. We set up camp and were making a small fire when a few Thai's walked over and invited us to come and hang out by their camp. We spent the night around a campfire with 8 other Thai students from a University in Thailand. It was great to hang out with Thai students, get a chance to exchange stories and see the differences and simalarities of living on opposite sides of the world.
I'll never forget the stars that night. I had never seen so many before.

The next morning we got up early and headed into the National Park to hike up to a waterfall. This was my first time really in the true jungle, and it was crazy how dense it was. We hiked for about an 2 hours up to the waterfall, passing by huge spiderwebs, monkey's swinging in the trees, and the sounds of the jungle echoing between the bamboo. I got a huge leech on my foot for the first time which was not very fun- I had no idea that they make you bleed so much. But, all healed and okay now.

After the hike, we decided to take the bus back to Kanchanaburi which was on our way home to Bangkok. I had never gotten the chance to go kayaking down the river, and Jack and I decided we'd spend the night in Kanchaburi and then get up early for a full day of kayaking. We got dropped off the following day about 10 miles up from the Bridge over the River Kwai, and spent the day paddling down the river. There was nobody on the river at all except for us and a few small fishing boats. The first 5 miles of the trip was far up in the forest and the only people we saw were local fisherman with bamboo poles sitting on the edge of the river trying to catch dinner. As we approached the main town of Kanchanburi, gorgeous houses and expensive hotels lined the riverside. We headed back to Bangkok sunday night after a great weekend trip of camping and kayaking. Here's some photos..

Thon Pha Phum

sunset at our camping site

Thai friends we met

hike through the jungle

Bamboo fishing

relaxing

I'm off  tonight for a 10-day journey to the southern islands and beaches in the south. I'll write and show some pictures once I get back to Bangkok. Talk to you soon!

A trip to Kanchanaburi

Some of you may have already read this from the email I sent home last week, but for those of you who haven't, here is what I did over the weekend of October 1-4. Also, I added some pictures if you can't see them on facebook.

I spent the weekend of Oct 1-4 in Kanchanaburi, about 4 hours to the west of Bangkok. It is where the bridge over the river kwai is located. My friend Eddie and I spent the night in a bungalow on stilts in the river for $5, it was spectacular. The town was really nice with some low key bars and great food, so we hung out for the night with some other foreigners and a few Thai's at a place called Sugar's. I was talking with the owner of the bar, Sugar, who grew up in the poorest northern region of Thailand, but had the smarts and outgoing personality to leave home and start her own cooking school in Kanchanaburi. She's probably only 25 but now owns the bar and restauraunt, a guesthouse, and runs a cooking school. I found it really fascinating that she was able to do all of this on her own, and now she sends money back home to her family in the village.

Side note- Sugar isn't her real name, but everyone in Thailand has nicknames because their normal names are so long and tedious to say.Their nicknames don't have to relate to their real name in anway, and some are quite funny. For example, I have two friends at school who are named PingPong and Golf, because their dad likes those sports, ane that is what they go by for their entire lives. Friends, family, teachers, everyone calls them that.

Anyways, back to Kanchanaburi- We woke up early the next morning and had booked a tour that took us around kanchanaburi and out to the national park. After about an hour van ride, we arrived at the headquarters of a national park, and began our hike. The highlight of the park was the Erawan National Waterfall, a 7- tier waterfall climbing up about 3 miles of mountain trail. Although they said it was 7 tiers, I had probably counted over 100, but I guess 7 were the main sites and biggest ones. It was an amazing hike and journey up to the top (and extremely tiring, but well worth it), and the best part was that you could swim at each level of the waterfall. The 4th level had these massive boulders that you could climb up and slide down like a natural waterslide. There were also these little fish throughout the entire waterfall that would nibble at your feet as you swam in the water- free massage I guess?

After the waterfall, we took a ride to an elphant park and I got to ride an elephant for the first time. We then went rafting down the river, a beautiful river with massive mountains in the distance and deep green jungle leading down to the foot of the river. After the rafting, we took a short train ride through the counttyside and across the river, and finally arrived at the River Kwai to head to the museum and walk across the bridge. In all, it was a great trip. Here's a few photos..

The bungalow we stayed at

2nd Tier of Waterfall

3rd Tier of Waterfall

5th tier

4th tier- me sliding down the natural slide

River Kwai

At the top of the mountain- 7th Tier

Bridge over the River Kwai

Railroad along river

So, where am I exactly

Just to give the basics of where I am, i'll start with Bangkok and life in the city.

This is a view from the balcony of my apartment at sunrise. I guess the only benefit of the mass pollution in bangkok is that it creates unbelievable sunrise a sunsets.  I'm located on the 23rd floor of an apartment building on the West side of the Chao Phraya river. I bought a hammock and set it up on my balcony, and it is by far my favorite seat in Thailand. The skyline is incredible, and you're high enough up in the building where you escape the noise, chaos, and pollution down below.

                                                               Street Vendor

                                                          Monks on the Ferry

Siam Paragon- nices mall i've ever seen

rainbow and view of city from my balcony

             

It's nearly impossible to describe Bangkok, let alone in one blog. I'll have to start giving some stories just to help explain the city. My best answer would be that it is a mix between the lowest and highest extremes of everything you can imagine- it's a city of the wealthiest and poorest people, the skeeziest and classiest areas. a city based on history and tradition, yet eager to be the most modern and developing city in the east. All I can say is you are never bored in Bangkok.

If you look in that picture with the rainbow, you can see towards the bottom right hand corner the Chao Phraya river. Directly across the river is where my University is located, called Thammasat. So, I have  two options for going to school (only on monday, tuesday and wednesday!) The first is that I can walk about 20 minutes down the road to the ferry pier and take a ferry across the river to Thammasat. The walk is very entertaining: food stalls and street vendors lined up both sides of the street.  It's almost impossible to walk the entire way without stopping for some sort of food- whether it be fresh cut pineapple, mango and sticky rice grilled in a banana leaf, or my favorite: koh tort, a fried egg battered oyster omelette over a bed of bean sprouts. The other option is to take a motorcyle taxi for about $1.50 through the traffic and over the river to school. Let me tell you -zooming in and out of cars, going down one way streets the wrong way, and holding on for dear life on the back of a motorcycle is a better wake-up than even the strongest cup of coffee.

Most of the city and sites are located on the opposite side of the river from where I live.  A 2 minute walk next to Thammasat is the Grand Palace, National museaum, and many other historical sites. Most of the hotels, shopping plazas, business districts, etc lie on the opposite of the river as well. My side of the river is more of a resedential area and a little more removed from the touristy parts of bangkok, which I actually love. It is mostly all Thai's living around here, and it has more of a neighborhood feel to it. We have a great alley near our building with some cheap food and little restauraunts run by families. Nobody can really speak english, so i'm forced to work on my Thai and try to figure out things on my own. Ah - the food, it really is amazing!

Well there is much more to tell about Bangkok but i'll have to split it up into different posts. I hope this helps give a better understanding of where i'm living.

I'm starting a blog..

Hello family, friends, and everyone else interested in reading a blog.

So although my travels in Thailand and Southeast Asia are already half over, I decided to start a blog for the remainder of the semester. I'm going to try and write an entry for every trip I make just talking about the basics of my whereabouts, expereinces, etc. Also, if you don't have facebook, i'll be able to put up a few pictures (and maybe even some video) from my travels and you'll have a sense of where I am. I've been keeping a journal as well, but this way everyone back home who is interested will atleast have an idea of what i'm doing half way around the world. So sorry that it took over 2 months to start this blog, but I may try to recap some of my older trips  and add some pictures, so just keep checking in if you're interested. So, here it goes: