A semester in Southeast Asia: 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..