early in the morning we packed our bags once again, got on the bus and headed to Kanchanaburi. the ride there was pretty uneventful. we saw miles and miles of rice patties, which are never very exciting. for lunch we stopped off at a restaurant that the tour guide recommended. it was obviously a restaurant that most tourists on tours stop at. it was buffet style and and the food was so sub par i hardly wanted to eat it.
outside of the restaurant, as per all of Thailand, there were a few roaming dogs but this time there was a puppy. everybody was crowded around the puppy petting it and trying to feed it food. what i imagine to be the puppy's mom was hanging around to get a piece of the action as well. then suddenly i heard a crazy yelp from the mom. some European guy threw a rock right at the mom's forehead. i saw him do it and he threw it pretty hard. it really dug in to my heart and for a moment i wanted to pounce on the guy and kick him in the face. what was the need for him to do that? did he think it was cool? was he jealous of the dog's attention? seriously, it's people who hurt animals for no good reason that end up being psychotic or murderers. i hope he gets his bad karma real soon.
one of the main things we were supposed to see in Kanchanaburi is the train that leads to the bridge over the River Kwai. we got to the "train station," which is more like a bus stop lined with outdoor shopping, and waited to ride the train. when the train didn't come at it's estimated time, we knew we'd be waiting for a long long while before it's next appearance. we actually waited for a good two hours past in the sweltering heat. see, in Thailand, time ain't no thang. the train is often late and by late i'm talking like an hour or so. the traffic is horrid and people just move at a slower pace there. when a worker is an hour late, employers don't even mention it. once it hits an hour and a half that might be considered kinda late. so when Ekachai brought us to the train station, we figured we'd be sitting a while. but at two hours in that hot weather got our group wanting our bus back and forgetting about taking the train ride. luckily just as we began to complain, the train showed up.
i hurried on to the long train in fear that i might be left behind if the train just decided to leave (it seems to have a mind of it's own). i got on and our group walked through many segments of the train until we reached the end where the seats were empty. while walking through we noticed people selling sodas, food, and fans. it reminded me of the scene in Slumdog Millionaire when they were selling random goods o a train. it was almost surreal seeing this happen in front of me for some reason. at one point i saw a woman taking our pictures with a digital camera and then literally five minutes later she came back with a laminated piece of paper that looked like a train ticket with our photo on it. where in the world did they keep that equipment on a train?? the train itself was rickety and old. the seats inside were wooden and nearly a third of them would pop off the base and almost completely come apart when you sat down on them. it was quite an interesting ride. we all stuck our heads out of the window a million times and gazed at the surroundings. at some point we saw a giant golden buddha which some of the group excitedly pointed out but by this point in the trip i was over seeing any more buddhas.
once we got to the bridge over the River Kwai, i stopped at one of the street vendors and got coconut ice cream in a coconut with mango. it was refreshing after being in the heat all day. we then headed to our hotel. the hotel resort was located fairly far from anything worth going to. we would have had to taken a taxi or something. so stefan and i opted to stay in. we didn't do much that night. just relaxed and slept early.
day 7
we started our day out by heading to Hell Fire Pass. remember that bridge over the River Kwai and that train i mentioned? well the train tracks were built by the Allied Prisoners of WWII. ironically Japan's prisoners of war were forced to build tracks for a train that was meant to ship battle supplies for the enemy. many of the men tried to sabotage the train tracks to no avail. part of the stretch of land they built the train tracks on was on the side of a mountain through solid rock. men slowly chipped away at it in the crazy Thailand heat until they died of exhaustion or sickness. that piece of land is called Hell Fire Pass because it was like being in hell.
next we stopped for lunch at a park where the locals eat. there was a waterfall and different vendors selling food. upon stopping at a 7Eleven (yes, they have these everywhere in Thailand!) for drinks, a woman selling food in banana leaf pouches intrigued me. Ekachai simply told me that it was fish inside of those pouches and i figured "why not." so i picked one up for the equivalent of a buck and went on my merry way. at the park we sat at a make shift restaurant and pointed to the grilled chicken which was served with sticky rice and some pork dish. the grilled chicken was so effing tasty! every time i've had that bbq chicken at thai restaurants near home i've never really been that impressed. but whatever kind of marinade or flavor they add to theirs in Thailand beats out whatever i've ever had before. and the pork dish reminds me of certain chinese pork dishes i've had before so i already knew i'd like it. the fish dish, on the other hand, was DISGUSTING. please try to visualize meatloaf made out of fish and way too much lemongrass. it looked like cat food and i couldn't eat it. in fact, i put it on the floor to feed to a roaming cat who also refused to eat it! i'm not even kidding. the kitty smelled it and didn't even try to taste it. so nasty!
now comes the best part of the trip for me by far! we finally were headed to the elephant camp! (aaahh!!!) the second we got there my eyes shot over to the two kid elephants. they were sooo cute!! we got to take a couple of pictures with them and then i was in a haze of elephant picture taking and elephant feeding. at one point i had a basket of bananas and in one swoop i had none. those elephants sure can grab a lot in one swipe.
hahahahaha!!!
then finally it was time to ride the elephants. Stefan and i were so excited we made our way to the front of the line eager to get on one quick. but we thought we'd made a mistake the second we glanced over at our guide and his brown tar teeth. honestly, with his creepster face, i didn't want him as our guide. i thought he was going to be a crappy boring guide who didn't care about our safety. but boy was i wrong. about ten elephant steps in to our adventure, Stefan and i heard him loudly sing "in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps toniiiiiiight." we laughed and then joined him for a good few minutes. he kept calling us Tarzan and Beautiful Jane. haha!! eventually he got off the elephant and let each of us get off the chair aparatus and sit on the elephant's neck one at a time. it was kind of awkward feeling the elephant's shoulder blades rocking underneath your butt. and i never realized how hairy elephants are and how wirey their their is. our guide led the elephant in to the river which was the most awesome part of the most awesome adventure of the trip. you could tell that the elephants loved the water. we saw one rolling around in it and our elephant very obviously didn't want to get out. we ended the whole elephant camp thing with a group photo. that portion of our trip was easily my favorite part. it couldn't have been any better.
dude looks like a Thai Snoop Dogg. his crazy brown tar teeth and that pick in his hands made him seem a bit creepster.
awesome!
awesomer!!
awesomest!!
next we headed to go bamboo rafting. all this really meant was that we sat upon bamboo rafts lined with little benches while some guy paddled us down the river but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. Stefan jumped out and swam at some point. i'm sure that was refreshing.
that's grasshopper in my hand.
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