Journey with Christina

Being all fancy for two weeks we had a private driver pick us up in Bangkok to do a day tour of the Kanchanaburi area and then drop us off at our hotel. We first made a quick stop at the famous bridge over river Kwai from the epic war film.

Justyne and I in front of the bridge over river Kwai.

Our next stop was the gorgeous Erawan Falls National Park. If you have seen pictures of gorgeous waterfalls chances are they are from Erawan Falls. The park has a series of 7 waterfalls that take about an hour to hike to the top one. Justyne gave up around waterfall five but Jon and I hiked to the seventh one where I was able to swim in the milky blue clear waters. Jon and Justyne being the party poopers they are didn’t want to get wet.

Pictures of Erawan Falls National Park.

Our next stop was the heart wrenching Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum. During the second World War the Japanese chose the River Kwai basin as the route for the construction of the 415km Thailand-Burma Railway. Approximately 60,000 Allied POW’s and 200,000 Asian laborers worked on the line using simple hand tools and barely enough food to survive. The nickname, the Death Railway, was earned due to the estimated 16,000 POW’s and 100,000 Asian laborers who died while working on it. The pictures showing the men who were nothing but skin and bones were particularly moving.

The moving Hellfire pass museum and Jon standing in the infamous Hellfire Pass.

Needing to lighten the mood a little we decided to have a few drinks on the deck of our floating raft room. Jon put on his swim trunks and life vest to take a swim in the river but got distracted with drinking and being mad at Justyne because she did not put the Tim Tams (best cookie from Australia) back in the sleeve. After completely emptying our mini-bar he asked (slurred) the front desk to refill it. When I asked why he was drinking so much he stated that he needed to because now there were two of us. I responded that we did not even do anything and he said he knew that it was just knowing there was two of us. Needless to say, it was quite an entertaining evening for Justyne and I, and maybe a few of the staff too.

Jon getting ready to swim but never made it.

The next day while Jon nursed his hangover Justyne and I spent a day volunteering at Elephant World, a sanctuary for sick, old, disabled, abused and rescued elephants. In Thailand, elephants have traditionally worked with humans in the logging industry, functioning as the trucks and heavy machinery of the day. This has since stopped but has left many of the elephants abandoned, underfed and in some cases blinded from tree branches. Other elephants came from “trekking camps” working for “tourists” which is a heavy burden. Elephants neck and truck are very strong, but the back of an elephant is built for a maximum load of 100kg, in most cases the seat and passengers are a lot heavier than this.

We had a fun day learning about elephants, feeding them, planting crops, making sticky rice balls for the elephants without teeth and best of all giving them a bath at the end of the day. One of the elephants decided that I needed a bath as well! The baby elephant Kanta did not like all the turnips we had to feed it and kept trying to steal the other elephant’s watermelon.

Justyne and I enjoying our day at Elephant World.

After a sweaty day with the elephants I took a dip and a float down the river. Once again the party poopers Justyne and Jon did not want to swim. The current was really fast, I wish I had a tube to float down it.

Where we stayed, Boutique Raft Resort, we had a unique river raft room space for about $65 a night including breakfast. The entire room was floating on the river and would sway gently each time a boat went by. There was an amazing deck to relax on and a platform to launch a swim from. The resort restaurant served great food in a romantically lit space with river views. I highly recommend a “raft room” if you are in this area.

Our beautiful river raft room and views of the rooms from the bridge above.