Kanchanaburi Town

November 21, 2017

Kanchanaburi Town

Kanchanaburi

After my group of winning teachers presented our emotions directive to a classroom full of Thai speaking children, we were immediately herded onto a bus with all of our friends to take one last trip to a mountain town nearby to get a real taste of Thailand outside of the luxurious hotel and city we had the privilege to live in for the past week including standing toilets hot showers and toilet paper, which we would soon find are a rarity in this country. Needless to say it was time to leave our cocoon. Kanchanaburi is only about 1 and a half hours by bus, I felt that it was the quickest bus ride of my life as my friends and I who had a little too much fun and forgot to sleep the halloween night before fell asleep on one anothers' shoulders. Yes, drool involved. This was the first glimpse of traditional Thailand that I had witnessed. This small town complete with a temple village, and Thai Burma Death Railway Bridge, built by slaves of the Second World War. We had the opportunity to explore this quaint village, and its markets for two hours. We were given canola oil to help light the torches in the temples which we were informed gave us good luck in our travels, and we were allowed to assist the groundskeeper in adding flowers to the massive buddha that hovers above this small village. The people were beautiful, the coffee amazing, and the temple breathtaking. Small villages like this truly have a magical element, understanding the history that took place at this riverside town gave us all a sense of antiquity we hadn't felt yet on this trip. This town is beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone. Our program leaders organized one last river boat cruise for us, where we should share our last dinner with our new friends before being shipped off to our orientation placements. This bittersweet journey was short and sweet.

-2 weeks later-

SO two weeks later and 10 days of teaching under our belts, we find ourselves migrating back to each other in the province of Kanchanaburi. It seems as though we couldn't get enough! What is funny about making friends in this program is that you can't seem to stay away from eachother. We have already spent two weekends traveling together in a row now, and we haven't become sick of one another just yet. This time, we decided to stay in the small downtown of Kanchanaburi Town, which is a most popular area in the province of Kanchanaburi. Emily Rice, my roomate and I were offered the opportunity to coach at an English camp for our school in Kanchanaburi last Friday evening, which I will dedicate another blog post too because there is way too much to add. Needless to say, the two of us were dragging our butts after spending now 6 days in a row with the most lively children you could imagine. On that note, a Chang beer was highly necessary at this moment in our lives. After finding out through Facebook that a number of our friends were headed towards us, we quickly asked around and were given the name to a hostel with no other name but Sam's House! Yes, I am being for real, but the owner of the hostel didn't seem to believe me. Americans are more often than not sarcastic and the Thai's seem to laugh at every serious and non serious thing we say, out of politeness or misunderstanding, we will never know.

Before I knew it, we arrived to the Sam's House Bungalow Hostel and were precariously making our upon a platform over the 'Khlong' which means river in thai. Our hostels were neatly perched upon the banks of the river, with open air wooden porches, and boat houses drifting nearby. This place was surreal. And get this, the hostel was only 11 dollars a night! Thailand is extraordinarily cheap and within a week we were beginning to think in Bhat monetation; 100 bhat equalling just around 3 american dollars. Most things in Thailand can be bought under 100 bhat, food, household items, tickets, school supplies, etc. My favorite game here in Thailand so far is the how many dollars is this in real life game. Most of the time I am paying less than 10 dollars for what seems like a very expensive cab ride, drink or meal. It is AMAZING. So if you think you cannot afford Thailand, please think again. Within what felt like 30 minutes, Emily and I had located the nearest 7/11. In Thailand 7/11 is literally Heaven, (pun intended). It is this seemingly unnatural phenomena that you can go to this convenience store and buy tickets for a movie, a bus tickets, book a plane, top up a phone, eat a full meal and get an amazing coffee all in one fell swoop. Yes, I promise that I do not eat every meal at the 7/11 butttt, It's a very close call. We picked up beer and chips for snacks and made our way to the hostel where about 15 friends appeared from orientation. We spent the night listening to music, playing games, shooting off riddles and dancing on a bunaglow watching the sunset over the river. When I'm saying that I have out of body experiences every day in Thailand due to the surreal nature of our time spent, I honestly mean it. Sometimes I find myself walking away from the new group of friends I made and realize just how much my life has changed in a couple weeks. Although there are some downsides, I find myself extremely happy and changing in so many positive ways here. In a short two weeks, I have found myself more readily relaxed, adjusting to changed plans and unstructured work weeks, allowing myself to get lost, and most of all letting loose for what feels like the first time in forever. We are half way across the world exhausted from teaching but I notice that I am happy and my friends are happy. I couldn't ask for more.

We decided it would be a good idea to explore the little downtown area of Kanchanaburi complete with kareoke bars, live bands and pool tables. This little town was much more calm than Bangkok, the vibe was relaxed and laid back, the locals friendly and inviting, and the food, amazing. After eating Phad Thai and Fried Bananas two absolute MUSTS in Thailand, we continued to dance our butts off to a local bar that played all throwback songs including Spice girls, N'sync, Backstreet boys, and group dances like The Cupid Shuffle. The friends I have made here are all as extroverted as me. Does this shock me? no. We all found ourselves hopping up and down screaming to lyrics we grew up with and hugging eachother all while being a sweaty mess. It was wonderful and awful all at once. For some reasons the locals loved us, although puzzling, I was more than okay with this. However, getting to bed at three in the morning was not ideal considering our plans to wake up at 7 am and make our way to Erewan falls, a nearby national park known for it's seven story waterfall hike.

Long story short, all of us dragged one another out of bed backpacks in hand, water and electrolytes in the other onto a Song Tao. The world most amazing form of transportation. Song Tao's are a MUST if you go to Thailand. The back of the truck simulated a picnic table style seating with an open air cage. Essentially you are riding on the back of a pick up truck jam packed with your friends blasting music through the countryside of Thailand. Our friends have utilized these for all our weekend trips so far squishing close together and singing our lungs out while the wind whips through our hair. Picture that? Yep, its worth it. An hour later we landed at Erewan Falls National Park. Although this park is in the same Kanchanaburi province, the minute you step off the Song Tao, you feel as though you are in a jungle! We spent an hour hiking up this massive mountain sweating every ounce of alcohol we had ingested the evening before, walking across seven levels of waterfall to reach the top of a mountain, where we stayed for an hour wading in pools in the largest level of waterfall playing and climbing around like children. I was ecstatic. Honestly words will not describe this experience as well as the pictures do. This weekend was my favorite so far, and I said the same thing after the last couple weekends.

Here are some tips for Kanchanaburi:

Stay for 3-5 days! It is a smaller province, but there is a lot to do
Go to the Sugar Bar for dancing and it has a reputable tattoo parlor in front (I did not get one)
Visit the Thai Burma Death Railway, give yourself a few hours to explore the village
Bring shoes to Erewan falls, the fish will eat your feet and my friends were freaked out, also there were a lot of abandoned sandals on the way up to the Falls
Go early in the morning to Erewan as it gets packed very early! Sunday is better than Saturday
Talk to the locals in Kanchanaburi Town, they are sweethearts and go out of their way for you
Research the local hiking spots, there are many more than Erewan, and we plan to return!
Stay in Sam's House on the river Bunaglow's are clean have AC and mini fridges all things were were so grateful for with the real feel of a bungalow
The markets here are wonderful and well priced
It gets cooler her than in the more suburban areas so bring layers for night time!