This is the largest province located in the central west side of Thailand. There are so many good places to see but me and my colleagues visited only few familiar and popular landmarks, the Erawan Waterfalls and the Bridge over the River Kwai. This is the first travel I have had with the people I work with in my current employer and it was very historic, adventurous and thrifty as well.
Hanging out with the locals in Thailand is indeed benefiting and enjoyable as I can learn and practice my Thai language, explore more food and places and mostly, know more about their cultures and history. I’m a person who really takes pleasure in knowing the origins and records of the past on any particular subject I get interested in, be it political, religion, science, or anything that shaped a situation or a place.
When we visited this popular bridge over the river Kwai, I moseyed the place and browsed those few posted surviving photos of the prisoners of war who erected the bridge during the World War II. There were many of them, mixed people from different race and they all look starved, tired and worn-out. History said that many people got ill and died while constructing this bridge, well I guess those photos says it all, and I felt a bid sad thinking about it.
We didn’t stay that long and after some picture-taking on the bridge we went to this popular Erawan Waterfalls. We took a long trail going up and after reaching some tiring meters of hike and feeling the pain in our backs and legs, my peoples decided to go down again and enjoy the water…they said the water is more cooler there. I didn’t see the point... or maybe because the waters from the taller height is warmer as it's near the sun!
I actually didn’t take a dive, just soaked my legs in the water and washed my face to freshen my consciousness. While still tasting the salty product of my sweat I noticed a meter-long iguana-like reptile swam across me and I leaped out of the water while uttering lots of the F words. The people around me including my friends sighted my unbecoming behavior and the cursing on air, they all laughed at me and the others were surprised. It’s too casual for them to see any scaly animal around, they said it’s harmless and they all live along the falls and the forest nearby. Ok, its nature preservation, but I’m wondering if something like anaconda or that character in lake placid would appear, is that going to be extreme fun too? Ok I won’t resent on that anymore. I have to admit that my impromptu reaction seeing that reptile was priceless as my colleagues were laughing helplessly and lasted kilometers more until we reached Bangkok that same day.
The history, the falls, and the reptile are the memories planted in my head every time I hear the word Kanchanaburi. The second time we went there I just insisted to visit a smaller waterfall. We also strolled into some caves seeing cute doraemon-looking bats while grossing more scars on my legs as I got bruised several times climbing and falling on those rocks inside. Simply wonderful!
Kanchanaburi images:
Erawan: http://z.hubpages.com/u/444595_f520.jpg
River Kwai: http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/1c/01/68/bridge-on-the-river-kwai.jpg
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