Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Erawan - Back to Nature
Outdoor recreation has been a part of life that Katrina and I have missed more than anything (well...except for some good home-cooking). As a result, we took a break from our travels to visit the Erawan waterfalls - a series of 7 cascading waterfalls along a 2 km trail in Thailand's most popular national park.
Each level of the falls featured a crystal blue pond of water, ripe for swimming - except for the fact that the fish in the water bite (actually nibble). I was a little shy to jump in. Katrina, calling me a big baby, marched unyieldingly into the water, only to scream like a school girl (agitating the monkeys above us in the trees) and retreat to the side once the "little fishies" started to bite her feet. Luckily, the top falls (also the biggest - ostensibly named after the mythical 3-headed elephant named "Erawan") was surrounded by fishless pools, so we took a dip.
The hike was absolutely beautiful (see pictures in the "Kanchanaburi 2" album) and was a nice break from the tourist-heavy sites we have been visiting. On our way back to the city, we hopped off the bus and offered some money to a local man (smoking and playing checkers) to drive us to a more remote set of ruins 20 km down the road.
The ruins - Prasat Meuang Singh - are similar to the ruins here at Phimai. The temple is quite large, but the land surrounding it was much grander. We were literally the only people in the entire complex. The most fascinating part of the temple was a burial site that had recently been excavated - in fact, the skeletons were still in place! It was eery, but very interesting as well.
As we left the temple, a nice young man offered to give us a ride to the nearest train station (3 km) so we piled onto his scooter. And just in time to catch the train which safely returned us to Kanchanaburi - over the Bridge On the River Kwai. Some of my favorite pictures are of Katrina sticking her head out of the train like a puppy to cool down (although I don't know if she thought I was watching because she closed her eyes and made blow-fish faces. Since she uploaded the pictures, I'm sure she edited out my secret photos of this - many apologies!)
Each level of the falls featured a crystal blue pond of water, ripe for swimming - except for the fact that the fish in the water bite (actually nibble). I was a little shy to jump in. Katrina, calling me a big baby, marched unyieldingly into the water, only to scream like a school girl (agitating the monkeys above us in the trees) and retreat to the side once the "little fishies" started to bite her feet. Luckily, the top falls (also the biggest - ostensibly named after the mythical 3-headed elephant named "Erawan") was surrounded by fishless pools, so we took a dip.
The hike was absolutely beautiful (see pictures in the "Kanchanaburi 2" album) and was a nice break from the tourist-heavy sites we have been visiting. On our way back to the city, we hopped off the bus and offered some money to a local man (smoking and playing checkers) to drive us to a more remote set of ruins 20 km down the road.
The ruins - Prasat Meuang Singh - are similar to the ruins here at Phimai. The temple is quite large, but the land surrounding it was much grander. We were literally the only people in the entire complex. The most fascinating part of the temple was a burial site that had recently been excavated - in fact, the skeletons were still in place! It was eery, but very interesting as well.
As we left the temple, a nice young man offered to give us a ride to the nearest train station (3 km) so we piled onto his scooter. And just in time to catch the train which safely returned us to Kanchanaburi - over the Bridge On the River Kwai. Some of my favorite pictures are of Katrina sticking her head out of the train like a puppy to cool down (although I don't know if she thought I was watching because she closed her eyes and made blow-fish faces. Since she uploaded the pictures, I'm sure she edited out my secret photos of this - many apologies!)
# posted by Doug Spencer : 6:32 AM
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