Erawan National Park, Kanchanaburi

Sprained my ankle playing basketball on Saturday, it was bad and I don't intend to post a picture of it! I have to act OK in front of my mom which was the toughest thing to do with the striking pain, luckily she never asked me to jump to prove I wasn't acting in front of her.

Great... Now I have my shoulder and ankle to worry and no basketball for at least two weeks, that's also why I was staying home over the weekend.

My aunts and cousins came to visit this morning, it was sweet seeing their kids, now are between 3 - 8 years old, very lively but shy to communicate with their uncle except this sweet 3 year-old little kid, I thought he like me. He sure had a lot of fun playing with Vivi, my 6 year-old schnauzer.

My first week in action in my dad's company, it's mixed feeling. I'm new to this company but I feel comfort. I thought I'd feel bored about this business but I'm fully motivated to keep things going. To say it's in my blood I'm not exaggerating, maybe after all, it's my father's legacy.

Kanchanaburi

Visiting Kanchanaburi wasn't as mundane as I was expecting, surprisingly, it was rather exciting to find so much history from the World War II by the Japanese. I have a more introduction of Kanchanaburi that have some detail information on how to get there and which guest houses I stayed in earlier post so I won't need to write again.

I left Bangkok from Thonburi train station to Kanchanaburi, I remembered having the delicious noodle soup before paying 100 Baht to take the cab to the station in the morning.

The experience traveling to Kanchanaburi on train was unforgettable one, the ticket was available for only 100 Baht, reaching the destination in less than four hours.

I took the tour package for 1,000 Baht from the tour agency on the street, pretty decent price I paid for any day trip that include transportation to ride the elephant, bamboo rafting, Erawan waterfall, visiting the Death railway and finally dropping off at my guest house after short visit to the Bridge of River Kwai, and lunch of course.

The elephant riding was bumpy and uneasy, but once I synced with its rhythm it was going fine, such a great experience particularly when the elephant went into the river.

The elephant was as calm as the water

Going to get soak!

A shot with the 70 year-old elephant

Bamboo rafting was at the other part about 10 minutes drive from the elephant spot.

The water was cold, the sight of the calmly surrounding was just relaxing, I took a swim alongside the bamboo raft, but you better be sure to stick around though the current wasn't strong, safety first.

The manned bamboo rafting

The rare sighting of me, thanks to my rafting companion

Erawan Waterfall, National Park

Erawan National Park was designated in 1975, it covered 550 km of high mountains and attractive valleys.

Erawan National Park

Erwan Waterfall

The 7 tiered Erawan Waterfall

The 7 level of this stunning waterfall was surrounded by beautiful trees, monkeys and orchids. There was a small trails up to the 6th and from there you have to scramble your way up the cliff to reach the 7th level which I managed to go as high as 6th tier due to time factor.

It required some stamina to do the hiking, it could be the possible key factor too that I wasn't reaching the top, haha.

The trail to the top tier

The wooden bridge

The sight of the tumbling water and free fish spa experience was simply awesome, though tinglish but it was quite fun to sit by the slippery rock and put your feet into the water so the fishes could perform the magical foot massage for you.

Free fish spa

There were a few interesting people I met that took on the same package and trip with me, particularly this English at his early 60s, who was retired and earned his living creating friendly neighbourhood website for folks around his town and traveling Asia first time.

And a lovely couple from London working for Apple who were planning to visit KL in August that I'd be the host if not of my father's condition.

There was plenty of combination to take on for the tour package, if you like to spend more time at the waterfall you can do so. The group usually ended up meeting each other at lunch discussing about how great the experience was and planning on traveling together on next destination.

Trust me, it must be good after long hour of exhausting hiking

Next, I'll be working on the Death railway and the Bridge of River Kwai post.