Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Kanchanaburi province is in central Thailand, with a capital about 150 km west of Bangkok. Jackie and I got there on a very tumultuous (but also very cheap) minivan ride from the Bangkok bus station that took about 3 hours.

Stamp Hostel, Kanchanaburi

The first thing on our Kanchanaburi to-do list was to see elephants. We went to Elephant Haven Thailand, a reformed elephant trekking camp turned elephant sanctuary, and met six very happy elephants. We fed them homemade banana/rice balls and watermelon, joined them on a walk through the jungle, and watched them mud-bathe in the river.

Jackie and I with two of the elephants
Making sure the elephant wasn’t trying anything funky
Attempting to pet the elephant’s trunk
Group shot
Close-up
We are friends
Elephant!
Mud-bathing
Feeding/hand-shaking

Kanchanaburi is well known for the Death Railway built by POW soldiers in terrible conditions during WW2. The Bridge on the River Kwai is based on this railroad, which Jackie and I visited. We even rode it all the way back to Bangkok at the end of our trip.

Death Railroad

The next day we went to Erawan Waterfalls, a seven-tier waterfall that I had been looking forward to for months. We took a very crowded bus (Jackie stood and I sat on the floor) to the waterfall when the park opened, so we could see it before the crowds arrived. At the seventh tier, you could climb the waterfall itself (similar to the Sticky Waterfall in Chiang Mai), on the fourth tier we slid down a rock slide, and in all the pools were skin-eating fish (like the ones at the famous fish spas that eat the dead skin off your feet). At the waterfall, I dropped my bag in the water, broke my phone, and got stung by a bee (making my arm swell up) but it was still awesome.