A bit more Rangsit (Bangkok) and Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Dec 17: relaxin' in Rangsit
We planned on going to Kanchanaburi today, but slept in really late (the past few days of biking have really been exhausting, and well, we had several beers the night before). We decided to hang out in Rangsit with Nathan for the day. We grabbed some food and decided we would try to see Harry Potter (again). We headed to the theater in Rangsit but discovered it was only playing in Thai (once again, you can't trust what the internet says). We hung out at the mall for a bit, and found something we were not expecting to find--a peyote cactus (wtf is that doing in Thailand?). Then we headed off to the theater in Bangkok for an English version of Harry Potter. After an hour or so of travel (ugh, rush hour) we ended up at the theater to discover that the 6:00 showing was about $20, while the 7:30 showing was only $7. We bought tickets for the 7:30 showing and wandered around the mall for the next few hours. Then, popcorn, and HARRY POTTER, finally! Then, back to Rangsit for a few beers and some late night curry, and bed.

Dec 18: Chatuchak Market (Bangkok) and off to Kanchanaburi
We woke up late (again), grabbed some food, and headed to the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok, a huge market. We shopped for a bit, had some food and hopped on a mini bus to Kanchanaburi. After a 3 hour ride, we were there! We grabbed some food at the night market: a delicious egg + mussels/clams? fried and served with bean sprouts, cilantro and some delicious red sauce (we also ate some fried chicken, surprise). After quite a bit of searching, we found ourselves a nice hostel with a river view, and headed to bed. All-in-all, it was a rather uneventful day...

Dec 19: Erawan waterfall and the Death Railway
Today we went to check out the Erawan waterfall. Supposedly, they are supposed to have 7 tiers that you can find as you hike through the jungle. Turns out there are a lot more than 7. We hiked all the way to the very top waterfall, and tried to swim, but there were lots of little fishies that nibbled you if you stopped moving. There were lots of pointy rocks, so it was hard to keep moving, and we decided to go back down to a lower level for some swimming. We stopped at what we thought was the 5th level and hopped in, which was quite refreshing, and we only got the occasional nibble from a fishie. Afterward, we had some lunch and headed to the Death Railway museum. The Thailand-Burma Death Railway is a 415 km stretch of railway built by Japan during WWII. POWs and Asian laborers were forced to built it --about 15,000 POWs and 100,000 Asian laborers died over the 20 months it took to build it. We checked out the museum, and then walked to Hellfire Pass, so named because the emaciated workers were forced to work through the night by torchlight, and it was said to resemble hell. Afterward, we took a ride on part of the railway that is still in use. Then we headed to the Bridge over the River Kwai and back to our hostel. We headed out for dinner and drinks with some people from our hostel (we stopped at 'Get drunk for 10B' bar and at a reggae bar, had a midnight snack of Pad Thai, and headed to bed.

Dec 20: biking around Kanchanaburi
We got up late, rented some bikes, and headed out (during the hottest part of the day...smart...). We got a bit lost and ended up on some random back road in the countryside. Without too much trouble we found our way and ended up at the War memorial. Then we headed to the Kanchanaburi Monkey School, where they train monkeys to pick coconuts (apparently monkeys can pick 800-1000 coconuts per day instead of ~200). We saw a coconut-picking demonstration, and a couple of other neat tricks that they've trained some of their monkeys to do (shoot hoops, swim, ride a tricylce, etc) and then we got to hang out with some of the monkeys! They were 1 and 2 years old, rather rambunctious, and quite smart. They went straight for our pockets (luckily, we had already removed everything), but one did manage to steal my hair tie (which I was not expecting). Afterward we headed to a temple-cave, which was probably one of the cooler ones we have been to so far: we actually had to walk around through a maze of caves, instead of just walking in and out! Afterward we were pretty tired and decided to head back and find some coffee and dinner. After quite a bit of searching we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had some delicious pork with peppers and pork with chili paste. Then, intense internet session, and bed!

wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Kanchanaburi? click here