Saturday, February 6, 2010

I heart Kanchanaburi

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Kwai River Bridge

So I stumbled upon this small town west of Bangkok that has a population of  61,000.  I was excited about attending the Vipassana meditation but when I got here I was disappointed to find that the course was full.  But then I met all these awesome locals, my new travelling partner and more wicked people.  I had planned on staying only 3 days but ended up staying for over a week and it has been the highlight of my solo journey so far.

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Road Trip to The Erawan Waterfalls

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Carrie and Andy from somewhere close to London

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Me posing on Day’s Bike

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Erwan Waterfalls – 7 Levels

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 Dinner at Smile Guest House

Day ended up cooking us a nice meal at his guest house.

I ended up staying here for a few days and it was just

a wicked experience.  Most of these people knew each other from volunteering at a school in Mae Sot up North.  I met Jon (London) on the far right on the bus in from Bangkok, and he introduced me to Day who volunteered with him in Mae Sot.  

 

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Drinks at Sugar Bar with Day and the Canadians

Meet Katie, my new travel buddy from Nanaimo, B.C.!

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Volunteering at the Elephant Sanctuary

 

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Rocky Ride Down

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It was the guys’ jobs to hack down banana leaves…

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And our job to carry them back to the truck

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It takes one full truck load to feed the pack of elephants.

These elephants are rescue elephants.  They basically were beggar elephants who worked the streets and worked by being forced to give tourists rides.  They were confiscated by the police and placed here – Elephant World – which is a volunteer run organization.

 

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Everyone`s favourite

One of the elephants is pregnant and she`s

due in February.  You can actually feel the baby elephant move around when you touch the stomach.  I`m really hoping to go back  to see it when it`s born in a month or two…

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The girls before our dip with the elephants

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One of the best parts – the cool down!

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