Sangkhlaburi
On Sunday, December 2, after a couple of nights it
Kanchanaburi, it was time for me to make my way to Sangkhlaburi. Sangkhlaburi
is one of the western-most cities in Thailand, and is quite close to the border
with Myanmar. It is also known for its wilderness, and it’s a bit more off the
beaten track. It is also near a whole bunch of national parks, such as the Khao
Laem National Park.
I left Kanchanaburi pretty early – I decided to take a
minibus/van as it would be a lot faster than the bus (which was supposed to
take 5 hours but they always take longer than what it says in Lonely Planet). I
caught the minivan by the bus station and was on my way at 8:45am (you get into
the swing up early in Thailand. It’s also not as hot in the mornings...). The
ride went pretty smoothly, but I did notice our driver was drinking Red Bull.
This didn’t affect things much until we got to the last stretch of road to
Sangkhlaburi. It was like to roads around my family’s cottage in the
Laurentians but way worse – steep, and very windy. And our driver took them all
at top speed. Needless to say I was feeling a bit queasy by the time we
arrived. But it was a lovely drive through wilderness and national parks.
In Sangkhlaburi, we were dropped off in the market. The town
of Sangkhlaburi is quite small, there are a couple main roads, a few
residential roads, and that’s about it. I had no idea how to get to my guest
house, so after a bit of wandering, I hopped on another motorcycle taxi. It was
a much nicer ride this time. I arrived at P Guest House, had lunch, and checked
in. It was GORGEOUS. There was the main hotel building with the restaurant, but
most of the rooms were on the lawn that led to the Khao Laem Reservoir. There
was lots of grass, a few trees and some pretty stone chairs. My room was
nothing special – bed and a fan – but the rest of the guest house was
fantastic.
In the afternoon, I walked over to the Mon Bridge – the
longest wooden footbridge in Thailand. It leads from Sangkhlaburi to the “Mon
Village” across part of the reservoir. The Mon are an ethnic group that live
largely in Burma/Myanmar, near the border with Thailand. There has been conflicts
with the Mon in Burma and in the northeastern states, and as a result, many Mon
have fled to Thailand as refugees. Although some things are better in Thailand,
they have fewer rights than native Thais. One example is their movement in the
country is restricted, and they are only allowed in certain areas. While in the
area, I drove through many immigration checkpoints for this purpose. We stopped
at several during the trip from Kanchanaburi to Sangkhlaburi – I was worried at
first because I only had a photocopy of my passport (and I wasn’t really sure
what was going on). But the photocopy was fine, as it wasn’t me they were
worried about - it was any Mon people
going where they weren’t supposed to.
ANYWAY the Mon village was neat – nothing too crazy. I went
for a nice walk up to the temple and then went back to the guest house. For
dinner, I went back to the market. The one downside of P guest house is their
restaurant prices were quite steep. In the market, I bought some fruit and had
banana and egg rotee – kind of like a fried crepe. SO GOOD! While I was eating
my rotee, a little Thai boy came running over to play. He was so cute! He
really liked my sunglasses and I made faces. Hehe. I still wasn’t really sure
how to get back to the guest house, so I took another motorcycle taxi home. For
the rest of the evening, I drank my 7-11 beer and read the 2nd Game
of Thrones book. It was great.
On Monday, I decided to get up early and watch the sun rise.
It was very pretty! Later, I went on a tour/activity with P Guest House. There
were 3 other people on the tour: 2 French Canadian ladies and a Malaysian man.
I have met a fair number of Canadians here, by the way. Anyway, we first went
for a boat ride on the reservoir. The Khao Laem reservoir was created due to
the construction of the Vachiralongkorn Dam in 1983. As a result, the former
town of Sangkhlaburi was flooded. One of the sights on the boat ride was the
roof of the sunken temple, Wat Sam Prasop. We then rode the boat into the
National Park. The scenery was beautiful – so green and lush. We also rode by
some neat cliffs and rock formations. We saw several different types of birds.
We docked at a small Karen village (the Karen are one of
Thailand’s hill tribes). We then went on an elephant ride through the forest. I
was so happy to get back into nature, even on the back of an elephant. I was
riding with the Malaysian man, and chatted about travelling in Asia and Canada.
I also felt super proud of myself when the elephant mahout asked the Malaysian
man if he spoke Thai, and I understand what he said. BAM! After an hour or so,
we stopped for lunch (fried rice and pineapple) by the river.
After lunch, we were to go rafting on the river. First we
had to walk to the stop where the rafts were. This included crossing the river
several times – it wasn’t deep but the water was fast running and the rocks at
the bottom were quite slippery. It was definitely an adventure – I think I
enjoyed it a lot more than the other 3. I thought it was fun! I should also
mention that our guides were Karen and didn’t speak English OR Thai. So we
communicated through gestures and whistling-type noises. We eventually made it to the rafts (made of
bamboo) and set off down the river. We just stood there and our guides steered
us – I was amazed I didn’t fall off! We reached a quieter spot and went for a
swim. So nice... After we had enough, we were taken back to the village and
hopped in the boat back to the guest house. I then walked to the Mon Village
again, and saw the large pagoda at the other end of town.
The river we crossed and rafted down
The sunset was spectacular
On Tuesday, I decided to go to the 3 Pagodas pass, which is
a border crossing with Myanmar. We aren’t allowed to leave the country before
all our paper work is processed, but I thought it would be un to go – there’s
also a market there. To get there, I took a sawng-tao from the “bus station”
(read: patch of dirt with a place to sit) in Sangkhlaburi. The ride took about
40 minutes I think, and was beautiful. 3 Pagodas was neat, but there wasn’t
much to do there. I walked around, checked out the market, but went back after
only a couple hours. Back at the hotel, I went for a nice relaxing swim in the
reservoir... that is before I was interrupted by an Australian soccer team of
18 year old boys. So much for relaxation! In the evening, I went to a nearby
restaurant for dinner, and read more of my book.
On Wednesday, it was time to head back to Phra Pradaeng. I
was wuite sad to leave the beautiful scenery and the clean air... But all
vacations have to come to an end, right? Wednesday (December 5) is also a
holiday in Thailand. It is the King’s Birthday, which is also Father’s Day. It’s
probably one of the biggest, if not THE biggest holiday in Thailand. Many
cities have parades or fairs, and everyone wears yellow (the King’s
colour). But buses were running as
usual, and I didn’t get a chance to participate. Oh well.
Anyway, I got up
early, checked out and walked to the market to catch a minivan. I had decided
to split up the journey by taking one minibus to Kanchanaburi, and from there,
another to Bangkok. It was about the same price and faster. On the way to
Kanchanaburi, I was with a few Mon families. They were really nice – one offered
me some of their snacks: dried prunes coated with sugar. Not my favourite but I
wanted to be polite. I offered them some cookies, but they turned them down. The
ride back was uneventful, except for a couple moments. At one point, one of the
kids in the van threw up (due to the crazy roads) so we had to pull over while the
driver literally hosed down the van. But it got rid of the smell! Another time,
we stopped at an immigration checkpoint and they made some of the Mon people get
out, and also told me to get out. I started to panic a bit, thinking “Oh crap.
I hope my photocopy is ok. I’m sure they don’t speak English. What if they ask
me questions? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO???). But the immigration officer took one
look at my “passport” and sent me back to the van. Phew! All the other immigration
checkpoint went smoothly for me, as well as for everyone else in the van.
I arrived back in Bangkok around 4, and from there took
another bus home. I finally feel comfortable with the Bangkok public
transportation. I know which buses go to where I live, and were/how to catch
them. Hooray!
All in all, it was a really fun adventure. Just what I
needed. Travelling solo went pretty smoothly as well – it was nice to get away
from constantly being surrounded by the people of Bangkok. I would like to go
back at some point and do some real hiking!
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