Kanchanaburi for the King's Birthday

What a busy couple of weeks! There have been two long weekends in a row. Yes, that's right, on December 6 we got Monday off for the King's Birthday and then on December 10 we got Friday off for Constitution day (more on that in the next post). As a result we have been travelling up a storm! For the King's Birthday we decided to check out Kanchanaburi, the province home to the famous River Kwai Bridge.

We were told by friends that Kanchanaburi is a quiet little town, perfect for a relaxing weekend, but this was not the case on the weekend of the "War is Over River Kwai Bridge Festival" and the King's Birthday! Our first night's stay in a guesthouse called Sugar Cane Two was sadly an epic failure (if you feel that the main purpose of a hotel room is to sleep) due to the SUPER LOUD music blasting from the River Kwai Bridge festival. However, there is no time for napping when you have exploring to do! We rented motorcycles again and headed out to Erawan Falls, a famous 7-level waterfall with a beautiful trail following the river up into the jungle to the top of the canyon (and head of the falls). Since it was the King's Birthday weekend, admission to the park was free and a LOT of tourists (Thai and farang) were taking advantage of the opportunity for a little relaxing by the river. Luckily, tourists like relaxation -not an hour and a half hike uphill into the jungle, so the top of the waterfall had many fewer people than the bottom. We found a secluded spot that looked nice and after a little jungle bushwhacking we were swimming in the beautiful blue waters of a river in the middle of the jungle. However, this is no ordinary river! This river is full of tiny little fish that just LOVE to nibble the dead skin off your feet and legs. It sounds weird, and at first it really was! It is a feeling somewhere between a tiny pinch and a scrape... but eventually we got used to it and sat in the river for some relaxing fish pedicures! Unfortunately we have not yet been able to aquire a waterproof camera so for pictures of these little fish actually at work you may have to try google, but here are some pictures of the river and other sights in Kanchanaburi!

Fireworks over the bridge! Wow do they have a big explosion sound to go with them! 

On the left hand side of this picture you can see some big versions of the little fish that were nibbling on our feet! This is closer to the bottom of the falls.

Our swimming spot! All it takes is one bunch of people and others will come. Luckily we had the place to ourselves for about an hour and a half of uninterupted swimming first!

The bridge over the River Kwai. Accompanied by one of the worst museums we have EVER seen... Luckily it had one redeeming staff member (see next picture)

A giant iguana that hangs around the River Kwai bridge museum! Even though the museum was terrible we did get to see this guy, the sleepiest lizard I have ever seen! There was also luckily another museum further into town which had some really interesting information on Thailand's involvement in WWII and the bridge over the River Kwai.