Riding The Rails

We went to a spectacular waterfall today, we got there by car, then train, then car and finally golf buggy. What a day.

There were a few sore heads when I awoke this morning and I was horrified to hear that two of our party didn’t present for work. We are days away from 13th April which is Songkran Day, the old Thai new year. Traditionally families return home to honour their ancestors and the young and old are purified with water. Those massive water fights you occasionally see on TV are part of the day. A visit to a temple to feed the monks is also part of the day and depending where you are in the country there are a variety of other ways to recognise the event. The good thing about this is that the absences can be hidden under the Songkran festivities. 

Did I mention that we had to take a train. This was ordinarily just going to be just Oui and I, but I think the novelty of having a big farong around has turned everything we do into an adventure. The trip to the waterfall was now a massive undertaking with seven of us now in the group. I love it. 

We headed out to the Kanchaburi train station for the 10.55am train to Nam Tok, one of our party Yei wasn’t up for another trip on an untested method transport (i.e. the train) and drove to the other end to meet us there. This turned out to be a blessing. Another of our party skipped ahead to purchase the tickets. It turned out for a Thai national the return trip was 16 Baht (about $0.80) for the big farong the cost was 100 Baht (about $5.00). Oui was not satisfied with these arrangement and spoke to one of the many uniformed men patrolling the train and got us an upgrade. For the princely sum of 700 Baht ($35.00) we were put in first class, given cool drinks, a souvenir ticket and the big farong got a gift box of goodies including another water, a Pepsi, a lemon tart and some Oreo cookies. 

Why do I keep banging on about this train? Well it runs on part of the old Thai / Burma railroad. You cross the bridge over the River Kwai. This was built by the Japanese during their occupation and repaired by them in 1947 as part of the war reparations following the damage caused by allied bombing. I got to cross it by train, you go through a very small cutting, cross bridges, see a massive viaduct all while following the beautiful River Kwai itself for much of the trip. 

We arrived at Nam Tok and Yei met us and I took the wheel for the drive to Erawan Waterfall. After about 50 km’s in the car we arrived, paid the farong entrance tax fee and 730 Baht later we were in. It is about a one kilometre walk from the car park to the first of the seven tiers of the falls. Or for a further 150 Baht you could be driven there in a golf buggy. We went with option two. The falls were stunning, the fish were startling and it is obviously much loved by the locals, it was packed. The water was refreshing and offered much needed respite from the 40 degree day that we were enjoying here along with the raging humidity. 

We drove back to Bo Phloi feeling cool and content. Tomorrow is Songkran Day so I am looking forward to seeing what that brings.