Kanchanaburi- Elephants and Tigers and Waterfalls, Oh my Part 2

We woke up kind of late on Saturday. We hadn't slept much Thursday night so I think everyone was just exhausted. We woke up around 9:30, got ready and went over to that restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat before we went exploring some more. Everyone got breakfast-type items (I got a banana pancake that was more cake like than anything else). It was still delicious. Tim called up our taxi-driver friend and he came almost immediately to pick us up.

We negotiated a bit more and headed out. Our plans for the day consisted of Tiger Temple and the Erawan Waterfalls. It took some time to get to these places so we decided to play some games while we were waiting. So inbetween taking pictures of the beautiful landscape we played letter games where each person had to go around and say a letter while trying to spell a specific word and if you said a letter that people didn't think spelled a word than they could call your bluff. It was hilarious and we definitely brought out the itouch to look up some words that people were making up. So funny. We got to Tiger temple in about 45 minutes and a couple people had to change into more appropriate clothing. You aren't allowed to wear Red, orange or pink colored clothing. Girls have to have clothes covering everything from below their knees to over their shoulders. Its pretty strict, too. We entered the grounds and made some jokes about the goat that we saw and a little girl's slipper that we found, saying that the Tiger must have gotten her. It was pretty funny.

We didn't know where we were going at all but we found a sign that pointed us to Tiger Canyon so we went over there to check some things out. We got to see the tigers in their post-feeding form and it was really exciting. Everyone formed a line and then when your turn came up, they would take your camera from you and then would guide you to each of the tigers. They would place you behind the tiger and tell you to pet it or put your hand on it and then they would take pictures. It was soo cool. I have never been that close to such a big animal (minus cows and camels in India and minus the elephants from the day before). At one point, I was told to sit behind one of the tigers and NOT touch the tiger at all. Of course, I didn't but I really, really wanted to-just to see what would happen. It was a huge tiger. One other tiger had its paw up in the air and I put my hand on the paw that was on the ground and I kinda pet it and then a couple seconds later the paw that was up in the air definitely almost kicked me. It was pretty funny because I jumped a bit (Read: a lot).

After we left Tiger Canyon, we wondered around the grounds and found some tigers that were awake that we took some pictures with. At one point, Evan was sitting next to one of the tigers and I guess it didn't really like him because it was laying down and then it got up and was trying to turn its head towards him when the volunteers stepped in and got Evan out of there. They definitely kind of pushed him out of there which was really funny.

A Note: A lot of the workers there are Volunteers that applied to be there for a month or more. We got to talking to some of the volunteers and they said that they came here on a visit some time before and then decided that they wanted to apply. After a fairly rigourous process, they brought a set of volunteers from all over the world in to work there for a decent amount of time. The volunteers said it was one of the most rewarding things they have done so far. Definitely cool and if I wasn't afraid of cats I would thing about doing it. I'll stick to volunteering with people, thank you very much. They won't bite my leg off... ;)

So after we took turns taking pictures we decided to hurry up and get to the waterfalls because it would take a good amount of time to get there and they close kind of early. It took around an hour to get there but we played a memory game to keep us occupied. This time it was "If I was going to the Moon, I would bring..." and each person would take a letter of the alphabet, repeat what the last people said and then add a new word...so at the end you have "If I went to the Moon, I would Bring.. an Apple, a Babboon, a Car," etc etc all the way until Z. We had to stop around V to go play in the waterfalls but then as soon as we got back in the taxi we started up again and finished out the game. It was so funny.

We got to Erawan Waterfalls and found out that the upper levels closed at 4 but the lower levels closed at 5 so we pretty much stayed at the lower levels because we didnt have any other options but it was definitley worth the entrance fee. We jumped off rocks into the fresh water pond area and we swam across the pool underneath the waterfall and hung out behind it, took pictures, and then jumped off rocks, again, back into the pool of water. While you were stationary in the water, little fish would come and bite the bottoms of your feet. It was such a strange feeling and none of us really liked it all that much because it was tickling us but it was definitely really cool. We took some sweet pictures and then headed out, at around 5, to change and get back inour taxi so that we could catch the bus back to Bangkok.

Playing in a waterfall was definitely one of the most exciting things that I have ever done...ever. I am so grateful that we decided to do that.

We got back to the hostel, picked up our bags and then sped off to the bus station to make sure that we didn't miss the last bus. We made it in plenty of time and decided to wait one bus so that we could eat dinner. We ate really quickly at a place called the Charming Kitchen (pretty delicious) and then headed onto the bus (which I almost missed because I wanted to get street ice cream) and then we were on our way to Bangkok!