So along with the rest of the rat race we went first to a place that makes some sort of coconut sugar, I didn't follow that well what the guide was saying as I was overwhelmed by the amount of tourists. From there we went to the must the Floating Markets. While the concept is still as it is, people floating round in canoes selling goods to other people in canoes. However the traditional fruit, veg and other materials that were sold is now largely replaced with tourist souvenirs making it one large floating tourist shop, and the hoards of tourists are there to consume. I decided not to floating through the market preferring to observe from the sidelines.
This brings me to an interesting fact about Thailand. The central area of Thailand is very flat and consists of the river deltas of two rivers. If you travel north from Bangkok to Chang Mai, much of the time is traversing and pancake flat country side that is almost entirely used to grow rice with canals everywhere. This meant that Thailand and earlier Siam relied substantially on boats and canoes for the transport of good and has been a river trading nation for a long time. The Portuguese, Dutch and English, Japan, China all set up trading relationship with the then Siam in the 16th century and earlier.
The third part was going to Kanchanburi and viewing the Bridge over the River Kwai.
For those ignorant like I was, this was a key battlefield in Japans attempt to build a railway from Thailand to the Burmese coast in order to allow shipment to avoid having to traverse the Malacca straight, held by the English. Many local Thai, Australian, British, Dutch and other soldier capture were put to work on the 'death railway' and many perished. The bridge remains a symbol of that event in history. The museum we were taken to was not af high quality but good enough to give an idea of the course of events. The bridge itself is not unique in any real respect except for the fact that when you walk across it, it is quite easy to slip and fall of the bridge. Occupational Health and Safety would have a field day in South East Asia!From there we drove another hour to the Tiger Temple. This is a Buddhist Monastery that by accident became and haven for injured animals. After while tiger started being sent to them and now they have a whole host of Tiger used to human contact that you can stroke. They also allow breeding (I am not sure you could call it a breeding programme!)so there are also some baby tiger which you can pat.
Now the treatment of the Tiger is a bit suspect, as the hoards of tourists are paraded through but not bad. Partly this situation is worsened due to the monastery not having had the money and time to build proper infrastructure. Something they are currently working very hard on implementing. What concerned me most about the treatment was a little tiger that was left almost to fend for itself as tourists flocked around to see, pat, play and follow her around. The look on its face said to me that it just wanted to be left alone. I would have liked to have seen the situation controlled a bit more.But the Tiger are very cute and I have lots of photos of more controlled tiger encounters.
Contrary to the travellers rumour mill, the tigers are not sedated (according to one person working there sedating them would make the more aggressive). No generally tiger don't do much anyway and these ones are used to human contact from a very young age. So while there is protocol about how to moved around them and they are chained, you are able to walk up and pat a full size tiger, even on the stomach. (Note: Nary has a much higher strokability factor than tigers, that feel more like dogs) While interesting I was not blown away by the experience, but glad I went.That was the final stop of the first day and we were again driven for an hour
, after the requisite bus reshuffle (it only happened three times on this tour!) to a floating restaurant (they are a dime a dozen in Malaysia and Thailand. In fact they are practical as to deal with the vast change in size of the rivers between the dry and the wet.) There we had a sunset meal before getting in the longboat and taken to our floating guesthouse ( al little more unusual). By this stage you feel like you are away from the tourists, but only because there are many of the guesthouses along the river, just never next to each other. Not much happened however waking up in the morning along the river was beautiful!The next day we went to the highlight of the Trip which was the Erewan Fall. A seven
tier water fall that spans 2 kilometers, you can walk all the way to the top and then swim at each of the tiers on your way down. The water is a perfect turquoise colour, and the jungle setting just finishes it off. Unfortunately I didn't have time swim in all of them. But I managed to fit in a swim and massage in the top pool, Before jumping of a rock into the second top pool and then sliding down a rock like a slippery dip into the fourth pool. Which is deep enough and large enough to have a nice old swim.
The only issue with the place is again the fact that it is on the tourist trail and that there are many other people walking around at the same time, The thing that makes it bearable is that the 2km length of the falls makes the people spread out a bit so you don't feel that hemmed in by the other people. Definitely a place to go to if you like waterfalls.
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