Kanchanaburi Chapter 4 (The Erawan National Park)

10th April 2017: We leave Hellfire Pass around 2PM  that afternoon and headed up to Erawan National Park. The weather does not seem to get better, the heat wave along the way to Erawan was unbelievable.

I managed to fell asleep on the TukTuk because i was so tired, phew. It took around 1 hour from Hellfire Pass to Erawan. We did passed by the Sai Yok waterfall on our way there. TIPS: When i think about it now, i would prefer to go to Sai Yok instead of Erawan. Why? the distance and heat factor that day. If you come on April-May, i think Sai Yok waterfall is the perfect choice for a dip in cold water.

welcome to Erawan

We reached Erawan National Park around 3.15PM TIPS: The entrance fee is 300THB for foreigners and 100THB for Thai nationals. From the entrance to the main parking area is quite far. Thus, ask your TukTuk driver to park inside for 30THB. There is parking spots for TukTuk and Bus inside. TIPS: For public transport, you can take the bus number 8170 from Kanchanaburi bus station. The fee is 45 THB one way.

The road to the waterfall

Once we were at the parking area inside Erawan, we had a choice whether to walk to the waterfall or take a 'kop ka' as Nam said. I was like, what is 'kop ka'?. It is actually a Golf Car (gosh!). TIPS: In case you prefer not to walk to the tier 1 waterfall from the entrance, you can rent a golf car. They will drive you all the way up to the Tier 1 waterfall. It is practical as well if u plan to do a picnic as you don't have to carry everything while walking. The fee is 50THB one way.

on the 'kop ka' 

We took the golf car cos it looks quite fun :D. The driver, an auntie (hiks) drove quite fast drifting to the falls, hihihi. The distance is maybe around 500M-700M i think.

arrived at Tier 1

A  lil bit about Erawan, it is Thailand's 12th National Park located on West Thailand in the Tenasserim Hills of Kanchanaburi Province. The park mostly made of limestone hills with elevetion between 165-996m above the sea level. The most famous place to visit is the 7 tiered Erawan Falls, named after the three-headed white elephant of Hindu mythology.

The park is home to majestic animals like Indian muntjac, wild elephants, lar gibbon, Indochinese serow, wild boar and sambar deer. Birds watching activities attracted lots of visitors here as they have some of the unique species such as the crested serpent eagle, black-naped monarch and grey peacock-pheasant. However, wildlife watching possibilities around the waterfalls are very limited. The park is open for visitors from 7AM. to 4.30PM everyday all year round. TIPS; During the annual Songkran Festival in April, the waterfall tiers turns into a celebration place with water fights!. For those who love forest trails, you can also visit the Phartat Cave, which consist of stalactites and stalagmites. Apart from that, there are also few other caves in the park such as the Ta Duang Cave.

Tier 2

into the woods!

There were lots of people in Tier 1 waterfall, same goes to tier 2. So I decided to go to tier 3. TIPS: The distance from tier 1 to tier 3 is not that far, need to climb a bit, but not so much. In order to go into tier 3, you need to go through guards. They will inspect your bags to ensure you didn't bring any food. You can bring only bottle water up with you, but a small deposit applied and it will be returned to you once you showed them the bottles on the way down. This is to ensure the waterfall is tidy and kept clean, good effort tho. If you are planning to do a picnic, you can only do it at Tier 1 and 2 of the waterfall.

explanation on each Tier from 3 to 7

We stopped for a while at Tier 3 (video below taken by Aman) thinking we wanna take a dip here but decided to climb the stairs further up to Tier 4. The climb to tier 4 is quite steep, and quite tiring to be honest. Especially for Sha as she brought her big bag with her. (i already told her to bring a small bag, i guess she didn't listen, hihi). TIPS: Avoid bringing too many things as the climb can be quite challenging especially from tier 3 to tier 7.

Tier 3 waterfall

stairs leading to Tier 4, by Bella

We decided to enjoy ourselves at the 4th Tier waterfall. It was not that big, not that deep, just nice for us. (esp for most of us who dont know how to swim hiks!). Erawan Waterfall was not as i expected. The pictures i saw from other travelers blog showed the emerald color of its water, mesmerizing. But the reality is, it was quite 'average'. Altho, i must take into account that I was there in April, the hottest month in Kanchanaburi. Maybe the weather made the water flow less. TIPS: Try to come in other months, preferably July onwards where the weather is cooler, especially in November.

tier 4, taken by Bella as she was the only one with phone, ahha!

Dip!

I took a while to go into the water, why? 1- cos the water is cold, 2 - cos there are big fish biting my legs!. YES, u read it right, live-big fish biting my legs, not just mine but everyone. Whenever they saw we put our legs they came swimming fast like torpedo. There were a group of russian women in the 'pool' as well at that time. They were screamin' cos the fish bite em, hihihi. Scary ay? But i know how to distract them. TIPS: There are dried flowers around the waterfall, when u wanna go in, u throw the flowers first far from you, the fish will rush there and ignore you. Take this time to go in and swim to the area where the water flow fast.

look at the size of the fish yall

I got into the icy cold waters and goddd it was very refreshing. The extreme heat in the TukTuk washed away by the mythical water provided by nature, :D. All of us dipped into the natural 'Jacuzzi' to avoid being bitten by the fish, hahaha!.

our own Jacuzzi

Yakuzzziiiiyyy!

I did not climb up to Tier 7 of Erawan waterfall, sadly. Main reason is I don't have the luxury of time. The tier 7 waterfall is one of the highlight in Erawan national park. It is said to resemble the mythical three-headed elephant, Erawan, which the name of the park is derived from.

Tier 3 on the way back

We head back to the tier 1 where there is changing and shower room, but the queue was friggin long. I decided to just change at a bench, hiks. Moreover, i saw a stall selling fruits and i cant wait to buy it at that time, hahaha. I was sooo hungry. Me and Ija bought and enjoyed our pineapples and mango while waiting for Bella and Sha queued in changing room, yummeh!.

one wefie while waiting!

To reached back to our TukTuk, we took the golf car again. Nam then speed up the TukTuk back to Kanchanaburi town. Our original plan was to take the bus, but my oh my we were tired. So, we asked Nam we wanna take a van back to Bangkok. I saw van service at the bus stop. Nam said he have a friend doing that service and will take us there for a more cheaper price. Since he is an honest person. i decided to roll with his plan.

The heat adventure begin again, almost 2 hours drive back to the town. Our wet clothes dried almost instantly in the TukTuk, imagine that. Once reached the van service office, Nam deal with the driver and we got ourselves a van to bangkok for 1100THB for 8 people. It was a sharing van, so we had another 2 guests with us, Thais.

We bid farewell to Nam after we paid him the TukTuk fare for the day which was 2400THB. The van then made its way to Bangkok. I fell asleep for a while, with aircond on, pheww. Nam told us that the driver will drop us at Mo Chit and we can take BTS back to our hotel. But I told him to tell the driver to drop us at Chong Nonsi as it is closer to our hotel.

The driver, know NO English at all, like none, not even yes or no. I was like, dafuq!. Jenny tried to communicate with him, but he keep on talking in Thai by himself until Jenny talked in Malay with him, hihi. Everything failed, we even google translate what we were trying to said. Jenny showed him the address of our hotel, he spoke in Thai again and none of us understand it. I asked the other passenger in the van, she also cannot communicate in English and have no idea what we were trying to say.

So, we gave up and let him drove until Mo Chit, it was almost dark u know bcos of the heavy traffic on Monday, people were rushing home from work. After he dropped both of the passenger at Mo Chit bus station, he talked with one of the motorcyclist there. He actually asked how to go to Surawong from there!. Wow i am touched. The motorcyclist even lead the way for the van to follow. That was one of that moment i really felt 'i am in a land of smile and hospitality, Thailand'. gittteww!

The motorcycle even ran out of gas bcos the traffic was sooo bad. He switched to another motorcyle belong to his friend to continue helping us. Can u believe that? good people. But the traffic was so so bad that even we did not speak the same language we understand when the driver said 'train'. Means train will be faster. So he made a U-turn and dropped us at the BTS station. We gave tips to the motorcyclist and the driver cos they deserve it.

queuing for Skytrain

I bought BTS ticket to Chong Nonsi from Mo Chit and we took the train back. The train was a bit pack yes. Furthermore, we had to switched to Silom line at Siam station. With our tired face and the clothes from waterfall, hahahahaha. When i think about it, it made me laughed so hard, even while writing this!. Some Thais were staring at us like 'where did these people come from?'

on the train to Chong Nonsi, taken by Bella

We reached Chong Nonsi and took a taxi back to Kokotel. When we were in the Taxi, the driver asked us where did we go. Sha said Kanchanaburi and the driver said 'ahh the waterfall?'. Hiks, by the look of how we dressed, he guessed it right! :D . But yes, it was an adventure, a memory tha can be shared and laugh about.

I checked in back into Kokotel for all of us, the receptionist were very happy to see us back, hiks. Home sweet home, Kokotel, :) . There will be one last entry on Bangkok Khaosan road & Nana street, wait for it!. <3