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So we decided to leave our little moped at home today as the waterfalls are 65/70kms away, we have a serious case of numb bum from that thing right now! We walked out to the main strip hoping to find a taxi easily, we ended up walking half way up the strip to find a taxi man just parking up. He had a brand new shiny Isuzu taxi/pickup truck, he was buzzing about it! We managed to barter him down on price and 1000 baht later we were on our way to Erawan falls.
We had to pay 200 baht each to enter the National Park and 20 baht for our little taxi, the locals only have to pay 40 baht! I think England could learn a thing or two from the thais about looking after its own.
So there are 7 tiers of waterfalls at Erawan, the 7th tier is 1560 meters away, so just over a 3 miles round trip from top to bottom. How hard could it be?
Ive gotta say the first few waterfalls, were easily accesible and beautiful. Although there were swarms of Russian and Austrian people, they all seem to love to sit on the edge of the pools, making them nearly unacessible for anyone else. All the pools had little fish in there which love to nibble on your crusty feet, maybe they all have extremely manky feet or are too tight to pay for a pedicure! There so rude also, just push past, no manners and can literally hear them coming from a mile off.
Erawan is a beautiful place just ruined by tourism!
We managed to take a little dip in the first waterfall, the water was so refreshing. Its just a strange feeling having all these little fish try and latch onto your feet. Then again your peace is ruined by a severly overweight family of russians all thinking its great climb everything and say 'эй мама Посмотри на меня сфотографировать' Hey mum look at me take a picture!
After the first 4 waterfalls, the path disappears and it soon because a muddy trail of rock, locks and semi waterfall paths. This is when it gets interesting, luckily we had our walking shoes on so managed to tackle everything ok. But the familys of Russians just barge past, have no manners whatsoever and just get in the way of everyone.
I have never been so happy to see a waterfall ever than the last one of the trail! The last two tiers were a right battle, we had to mount logs, literally climb through tree/rock paths and through little streams to get there. We managed to have a little splash around and take a few pictures, then we had to set off back down the trail. Tbh we were dreading this, we had to fight an army of Russians to get up here so were expecting the same on the way down.
To be fair we smashed it in 45 minutes, stopping for a few refreshments along the way and to avoid a few annoying groups of swede heads! When we got back our little taxi man was there waiting for us so we took him a nice cornetto to say thanks :-)
All in all I think we walked around 4 miles from start to finish, an only a mile of that was really good pathways, the rest was full on mountain trekking in a jungle! Ha ha
The waterfalls are truly amazing to see, the water is crystal clear and the surrounding scenery is stunning! Its a shame it is so busy with rude tourists. We have heard about the Huay Mae Khamin waterfalls which are 40kms away from Erawan which are alot less touristy so I think we will have to visit these soon.
It was our last night at Apple's yesterday, we have just rocked up at Kasem Island Resort, its a remote little island on the River Kwai, we are here for two nights before we head up the river to our stay in the hotel we missed out on when James was ill. We had to get a little boat to the island this morning and the place is so peaceful and chilled. Time to sit back, catch some rays and recharge our batterys for the next step in our adventure!
We might go and visit the Jeath war musuem tomorrow and the Monkey tree before we head out of town so look out for our next blog update :-)
J&K over and out!
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