Kanchanaburi Death Railway and Sai Yok Noi Waterfall 30th July
Sorry for the late updates, been busy with work.
At about 4.30 a.m. alarm ringing from the phone that woke both me and my boy of the night. He stopped the alarm and sees that i am also awake, and says morning. He went up to take shower and get ready to head out, sitting next to me until its close to 5am. We says our good bye in the room and i pass him the tips and got a nice kiss goodbye on the lips and a hug eventhough I havent had my shower yet. Today i needed to go to Hua Lamphong as well so instead of going back to bed, i went to the shower and got ready to head out. My friend also need to head to the airport early as well, so at about 5.50 am im at the lobby and saw that she is there waiting for a taxi. I went to the dest to check out, left my luggage at the lobby and ask for a taxi as well. I arrived at hua lamphong abit after 6am.
So after i paid my boy his tips, I realized that im short of cash, so i tried to use one of the atm in hua lamphong to draw some cash. In my wallet, I only have about 250thb. I put in my atm debit card, and after pressing my pin and chose to withdraw some amount of cash, i suddenly get a message that i needed to contact issuing bank, and the atm swallowed my card. To make things worse, I didnt bring my main wallet which has the MYR cash and my other atm. I always have two wallets with me, one for travelling and another to hold the rest of my money at hotel safe or at this time in my big backpack. Its too late to go back to hotel to take cash, so I went to the info counter at the train station explaning my situtation and lo and behold, the info was no help. They just said i need to contact the bank and its sunday so the bank is closed. So i need to just survive the day with 250thb, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, any drinks, and also money to use the bts to asoke to pickup my luggage and go to saladaeng for my next hotel. I did called my bank to ensure no one will use my swallowed card just in case. And luckily enough, todays train ticket was bought in advance, which cost 120 thb, which wouldve been half of my left over cash lol. I realized later that i didnt call ahead my bank to allow oversea withdrawal, hence why i was denied access and why the at swallowed my card.
So, instead of going to the dunkin donut or black canyon for a nice coffee and bread breakfast (i did bring 1 free bottled water from the hotel with me), i went straight to the train and search for my seats, which is numbered eventhough its all 3rd class non-airconditioned seat. There are about 8 cars total with some 2nd class cars but empty, but most of us occupy only the 4 cars in front. I can see that maybe 95% of the passengers are local thai, with maybe 4 farang, and maybe other asian tourist in between. The train depart at exactly 6.30 am with a slow pace as we exit bangkok urban area. I did ask the train info the english version of the itinerary of the trip, and i suggest all non-thai speakers do the same and the conductor and most local dont really speak english. This trip has many stops and you are required to return to the same train after some allocated time or you'll be left behind. The view from bangkok to the first stop is similar with the path i took to go to hua hin.
The first stop were at Nakhonpathom, and we arrived there close to 8 am. 40 mins were given to visit the temple with a giant stupa there. Locals would purchase their offerings to the monks from the many streets vendors along the way. I went with the crowd, and took some pictures and saw that they charge foreigners to enter the temple and decided to go back and probably browse through the street vendor for breakfast. Halfway through the journey back, i saw the small fried balls with sweet and spicy fillings for 20thb and that should get me going until lunch. So i went back to the train and in Nong Pladuk station, we stopped for a bit and not until later i realized that the stop was to detached the the other cars from our train before we make our way to the next stop, River Kwai Bridge where we arrived at about 10 am. Here we are allowed for 30min sight seeing, walking on the train track crossing the river bridge, taking pictures and back to the train. Those who are not using the train can stay on the track as our train pass the bridge at these little spaces along the track. The train then make our way to the next stop, which is further than kanchanaburi station, right after the river kwai cabin train stop. From here, the train travel very slowly as there are many tourists walked along the train track as we make our way crossing the historic wooden train track along river kwai on our left and big granite cliff on our right. The view is magnificent and surreal to say the least. There is a cave that one can go to right next to the track and it would be a nice trekking if u didnt come here using the train. We didnt stop at this cave sadly, and head straight to the last station, Nam Tok Sai Yok Noi, a station that can only be reached using this weekend tourist train, as regular daily train will stop at Nam Tok station, 2km away from this last station. I looked at my phone and its just passed noon, so i alight the train and slowly make my way to the waterfall, taking pictures of the train and my surrounding along the way. I see a tourist info center, and its always a habit of mine to ask for the map of the area.
We have about 2.5 hours here to enjoy the area, the waterfall and have lunch. There are a lot of restaurants around here, some of which even deliver food to your place near the river where plenty of mats around. I decided to just relax and see the waterfall first, went to take the small stairs to go to the upper level of the water fall and dip my feet in the puddle near the fall. i didnt bring extra clothes to take a dive here and didn't plan to lol. The place is a bit crowded but not enough to make you feel uncomfortable. After cooling off a bit, i wander back to the station and see there is a tracking trail where u can go to a cave (2km away) and water source (1.2km away). I went up the stairs and there is a ranger cabin upstairs and some locals resting. I walked toward the edge and can see the waterfall just below me, i take a seat and just spend some alone time there for a while, enjoying the view and the nice weather. I didnt have enough water with me to go for the 2km hike so i just wander around the area and saw a signboard that says sai yok noi cave, with no indication of the distance. I just try to follow the direction of the sign, and after a bit of walk, found a makeshift stone stairs that is covered a bit by overgrown grasses. I took the stairs up and walked another 5 mins to see a small cave hidden behind the small hill. Inside there are a few buddha statues which looks very clean with fresh flowers around the neck. I went inside and take some pictures and then walk back down. I was all alone there, and it was peaceful indeed, but it does gives me chills as well lol.
I make my way back to the station, buy a bottled water for the usual 10 thb, and then went back to the waterfall and take a seat there, and just stay there for a while to kill time by watching the people there. Some of the local thai guys are very cute indeed lol. It is close to 1.30pm already so i make my way down the road to find some food for lunch, and saw some street vendors selling roti. I looked at the menu and saw that young coconut roti looks appealing to me, and so i bought one for 35thb. It turns out the owner's sister in law is from malaysia and he can speak malay, and he also offer me free cocount drinks as well. We had a nice chat and i went back to the station to eat my lunch which is delicious and quench my thirst as well. It is now close to 2pm, i make my way into the train and rest at my seat until its time to head back to Bangkok. On the way back, we had one final stop at Kanchanaburi station to visit the cemetery of the fallen POWs and i see some of them serves in malaysia as well. I had ordered my dinner on the train earlier in the morning, and got my dinner about 2 hour before arriving in bangkok at around 8pm. My dinner, Fishball noodle (kuey tiau is what i believe the name in thai, where we have a different noodle dish with the same name in malaysia) and it only cost me 20thb.
I immediately make my way to the mrt afterward and went to pick up my luggage at asoke. I also spent a bit of time calling my other bank at the hotel lobby to allow withdrawal from oversea and then make my way to Saladaeng station where i went to the atm to withdraw cash with a huge sigh of relief that now i can start spending again normally lol. Its just another thing that we always take for granted because we always have enough of them. As i am always meticulous with my spending, I usually have enough money in savings all the time so i'll have a peace of mind when it comes to money, and having almost no cash and outside of big cities is not really what you want to do in a foreign countries. I had quite a day today, and i went straight to my hotel afterwards to check in, clean up and went to bed. Another day without boy in my bed.