New Year's!

I had a unique New Year's celebration, but I'll quickly describe how I got there. I took a long bus ride from Mae Sot to BKK at night on the 25th, then another few hours to Kanchanaburi. I met a friend there and we went to see the bridge over the river Kwai. We then took a bus to Erawan National park and set up camp.

Parks here have quite a lot of land, but it's not nearly as developed as at home. Each had just a few miles of trail despite the huge amounts of land. Erawan is somewhat well known. A creek comes down a valley with lots and lots of cascades, I think 7 of which are officially named. We finished u around noon and there was a regular bus from the park to take us back to Kanchanaburi.

From there we took the regular bus toward Sangkhlaburi and got off at Sai Yok Yai park. It was quite nice and relatively deserted. There were lots of small trails to little things like caves (where we saw bats) and bamboo forest where we saw some monkeys. There are some pretty waterfalls around 20 feet where two smaller creeks join the river from above.

Back at the highway we were quite lucky in catching a bus towards Sangkhla. We ran into trouble when we stopped in a small town and were put on a very slow bus full of kids going home from school. We still reached Khao Laem park, though a bit late. The food shop had closed, but some very welcoming people from BKK let us share their dinner. This was maybe Dec. 30, and there were part of a pilgrimage of people from BKK to Sangkhla, which made life easier for us in some ways. We did a hike there that was through fairly dense jungle which was fun. Then next day we walked 2 km down the road to the other camping area. It was beautiful, overlooking a lake surrounded by mountains. Not much to do there but sit and admire the view, but we were happy to do that.

Getting from there to Sangkhla was a bit difficult. We waited for maybe 4 hours for a bus that would stop, but we made it. This is a beautiful town. There is a Thai side and a Mon side. Mon are one of the oldest ethnic groups in Burma but have been on the decline. I think the language is derived from Pali and they brought Theraveda Buddhism to Burma. My traveling companion works for a Mon education group that has a house for students/teachers. I've been here for two days now and it's been good. The food is great -- I've found that it's not that I dislike Burmese food, but that the clinic's version are not so good. Maybe it's universally true about hosital food.

Anyway, New Year's was with a bunch of Mon people. There were party games and a gift exchange, the most popular gifts among all were large pink stuffed animals. We were up on a hill overlooking the city. The Thai were releasing lots of the krathongs, the floating lantern things and at midnight there were fireworks below. It was really pretty. Other than that, I've just been walking around Sangkhlaburi which has been nice. I'm glad my friend is able to give me such a good tour.

Today it's back to Kanchanaburi for two nights. Tomorrow I hope to get to the Hellfire Pass/Death Railway museum just north of town. On the third I have a 3:00pm flight to Cambodia. The trip from Kanchanaburi to the airport is probably less than 100 miles and I can start at 7am, but I'm still a bit nervous. Shouldn't have any problems getting to the airport on time.