Kanchanaburi... But Not For Long... and then Back to Bangers Again.

We arrived in Kanchanaburi on Wednesday afternoon, and after seeing how damn hot it was, ignored our recommended hotel and went straight to the only guest house in town that has a pool: Little Creek. What a stroke of genius that was!
This place is awesome. The little bungalows even had an African theme and, while none of us had been to Africa and so wouldn't know, we all decided that it was spot on. Kay, the owner of the resort, was a champion (and regaled us with funny stories and plied us with alcohol) and he actually designed all the bungalows and surrounds. Did I mention that he made his name in the restaurant business? The food was fabulous - it even had a proper wood oven pizza and real cheese. We were in heaven!

On Thursday we decided to hire a couple of bikes and drive to some of the destinations around Kanchanaburi, but we thought it would all come to nothing when we could only find one chopper look-a-like bike (and not two). Fortunately, it was only 1,000 baht to hire a car for the day - a much better idea.

Our first stop was the Erawan falls. We spent a couple of hours swimming in most of the seven different levels of Erawan falls - all of which are full of these fish that nibble on your feet/hands/back/arms... whatever you leave floating still for too long. It's quite disconcerting. On level 5, Bol and Tim joined in with the young Thai kids and slid down this massive boulder into the cool green water below. If only I hadn't been in a string bikini I might have followed them.
Apparently, there are a bunch of cheeky monkeys at level 7, but alas, we had to leave for our second stop... the tiger temple!

Tim and Bol after sliding down the rocks in the Erawan Falls.

A beautiful peacock on the grounds of the Tiger Temple.

This tiger temple is run by some monks who, as the booklet would have you believe, one day decided to start looking after tigers. They've been charging 300 baht per person ever since. We did get to do the unthinkable however: pat some live tigers! It was quite an odd feeling... you know they're a dangerous animal, but they're so used to human company that they really don't mind. When we were there they were a bit restless as it had just been raining, and as this helps cool them down they get more active and so wanted to go and play. Since they're chained up, this is impossible, although the monks did have to bring some of the tigers in line by hitting them with sticks and slapping their faces. How very zen. Even though I do feel somewhat jaded by that experience, at least I can say I patted a tiger! Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of that, only video footage... you'll have to wait a while for them.

That night, back at Little Creek, we had another sumptuous dinner of pizza and beer (hey, when you find a wood oven you have to make the most of it) which ended up with Aussie frogs, samsong buckets and live music (thanks Adam and Pete!). Excellent.

On Friday, needless to say, Tim and I were ready for a big day of sweet FA... or maybe we could join in with all the stuff that Bol and Em had planned. Just in case, we thought we would call the Indian embassy (who have been processing our visa request for a week by this point) to see if we could pick up our visas on Monday (instead of Friday like they asked us to)... so that we would have more time to do bugger all. This was the response: "No madam, if the delivery day is Friday then please be picking it up on the Friday. Goodbye". This thoughtful man I spoke to neglected to mention that, despite the particular section of the embassy closing at 1630, you have to drop your passports in at the embassy between the hours of 1200 and 1300.... and not to just rock up and expect to receive them at any old time. "No, no, no. You drop your passports in, sir, and then you can pick them up with your new Indian visa between the hours of 1530 and 1630". I guess we're waiting until Monday.
Just to be on the safe side, we moved our flights back to Wednesday night. Who knows what he might say next: "I'm sorry sir, but did you not see that small sign behind my desk saying that you must wear the colours of the Indian flag when picking up your visa? Please be coming back tomorrow in the appropriate attire".

So we had to say good bye to Bol and Em (at least for a little while) and go back to Bangkok to sort everything out. It wasn't so bad though... we got to meet up with some more of our newly made friends in Bangers and finally go and visit the Golden Buddha!

Tim fiddling with Neil's computer. Apparently, one fine day, Neil is going to
leave Sri-Auyatthia guest house (and Thailand) and go and see something.
We at flashpackers find this unlikely, and are pretty sure that the next time
we go to Bangkok, Neil will still be sitting in the same chair. ;)

Neil getting ready to get up and move... oh, false alarm.

The famed Golden Buddha.

The beautiful scerene face of said Buddha...

... and the intricately decorated feet.

One of the frescos on the wall surrounding the massive Buddha.

Me and the gorgeous Philiy.

Tommy and Philiy holding the bunch of lotus flowers. A jeweller by
trade, but Tommy also taught us how to fold the petals into this lovely creation.

Lia, the champion from Adelaide, who almost didn't make it past day 1 in Bangkok.
(mental note: don't get involved with any gambling schemes... they're all in on it!!)