22 May

Up at 07h00 we have breakfast before heading to the bus station, there we wait for over an hour for the "every 20 minutes" bus to pick us up for Erawan Falls. At last the bus arrives, picks us up and drives 2 km onwards before stopping and trying to tell us that another one is on its way and will be there in 5 minutes. Confused but at least knowing that the bus will come as the driver is waiting with us. 5 minutes late we're on the new bus and heading for Erawan Falls, the bus is really old, almost like the 1960's school busses. Seats are used through to the springs but all in all it's a great ride and because of so many people getting on and off the bus the doors remain open. We therefore have a fully airconned bus.

Its an 1 ½ hour ride although most of it we doze between sleep and wake. Its amazing, when you think about it, we have grown accustomed like the locals to sleep sitting upright, heads bobbing, through blaring music (the Thai's like it loud), continuous stops to pick up people, hooting of the driver and air streaming in from the open doors of the bus.

We arrive! First we stock up on two 1.5 L bottles of water and yogurts which we eat as we start our walk up. Erawan Falls is a national heritage sight for the Thai people, consisting of 7 levels/tiers of falls. Each is amazing but different from the last. Explaining them is difficult so its best left to photos, but in short the third tier consists of a small waterfall and large pool, while the fourth is a large waterfall also with large pool, the fifth doubles as a slippery slide while the seventh has a blue pool of water with freezing water gushing from above. The fish in the pools are huge, some a few kg's swimming in schools clearly visible, once you enter the water the smaller ones, or so we hoped, comes to nibble on your toes (or anywhere they feel like), an interesting feeling to say the least.

After trekking up to the seventh level, almost 3 km from the starting point, we enjoyed the blue pool with two Israeli's who had just entered Thailand after two months in India and Nepal. We headed down to the fifth where I enjoyed a quick slippery slide before spending our remaining time at the third pool with Thai boys on a school excursion. After we had had enough of the nibbling fish, we headed down to the bus which was leaving at 15h00.

14h55, what good timing! We walked to the bus waiting there only to find that there was no 15h00 bus today only a 16h00 one! Now we wait for another hour, we grab some lunch and start reading while we count down the minutes for the bus to depart. At last the time comes, we're on the bus and heading back home, at the gate we turn back and head to our starting point, two other travelers were late. Now ready to go at last, we start back, except now every 200m the bus driver gives a series of honks to alert those waiting for the bus that it's arrived. This continues throughout our 1 ½ hour trip back, at least we slept for 30 minutes without having to hear it!

Back at the bus station we hop on another school bus for a cheap way home and walk the last km to our guest house. We drop the bags and head for the pool, which has a nifty Jacuzzi function but its raining lightly so we don't stay for long. We spend the rest of the evening enjoying dinner with two travelers from Seattle, discussing different sights and activities in Northern Thailand and some more social topics. We make some calls home before hitting the sack - tomorrow it's Ayutthaya.