Crap night sleep last night, I was wide awake for about 2 hours in the middle of it just staring at the ceiling, couldn't even spot any sheep to count - awful.
Was glad to get up and go exploring again. We extended the bike for another 24 hours, decided to make our own way up to Erawan national park today instead of taking the easy way and getting the local bus. Need to be a little adventurous sometimes!
We stopped at a TESCO lotus express for a coffee and some breakfast about half hour into the journey because eventhough the sun was out the wind on the bike was freezing and us pair had shorts and strapped tops on, no wonder all the locals were looking funny at us, probably thinking 'pair of White muppets wearing nothing on a bike!' and me at them thinking 'bloody baboons wearing trousers and Wooly jumpers on bikes in this weather!' Yeah, it pays to listen to the locals sometimes or at least take into consideration that there's a logical explanation for why they're wrapped up like Eskimos in the sun!
The coffee sent us wild, it was so strong! She must have looked at us and thought bloody hell they look ruff, no sleep or not brushed (it is, I just blame it on the wind - wind seeped look) it's in fashion here!
We grabbed a pot of cereal and a little carton of milk, right little travellers on the go breakfast; cute en' we!
On our way again, it started warming up slowly. Well it did for me but Scott was shielding me so he was taken the brunt of all the wind. Nipples like bullets I bet, bless him!
It's quite enjoyable on the back having a nose at everyone and everything, the route was very scenic!
Google maps took us to the edge of the park not to the actual visitors centre and entrance so we pulled in and asked, the locals just kept throwing their arm out point left, '11, 11, 11 kilometres!' Thanks mate.
We kept seeing the yellow warning signs with an elephant image on them, we have them at home except they usually have a deer on them. We have wild deers, here they have wild elephants! Haha. Don't want to come across a suicidal elephant, he would crush you rather than you knocking him over in the middle of the road!
At least it was one road so we couldn't get lost!
Eventually after about 60km and nearly 2 hours, we reached the gate. It was so pretty! The river was that crisp green colour and there were bunches of purple and pink flowers everywhere (planted in the ground, not just put there by someone) now we had to find the actual gate and visitor centre! Wasn't too bad, we went through a little village and just guessed that it was the right way to go.
It did not feel like we were in Thailand, felt like something out of the Rocky Mountains brochure! It was beautiful up there and it was so peaceful and quiet. No traffic and hardly any vehicles. We found the check point to pay to get in and down the road we found the car park and log cabin visitor centres and restaurants. We were not expecting this at all!
There were bus loads of people here, because they were lots of buses- stating the obvious. Although it seemed quiet at the park entrance and walking up the main walk way to the waterfalls.
All day there weren't masses amount of people which was nice! There were a lot of young screaming groups of thai girls and boys on school trips jumping in the pools when we were on our way back down so we were fortunate we had came early because I would have attempted drowning one of them by the end of the day if they were everywhere!
They had set it out really natural with bamboo seating and stairs using the rocks and fallen trees, up until waterfall number 4 it was easy and then after that you had to rock climb, and hike to get to the top because there weren't many man made stairs and bridges for you!
We couldn't believe how clear the water was, it was so green/blue clear. Pure natural water, having good weather pays off because I think monsoon season it would be muddy and murky!
The fish were huge in there though, my huge is probably 3 metres long... I would say they were just under 1 metre - realistically. But you know, who's keeping a check of these things!
Scott jumped straight in, you could stand underneath the waterfall. Hmm yeah all well and good but he left me on the side trying to flick the humongous fish out of the way so I could get in without them nibbling my feet. Oh no these buggas weren't shy! They were those fish that you get in fish spas, nibble your feet. Yeah and if one of the big sized ones or even the medium sized ones came near me I'd be karate kicking them! They wouldn't nibble your feet or suck the dead skin off they'd be taking a chunk of your big toe; you could see it in their eyes! Belly flopped in like a frog, the water was ice cold but incredibly refreshing; swam with my feet out of the water over to Scott, cringed whenever I had to tap my toe onto a rock to get into behind the waterfall, doesn't help when he's saying there's a big fish behind me because I start flapping like a looney then! I finally managed to get up, it was well worth it. The rock pool looked stunning, had some fun jumping in, and then serious bit sunk in - I had to get out where all the fish were. Uh-uh not good.
I could see them swimming side to side, coming for my feet... I moved fast! As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn't wait to get out of there.
the next waterfall we went in was even more clear, I left my shoes on this time, you could climb in on the flat roots of a tree - so I kicked the fish out the way (not actually but mentally. In reality I flicked the water with my toes so they would move) swam over to the rock - by myself!! Hehe. Proud moment of mine.
It was so much better getting in there with shoes on, felt at ease that they weren't going to nor my toes off. Only now they loving a nibble at my mosquito bites! Uh, no thanks mate. That's my flesh, I intend to keep it; and your nibbles are kinda hurting - not going to lie to you.
The third one we got in, I wore my shoes, I could see everything it was like being in the bath, we were in up to our shoulders and you could see the bottom really clear. I had a strategy this time... I'll keep moving my legs so that they can't attach on to me; Result. It worked!
Again though, I fell into the water with my legs in groggy position but my feet facing up towards the sky, god help me when I have to swim in work again, best keep me on dry side work for a while, whilst I teach myself to swim again! Don't want any accidents, or I'll be claiming! Ha.
Tried having an action shot moment of falling into the water from a tree that was leaning over the rocks. That went drastically wrong, another belly flop. What is with me today!!
Scott was like jungle boy swinging and jumping and climbing all over the rocks, he Tarzan me definitely not jungle jane today even with my Jesus walking sandals on! Meaning I had more stability than flip flops..
The top waterfall was awesome, the water was spilling down over the soft rocks as though it was just that steam that they use in garden centre rocks, to give it the magical effect. Yeah it looked like that, only real! The water was a little murky but still aqua blue, too many Russians jumping in there with their speedos and things on, mixing the slimy stuff up that was on the rocks. We were at the top of the mountain, looking up you could see where the water would fall either in monsoon or years ago before we made climate change happen.

Had such a good day, in the waterfalls! Didn't realise how hot it was until we were out of the shade of the trees and in the in the blistering sun, we certainly dried off quick! The drive back was more pleasant being a lot warmer as well.
Only we were about 5 miles outside of the town, on the straight road with the odd shack or house on it and we get a puncher in the back wheel. Bloody Great timing!
So muggins here has to get off the back because of course I'm adding more weight and I'm not the one that is driving. So I have to walk down the hard shoulder (in the trees) with my helmet bombing around on my head, everyone looking at me funny I'm just waving and smiling at them. Scott is slowly going down the hard shoulder in the distance with his feet either side to balance him. Then I get back on and then I get off, we ask someone then it's round the corner and then that person says it's 1km. I give up! I'll walk you go find it I'll meet you there! Haha. Luckily it was only 1 minute down the road so we pull in, they try to pump it up but they speak gibberish to us all using their hands pointing and shaking their hands. We eventually get through to them that we need a new inner tube, so the garage next door can do it. Feeling ticked off, thinking they're going to charge a small fortune to do this, a man gets his little stool out and box of spanners, rips the inner tube out, finds the smallest staple poking out of the tyre which is what pierced the inner tube. Gutted. It was tiny!! Here we go the calculator is out, time to negotiate! ...130Baht. Oh okay! That's fine by me!

Carry on back, it took 5 minutes to get back after that, how unfortunate are we to get into a pickle so close to home yet so far... We could have bluffed it and gave it back to them with a flat tyre; They would have never known!

Last night tonight so went for food sat on the river, managed to find one in our price range so all good news!
We ordered two large cokes, expecting a normal sized glass bottle each, so what's that? 330ml bottle? No. 1.5 litres in a glass bottle each! We just burst out laughing at her when she came over carrying these huge heavy glass bottles of coke! Nah, we will just take the 1.5 litres for now thanks, not bursting the bank if we did have two; they're only £1 each! Thailand is getting cheaper as we go further up north! - I like it!
Feeling old and weary again, we were shattered after food. Expecting it to be 11pm when we looked at the time... 8.45pm! What!
Think we will blame that one on the physical exercise we done today climbing the mountain and egg beaten in the pools to refrain the fish from nibbling my toes!

Kanchanaburi was well worth the visit!