I’m definitely coming back to Kanchanaburi when I have extended time off in October. I’m not sure exactly how long yet, but I will be coming back to just sit on this magnificent porch and fish, read, write, and maybe do a few oil pastel drawings too.
The day after our tour we debated heading home or staying one more day. This was a Tuesday and we all had to be back to Bangkok by Wednesday, but the question was whether or not we were going to stay or try to meet up in Bangkok with the other group who went to Ko Chang.
We decided to stay after a short discussion and I’m glad we did, but we ended up running through our various plans with no leads…
Plan A: Rent motorbike – go to Erawan Falls again, this time all day, bring a cooler and beers.
Plan A failure: No bikes available – drinking and riding not an option – too late in the day.
Plan B: Get another tour, this time only for rafting and Erawan.
Plan B failure: No ‘abbreviated’ tours available – too late in the day.
Plan C: I guess just drink on the porch?
Plan C failure: Buddhist Lent holiday = no alcohol sales.
Plan D: we got nothing… maybe we should have gone home.
At that point, we started walking up the road, just because we didn’t know what else to do. On the way back to the raft house I stopped in a book store and began browsing, not really knowing what else to do. Ryan and Ian went ahead and stumbled into a Thai house/business just up the way from our raft house because he had a motorbike-for-rent sign.
I turned out he also had some fishing poles he’d lend us and he also offered to go and pick up some live worms for catfish bait.
Well there you go… Day, our Thai host for the day, was so kind and so much fun, and meeting him was definitely a high point of the trip. In his 20s, he runs a small guest house on the second floor of his house and rents motorbikes, sets up tours or transportation and has a small “Internet cafe” setup as well. He has an intermittent British girlfriend and speaks amazing English and has a fine grasp of modern slang, which is quite difficult for non-native speakers to pick up, interestingly.
So we spent the whole day fishing, catching a few measly ones, not enough for dinner, so we gave the batch to Day, who said he’d eat them the next day:
The quiet, easy solitude was perfect and it turned out to be a perfect day…
