A bus ride began simply enough with a pedicab ride out the bus station where we found the bus to take us out there for the day. The ride was an hour and a half, twice as long as we thought but were able to take in the views of the mountains on the way. Erawan Falls is a national park situated north of Khanchanaburi just into the mountains. The falls are a seven series layer of water falls set within this mountainous park. The lay out takes you up into theforest along the river and every few hundred yards meets one level of the falls. The first level has a great swimming hole so after the long ride and hot walk we dove into the clear blue limestone laced water amounst huge fish. We swam to the falls and climbed onto the rocks to let the watercascading down beat on our backs before taking a dive into the pool below. The pools are deep in areas so we swam around a bit and tried to catch fish barehanded but they were too fast. It was time to make the mile long climb up the mountain to explore more of the falls. The trail is dirt and rock, mostlt limestone and soapstone that were so smoothed over by thousands of feet marching over them that some shone brightly with swirls of red grey and black. we hiked along the trail to one set of spectacular falls after another. the trail got progressively steeper as we climbed giving way to fantastic views of watring yunning over small cliffs, collecting in baby blue pools before falling over into yet another tier. To say that these falls were gorgeous would be an understatement. We made our way to the end of the ftrail and were rewarded with the highest cascade of water and levels yet. The cool water ran over these cliffs softly allowing eas dips into the water. Chris and I decide to make our way down the river going over fall after fall before we found a quite spot in a shallow pool to have lunch. We sat on a rock outcropping as the water flowed around us and enjoyed a simple lunch of tuna and crackers. Some things we take for granted but this was not one of them. We both felt at peace sitting there in a quite spot in the river amoungst one of natures natural treasures.
After lunch we repacked our bag and made our way a small rock cropping. I was smimming in the shallow pool seeking an egress into the next pool when I see Chris sitting on a rock looking into the river. I could tell something wasnt right. He looked at me said "Your gonna kill me" Immediatel I knew what probably happened. Sitting in three feet of water was my digital camera! "I dont know how it fell in" he said " but i leaned over to pick up the water bottle and heard a splash". Well the look on his face said it all, I could tell he felt really bad, especially since all the pictures we had taken were on my camera! Standing there in these beautiful waters surrounded by stunning natural beauty I truly didnt care. Trips are filled with occurances that will test ones patience and in this instance I could not care less. A camera is a camera which help capture moments but the moments are seared forever in my mind. I looked at my best friend sitting on the rocks sullen with disappointment and said " Man, I dont care, its just a camera and Im sure once it dries out we ll salvage it", smiled at him and handed him the soaking camera. There was no way anything couldve happened that day to take away frm this moment and I was just happy to taking it all in.
The river was slow enough to swim wade though it so I decided to make my way down fall over fall until I couldnt make it any further while Chris walked down. Experiencing the falls this way was specatacular. I was able to swim, jump, slide my way over a qurter mile down the river, until i reached a point where the rocks made these sloping gentle sweeps down into a ten foot drop into a pool. As i \owedccame out of the river and onto this out cropping i saw a group of visitors there watching as i navagated my way out of the river and onto these rocks. I could tell they were curious as to how i made my way to this point and watched with cameras at the ready while i hopped over a boulder sat down and slide with the current into the cool blue pool below. I splashed into the water happily and backstroked for a bit and saw Chris smiling on the rivers bank. Ive had many happy moments in my life but that was more than I could ask for. Chris waved atme and I continued on to the next fall all the while smiling and laughing with gratitude for this day. Ultimately i found myself on the edge of a fall that was the highest of the tiers. I stood on the rocks edge as the river swelled over and calculated my chances of jumping the 40 feet down into the pool below. Im sure that it was deep enough and the adventurer in me said JUMP! but soon logic set in and with out knowing how ddep the water was I didnt want to jump onto a rock and have to be medivaced out of the forest because I was greedy. I backtracked to the rivers edge and met chris and we both agreed that it was time to call it a day. The falls were beautiful, the day warm and I was able to share it with Chris. There will be days ahead when I will push the bounds of fun and danger but that was as far as I wanted to go today. It was getting close to time to leave anyway so we made our way down the trail to the first pool for one last swim before heading to the bus stop. Once there we were both hot and ice cream beckoned. A sweet lady at the first stand we came to greeted us so warmly that Chris had to go and chat her up. He walked over to her and said because she was so nice we would buy from her shop. She smiled so big it wa genuine and kind. We bought ice cream bars, chris chocolate and i got s strawberry fruit bar and water. Chris managed to cut his finger on something and she immediately took him aside and bandaged his finger. There isnt words to describe the genuineness of the Thai people. She doctored him up with a smile and then carried chairs over to the shade for us to enjoy our cool treats while we waited for the bus. There may not be pictures of this day but the memories will be more valuable. I hope my camera dries out and I can share the pictures but if it doesnt then life will move on and I will be happier for the day we shared hiking the Erawan Falls of central Thailand.