Travel :: Elephant's World

After Erawan Falls we headed south to Elephant's World. As soon as we booked our trip to Thailand it became apparent that riding an elephant was a very unusual and popular experience that many people partake in while visiting Thailand. I was thrilled at the thought and started even looking into staying at an elephant camp. However, a small part of me started to wonder how ethical the elephant trekking camps that I had seen so many of my Facebook friends visit over the years actually were. After doing a significant amount of research I decided against riding an elephant. We were going to opt out of the experience all-together, but while booking our trip to Erawan Falls with BKK Tours they mentioned that we might also be interested in adding on a stop at Elephant's World.

Travel :: Erawan Falls

On our last day in Bangkok we took a private day trip with BKK Tours to Kanchanaburi, about a three hour drive. Unfortunately earlier that morning I had woken up with a terrible flu, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from missing out on one of the days I was most looking forward to on our entire trip! Thankfully our car ride was amazing as we had a luxury van with leather seats that fully reclined. Plus there was a 30" flat screen, bedazzled ceiling and a strobe light in the back...it was pretty hilarious. Needless to say we kept the strobe light off as it didn't really encourage a peaceful rest :)

Our first stop was Erawan Falls, a beautiful national park that features seven different waterfalls you can hike to and swim in the pools below. The catch? The pools are filled with hundreds of fish that love nothing more than to nibble your toes and eat the dead skin off your feet. I had been anxious about it and thought perhaps I wouldn't even get in, but it was so hot by the time we got to the first swimming area I couldn't rip my hiking gear off fast enough! My technique to keep the fish away was kicking and flailing violently, and it worked like a charm.

The most fun part of visiting the falls was being able to ride down the falls like a water slide. We had a near catastrophic experience when Ryan got a little too excited and went down the wrong falls crashing into a big rock, but thankfully he is quite resilient and only ended up with a few bumps and bruises. All in all it was a wonderful experience and a perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok!