During the last June holiday, as usual, the 3 daredevil went for a tour again but this time round, we invited a alcoholic couple too. Our trip is to visit Bangkok, River Kwai.
This is the first time, ah Chai took a plane, he was so excited that the wife claimed that he could not sleep the night before. They feared they will missed the flight and went to the airport extreme early.
During the trip we went to the floating market, a home coconut sugar plant, River Kwai bridge and a stay in River Kwai Resort. Seeing the history, the death railway, was enriching and scary too, especially when you are walking on the bridge and there’s another person who wanted to pass, you have to move aside to stand on the steel bar. Although there’s planks at the side for you to stand but most of them are rotten, you get to see the rushing river flowing below or cliff below at a great height of about 20 meters or more. In addition, it was hot and humid afternoon, when you walk along the track, you felt that you are burnt and the path seems wavy especially the river is just beside you.
The River Kwai has an amazing and awesome scenery. Seated in the speedboat to the resort took about 15-20 minutes. At both river bank, you can see bamboo forest and cliff, so green and natural. It can be mentioned as a untouched area with tribe living there. The River Kwai Resort is a floating platform resort surrounded by mountains and bamboos. The river flow can be described as rushing and swirling. Swimming in the river is effortless, you just need to jump in from the upstream and it will bring you to the downstream in a few minutes. If you are trying to swim against the current, I can tell you, "Forget about it!", the current is too fast. As a safety precaution, all swimmers regardless if you are the Olympics champion or not, you must wear a life jacket. No kidding!
Maybe we went during the wrong season. River Kwai is very hot, especially at night. "No wind". Oops! forget to mention, the resort does not has any electricity supply, so simply forget the air-con, fan or even lighting. It’s like going back to kampong time, use the oil lamp and fan yourself with the straw fan. hahahaha. To us, it is a torture to sleep in the room. So in the middle of the night, we shifted out to the raft platform outside the room to sleep. Sleeping under the moonless night with stars blinking above you, shooting starting flying across to excite you. fireflies at the opposite river bank and a band of toad choir to entertain you. At first my anty slept nearest to the raft edge, she left and I took over her position to have a better look at the stars above us. I managed to see 2 shooting stars. While lying there, I told branches (my friend) that shooting star according to older folks are unlucky star as they are also known as fallen star, so when u see them u’ve to spit saliva. So when i saw the first one, I quickly informed her to make a wish. She told me to split saliva instead… hahaha….. she missed the first one to make a wish, so when the second one fly across the sky, i gave her some signal but she was almost sleep. After sleeping on the raft for 2 hours, I had motion sickness. This motion sickness continue for about a week. I’ve this floating and dizzy feeling.
The River Kwai resort is managed by the Mon tribe people. Their village is just behind the Resort. When you stay there, you get to visit their village. The village is very peaceful, the houses are built of bamboo and wood. The pond shelter and bridge are the best structure. You have to see the pond shelter, the main supports are made from whole tree trunk, no nails at all. Very massive and beautiful structure. We went to the cave located near the Mon tribe. The cave used to be habitat by monks but they left. Although it took about 30 mins to get to the cave, the scenery along the way was awesome, you get to pass by the hanging cliff. The cliff is like concave with rock hanging above your head, you get to see a lot of bamboo stick supporting, but in actual fact, the bamboos are used to collect honey from the cliff.
When you are dinning at the resort, all meals will be served to the guests at the same time, they will ring the bell to inform all guess it’s meal time. For breakfast, the resort staffs will feed bees with jams. So when you spread the jam on you bread watch out dun put extra ingredients in.
If you are planning to go there, I’ll gave it a 4.5* out of 5*
Be prepared for no air-con or fan!
