|
|
Quick three-in-one A half-day excursion cruising a lake, rafting and riding elephants in Sangkhla Buri You don't need to travel all the way north to enjoy rafting or ride elephants. You could as well do it in Sangkhla Buri, the northernmost district of Kanchanaburi on the border with Burma. And you can do it in less than a day. Sangkhla Buri is an elusive border town on the northern edge of Vajiralongkorn Lake, formerly called Khao Laem. It is home mostly to ethnic Karens and Mons who migrated there from Burma. It seemed untimely arriving in Sangkhla Buri at the beginning of the dry season. The countryside and woodlands were parched by hot rays of the sun. Water in the lake was pretty low revealing patches of vegetation on the shallow lake bed. "To Samprasop Resort," I said, hailing a motorcycle taxi after hopping off a van which brought me to Sangkhla Buri after a three-hour journey from the provincial heart of Kanchanaburi. I found the town had changed considerably since my last visit five years ago. There were more shophouses. The market was bigger and busier. Several mini marts could be spotted in town area. More importantly, it's now linked by direct bus service from Bangkok. Being a weekday most resorts were almost empty except for a few European tourists. It was still early morning and I stood waiting for a boat by the lake. The water was flat and calm, the fog had evaporated. But I was not the only one waiting for the boat. I had company, Latvian tourists. The boat cut through the watery realm, the breeze cool and relaxing. In fifteen minutes we were ushered to a temple that is partially submerged, Wat Luang Pho Uttama. At this time of the year when the water is low, what ever is still left of the old temple surfaces above water. We circled the site and stopped to peep through a window and saw Buddha images inside. "What's that?" I asked as we sailed past a sleek bamboo structure in the lake. "A fishing platform," yelled the boatman above the roar of the boat's engine. The area we were cruising was called Sam Prasop, meaning the meeting of three streams, the Rantee, Beeklee and Songkalia. We sailed on the lake past tall grass and lush hills and then move on to a waterway which was the Rantee. Not long after that the boat came to a halt at an elephant camp and we counted a dozen of them. Next to the camp was a wooden structure built on stilts in a rubber plantation. "It's a school for Karen children," explained a teacher in his early thirties when we visited the place. "Parents drop their children here before they go to work." The teacher earns a small sum for his services. Actually, there is a public school too but it is quite a way off, we were told. We fed elephants sugar cane and then got on their backs for a trek. We rode them from the camp and went up and down through vegetation and woodlands. The animals then crossed the Rantee at several points, the water at some points only coming up to their knees. My European friends appeared both excited and nervous at first, but once they had learned the ropes they relaxed and enjoyed the lazy pace at which the trek proceeded. "Would you want to sit on the neck?," offered one mahout. The heat became intense. The rocking back and forth sitting on the elephant's back put us in a drowsy mode. After crossing more streams we were eventually ushered to a clearing where we paused for a quick lunch. Here bamboo rafts were ready to take us to explore the lushness of the woodlands. We split: two to a bamboo raft, each with a navigator. Coming from a cold country like Latvia, my fellow travellers may not have been on a bamboo raft before. However, after crashing a few times into a bush and the bank they learned quickly how to row with bamboo sticks It drew bursts of laughter from others watching the ordeal. Little did they realise one of them could meet the same fate later and even be tossed out of the rafts. Unlike with rubber dinghies, bamboo rafting requires good balancing skills. You can sit or stand, but you need to use your body weight to balance the craft. The stream was slow-moving and we were able to negotiate the curves without much difficulty. However, one raft got stuck in a bush while negotiating an easy bend and the woman on board sent out a shriek that had us worrying, at least for a while. By now it was 11am and everybody was feeling the effect of the hot sun. We halted briefly under the shade of towering trees for a quick dip in the stream. "I love your country, Thailand. It's perfect," a tourist told me while we were swimming. I believed him. He had fled the bitter cold of winter at home for the warm weather of Thailand. For over an hour after the swim, our raft drifted downstream to the point where the boat had dropped us off earlier in the day. We headed to Vachiralongkorn Lake and moved on to dry ground in Sangkhla Buri. In just half a day we had trekked on elephants, cruised a lake and rafted in a scenic stream near the Burmese border. MORE INFO Sangkhla Buri is 215 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi provincial town. Getting there: There are direct air-conditioned buses from Mo Chit Bus Terminal to Three Pagoda Pass via Sangkhla Buri. Departure times are 5am (Por 1), 6am (Por 1), 9am (Por 2) and 12:30pm (Por 2) daily. The fare is 293 baht for the Por 1 bus and 238 baht for the Por 2. Departure times from Sangkhla Buri are 7:30am (Por 2), 10:30am (Por 2), 2pm (Por 1) and 3pm (Por 1). The trip takes six to seven hours either way. Otherwise, proceed to the Southern Bus Terminal and take the bus to Kanchanaburi which depart every half-hour. Vans to Sangkhla Buri leave Kanchanaburi Bus Terminal at regular intervals: 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, and the fare is 146 baht. It takes about three hours to reach the border town, with a stop en-route in Thong Pha Phum. |