Cabbages and Condoms, Caves, the Jolly Frog, Tigers, Motorcyles, Fierce Monkeys, and an AWESOME WATERFALL!

So, I’ve been told by my parents that I need to get on this blog thing and update it! I guess I wrote about a week ago after Koh Samet. This past Monday, I stayed in, ate cereal and PB sandwiches and applied for 8 internships. Not fun! But I have to find something and I’m assuming many will not do phone interviews so I went over and beyond. Tuesday, classes went well—I had Marketing Research in the morning and then Seminar in International Business in the afternoon. Our professor for the seminar took some time out of class to give us ideas for 2, 3, and 5 day trips which was so wonderful!
So I know my parents have been sharing this story with people and I’m going to go ahead and apologize for my more conservative readers but…Tuesday night, I went out to eat with a group to a restaurant called “Cabbages and Condoms” where all profits go towards HIV and AIDS education. It’s a tourist attraction but so funny. The lamps are made condoms, there’s a Condom Christmas Tree, there are mannequins clothed with condoms and birth control pills and posed like super heroes, instead of mints, you can get condoms when you leave, etc. etc. etc. The food was more expensive than eating on the street, but it was pretty tasty and the experience was well worth it. After that, we ventured again to my favorite market—the Suan Lum Night Market—I wrote about before. I again didn’t buy anything but loved looking around. Even though I know nothing about purse brand names, I’ll probably buy one before I leave just for the heck of it because some of them are actually real unlike NYC’s Chinatown. After staying here a while, some of us decided we wanted to go out so we went to this jazz bar called Brown Sugar. The music was great, but that was about it so I doubt we go back there.
Wednesday, I just hung around for a bit. That night, my roommates were taking a 12-hour overnight bus down to a Koh Phi Phi near Phuket so I had the apartment to myself but I still ventured out with some guys in my program. We planned to go to Wat Arun to see the sunset, but didn’t make it that far and instead found out way taking a river boat down to where I got off for the Golden Mount my first day here. From this point, we walked a few blocks and saw the Democracy Monument, and the Giant Swing (which was in fact not half as impressive as I thought it would be) where a few local girls stopped us to take pictures with us (happens quite a bit). Right in front of the Giant Swing seems to be the City Hall or something of the sort. We hit here at exactly 6 PM which is when the National Anthem plays and everybody stands for the king. His portrait (along with everywhere else in the city and in Thailand) is on the City Hall. It’s amazing how much these people love their king—there is at least one massive picture of him on every street (probably more like 7), pictures of him in every store or restaurant, and even pictures of him traveling down highways. Oh—this is funny…after the anthem played, close to 100 people congregated in the square and did aerobics! After watching for a few minutes, we walked through a temple, Wat Suthatthepwararam (slightly long?) which was cool. There are paintings all over the walls, a beautiful Buddha, and a tablet that’s over 1000 years old. We were a little hesitant to go in as there are always tons of people praying in temples and you feel rude walking in to snap shots, but this nice man who spoke a little English was kind enough to walk us in. The guys and I decided to go back and hit the sack and some of us were leaving the next morning on our next great adventure!
We (Drew, Ben, Dan, and me) left Evergreen Apartments early and headed out for the Southern Bus Terminal and caught the next available bus for Kanchanaburi Province which is west of Bangkok. The province runs all the way to the Myanmar border and is home to some of Thailand’s largest tracts of preserved land and gushing waterfalls. For my history buffs, the town also played a role during WWII when the Japanese used POWs and Southeast Asians to build a demanding, deadly rail route to Myanmar (it was supposed to take 5 years to build but only took 17 months). All this information is thanks to my trustworthy Lonely Planet! Sadly (or not so sadly, depending on who you are) we didn’t have time to see any museums, but did see the Allied War Cemetery (it’s estimated over 100,000 men died constructing the railway) and the Bridge over the River Kwai. Besides seeing these sights on the first day, we also hired a taxi man to drive us to Wat Tham Mangkon Thong which is the “Cave Temple of the Golden Dragon.” Here, you have to climb a bazillion steps to get into the temple where you can climb through the cave to the top. You have to crawl through various parts of it so it was tight in spots but fun.
After this, we headed out to the Tiger Temple (another tourist trap) which is only great as a photo opportunity. This temple adopted its first tiger cub in 1999 after its mother was killed. After adopting a few more, the temple now has 38 tigers and anticipates 100 in a few years. Visitors pay an obscene amount of money to go in and see these animals and even more if you want “good” pictures with them. To me, the pictures made the price worth it as I will never again hold a tiger head, but I don’t think some of the guys were impressed. The sad part it, it’s supposed to be a sacred temple but it’s a business. There’s so much construction and no room for quiet prayer. I don’t see their vision because they’ve demolished all vegetation and wildlife for the random animals they’ve “adopted” and are building these fake waterfalls and things that look like show arenas. Maybe they’re planting an oasis of green grass and new trees, but it’s a forsaken area and you can’t help but feel sorry for the deer and cows (which we deemed might be the tigers’ dinner?). Also, I can’t help but believe the tigers aren’t drugged even though all the brochures and guides swear they’re not (of course), but I’m no expert on tigers’ sleeping habits. Anyways, it was fun and I’ll never do it again so it was cool.
Our hotel was also great! We stayed at the Jolly Frog, which according to Lonely Planet is not that clean. However, compared to our Koh Samet room…it was up a few stars! It was right on the river, and we only paid 100 baht each which is like $3.40ish. We met some helpful backpackers who gave us great advice on where to travel, where to avoid, where to take our parents, etc. That night, we went out for a few drinks and had a great time. Afterwards, the guys decided it was a smart idea to jump into the disgusting river. I (smartly) did not as it was freezing. I was so glad I had my blanket, jeans, a long sleeved shirt, AND my wind jacket this time. Who would’ve guessed I needed a sweatshirt in Thailand, but I wish I would’ve brought one!
The next day was filled with some of the most fun things I’ve ever done. After a recommendation from our backpacker friends, the guys decided they wanted to rent motorcycles (motorbikes I suppose, but I like the sound of motorcycles better) to drive to Erawan National Park (which is a little over an hour northwest of Kanchanaburi). This is something I would NEVER do without the influence of three guys. I couldn’t say no and be the unadventurous one who took the bus though…I did, however, refuse to ride on the manual bike. The first half of the trip was scary, but I soon got used to it and I wasn’t driving so I could look around. “I’m in Thailand and may never get back” I kept telling myself (and yes, yes, yes I’ll be careful all you worriers). The view once we got nearer to the park was breathtaking as we rounded the mountains and followed the river. With our Chula IDs we got into the park for 50 baht a piece and spent the entire day trekking up the mountain by the waterfall. Catherine, thank you for my Chacos! We’d jump in and Thais would take pictures of the crazy foreigners. It was actually a great workout and pretty strenuous at times. The path was really rocky and scary at times. You definitely would need to be in good shape and surefooted to do the hike. We even saw “fierce monkey!” It was nice to get out in nature—the waterfall, the trees, the mountains surrounding us with their own waterfalls peeking at us through breaks in the trees, and the sounds of flowing water and chirping birds…all were amazing. It was by far one of the best things I’ve ever done. A few scratches later and a skinned up knee after I jumped in knees first at the beginning of the trip, we headed back on the bikes. We were so glad to get back to Bangkok and hot showers, but it was fantastic! This is now my new favorite thing I’ve done and quite possibly might stay that way for a while!
Saturday, I had class all day long…it was supposed to go from 9-6:15, but ended early at 4. WOOOO! We went to the movies last night (for a nice theater, it’s about $5 and you can get them cheaper) and saw Yes, Man!
Well, there’s my last week! Today, I’m meeting Roy for lunch and some Bangkok exploration. Wednesday, we have an exchange student welcome party at a 5-star hotel somewhere in the city and this weekend the school is taking us on an overnight trip to a floating market. Miss you all back home! XOXO

Photo 1: Condom Super Hero, Photo 2: the Buddha in Wat Suthatthepwararam, Photo 3: in the Cave Temple of the Golden Dragon, Photo 4 and 5: with the TIGERS