March 5, 2007

• Monkeying around through hellfire pass

  After departing the train, we caught a van toward sai yok waterfall and hellfire pass. But on the way we happened to pass a place where wild monkeys congregate because they know local thais and tourists will give them food. Now i know what you are thinking-bananas, right?

  WRONG!

  Our guide told us that since everyone thinks monkeys love bananas, they give the monkeys bananas and the monkeys got sick of it and dont eat them anymore. So we asked our guide what they do like, and she told us they love corn and beans. Leading ward and I to simultaneously come up with the thought- the monkey’s are mexican?

  yes yes, that comment was rascist. it was also funny, get over your politically correct self.

  So we bought some corn and made new friends
  
  A little monkey business

  
  The missing link was…corn!

  
  I should probably mention here that all these wild animal interactions were the awesome to me because not only do i have a love of the zoo instilled in me from my dad, but a desire to make every animal i see my pet instilled by my mom. So all these side trips were totally the best of both worlds.

  Then we left to go check out Sai Yok waterfall

  
  And saw some monks on the way…but they were in danger!!! (cue dramatic music)

  
  luckily i was there to save the day

  
  yes, The Josh truly is more powerful than a locomotive

  
  come on ride the train….

  
  Sai Yok waterfall with me and the slowest freaking tourist ever. seriously. i waited like 10 minutes for her to get even that far out of the picture and that was with asking her to move

  
  Next stop, hellfire pass, a 4 kilometer pass carved through solid rock by wwII pows in a ridiculously short amount of time. We decided to hike it, because ward and i wanted some nature time, and Koh is a good sport

  
  Consider for a moment how high and thick that pass is. Now realize it was carved with nothing more complicated than manpower, pickaxes and the occasional stick of dynamite. The name hellfire pass comes from when the POW’s would be working through the night, and the carving would be lit up by lanterns everywhere making them say it was the picture of hellfire

  
  It makes me wonder what it was like for them…

  
  Something like that i imagine

  
  Ward of the jungle

  
  Some crazy bugs we saw hiking (that pic’s for your bug log, ari )

  
  After a refreshing hike,the second day was done and it was time to head out to the jungle river hotel…

  -J

  • 12:59 am
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