New Years in Sankhlaburi, Thailand

After celebrating New Years on Thursday with our students, we went away to Sankhlaburi for the long weekend. We (Rachel, Win, Randi, and I) stayed at the P. guesthouse in the employee quarters as there were no other rooms available. We slept on thin mats on the raised tile flooring. We were joined by an older lady from New Zealand, who after stealing my moto-taxi invited herself to join us. We quickly realized that to sleep soundly on such a hard surface, a few bottles of Leo or Chang would be necessary.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve on a rickety wooden bridge in Sankhlaburi. We were accompanied by our new Burmese friend, an employee at the guesthouse. While waiting for the countdown to midnight, we drank Thai beer and watched as the Thais set off lanterns into the night sky. It was, I must admit, a pretty cool way to ring in the New Year.

On Saturday, we attempted to cross into Burma, however; the border was closed to non-Thai residents. Instead, we visited the 3 pagodas, took pictures in front of the Myanmar sign, peeked into Burma, and shopped for Burmese crafts on the Thai side of the border. We, also, observed Thai immigration at work as a pregnant Burmese woman traveling in our sang thwae (a taxi truck) was denied entry into Thailand.

On Sunday, we all signed up for a travel package to visit the Mon and Karen tribal villages. As the elephants were full, we signed up for the trekking option. We traveled along the Runtee River by long tail boat to visit the underwater temple. Then, we went trekking in the jungle. After a brief period of walking atop thousands of swarming ants and climbing a ladder covered with the aggressive little creatures, we were led by our Karen guide to the elephant pathway. Randi was especially pleased to be rid of  the ants as she was, in her own words, "severely attacked by the little vampires who drew blood". We faced a few river crossings, one of which entailed wading through waist-deep waters. My purse was placed over my head and Randi was entrusted with Win's shoes while he took her backpack. Unfortunately, during one crossing, Randi’s sandal was swept downstream! But, on a positive note, nobody lost their colorful, matching hats!

After lunch, we went bamboo rafting down the river. At first quite intimidated by the prospect (as you have to stand up while navigating the river), Randi and I ended up enjoying ourselves. Despite the attempts of other rafters to overthrow our raft, we made it without tipping. I stood in the front (after being persuaded by Randi that since she was shoeless it was only fair she take the coveted position of leisure and safety:)), Randi stood in the middle, and our guide was in the back. I’d like to take all the credit for keeping us on course, but we had a very skilled guide. We were quite pleased that although we did lose our balance and fall a few times, we fell on to the raft and not the chilly river :)

~ Stacy