Freedom is spelled S-C-O-O-T-E-R

Well the Tiger Temple cured us of ever wanting to be involved with another Tour group again (I forgot to mention the Israeli tourists sticking their hands into the cages of some of the less "social" tigers).

To solve this problem, we rented our own transportation for $3/day.


..And we called her lightning!

And with this new found freedom, we decided to explore a few more of Thailand's National Parks. We were a little hesitant at first, given the driving skills we had observed, but Isaac, always up for an adventure, agreed to drive the 90+ kilometers to take us to Sai Yok National Park.

Aaaahhh the wind in our hair! We reached the first part of the park and were a little disappointed. Basically, what we saw was a waterfall on the side of the highway. We marched forth determined to find greener pastures. Much to our delight Sai Yok Yai (as opposed to Sai Yok Noi--north and south) was much more pleasing. There are a few small waterfalls in the area...


Waterfall at Sai Yok Yai National Park.

and another cave. The guidebook mentioned that travel to the cave was best done via long-tailed boat. (Isaac's Note: It's worth mentioning that the 2003 Lonely Planet is incorrect with regards to the mapped directions to Sai Yok Noi and Sai Yak Yai. Neither does it have the best directions to Tham Daowadung, since there is highway access a little beyond the Sai Yok Yai park entrance.) We hired a boat driver that spoke very little (if any) English and managed to communicate our desire to visit Tham Daowadung. The ride on the boat made us a little uneasy as many of the folks we saw along the river either laughed or made shooting motions at our boat driver. I was pretty convinced we were going to be left for dead in the jungle somewhere. We reached our landing spot and our driver sort of directed us to the cave. We passed the National Park office where we found a few napping employees who confirmed that we were, indeed, on the trail to the cave. It seemed as though no feet had traveled the path in years, but when we finally reached the cave we were greeted with a whole herd of Asian students and their guides crammed into the cave! The cave, although dry, was quite lovely.


Formations in Tham Daowadung (Daowadung Cave).


Little Marguerite next to big stalamite in cave.

After dragging Isaac kicking and screaming from the cave, we managed to find our boat driver anxiously waiting our return. It seems the river water level recedes in the afternoon (dam regulated) and navigating back to the launch site was a bit trickier. Our fearless captain made it look easy, however. As we drew closer to the boat dock, we saw the strangest sites. Large floating bars being towed along behind small long-tailed boats. It was great! Our favorite was the one shown below getting a closer look at one of the nearby waterfalls.


"Rent-a-Raft" At Sai Yok you can rent a floating bar to be towed by a long-tailed boat. These guys are pulling right up to the waterfall for a shower.

We left Sai Yok just as the sun was setting--90+ km to go back to Kanchanaburi in the dark! Well despite the cold and a dog with a death wish that tried to stand in our way, we managed to make it back in Isaac's capable hands.

After some discussion, we decided we would leave Kanchanaburi the following morning in order to spend a few days in the big city.