Having spent the last couple of weeks by the sea, we were ready to head inland on our way to Kanchanaburi. We took the 4 north past Phetcha Buri and turned off on the 3206 towards Ban Kha. This is very close to the Myanmar border and very rural. I’ts amazing how quickly you lose farang faces as you leave the tourist spots and head into the countryside. Again it reminds us how lucky we are to have our own transport. The view you get of a country is totally different if you just move from tourist spot to tourist spot by plane or coach.
The landscape quickly changed to hills and small mountains as we headed further west. Almost as soon as we drove up the first hill since leaving the mountains in Laos we saw our first Thai monkey. There was a whole troop eating fruit that had been dumped on the side of the road.
A little bit further along the road we stopped to take a picture of an unusual house. It had been built using wood from old hardwood trees. The branches were not machined, except for a little bit of rounding using a grinder. While we were looking the owner, who was an interior designer from Bangkok came over and invited us in.
To get to the upper areas there was a fantastic set of stairs made from hardwood slices of timber and branches.
The internal features were just as interesting, although I am sure that building regulations in the UK would not allow the same creativity!
The bath was made out of a very old hardwood tree stump, upturned and hollowed out. A set of steps led up to the bath.
The second bathroom was equally unusual with a bath carved from solid rock. It had taken 48 days to form.
Outside there was a nice hardwood deck, all freeform shapes, carefully fitted to cover the area. Planks would have been too easy!
Having turned down the offer of a free night sleeping in the house, but accepting two papaya fruit and three pineapples, we continued our way up the road. We would have stayed but felt that we needed to get a bit further today. It was an interesting stop!
Further up the road were stalls selling fresh pineapple for as little as 6p each. Most were 10p.
Prices generally are much lower outside tourist spots. This makes travel by car or camper really cost effective.
Further along the road we came to a small town that had really unusual lamp posts. It was not a tourist spot and so not sure how they managed to justify them in this little place. Nice though!
In the next town on the 3274, we stopped by a shop and bought ice creams and a couple of other bits and pieces. They asked us if we wanted to camp behind the shop. Really nice people. We spent the evening showing them the website, cooking and chatting (using mainly sign language).
troopytracks 