The next morning we got up before the sun and headed out with the goal of seeing everything the supersized park had to offer in one day. First, we head to the elephant salt licks. No elephants. Then we walked through the park to an observation tower. This was pretty scary. I was just waiting for a tiger or bear to jump out of the tall swaying grass that surrounded us and start gnawing on my skull. We made it unharmed, but there was a problem with the observation tower. No animals, but the scenery was very beautiful and it felt good to get some fresh clean air.
We then jumped on our girly yellow motorbike and decided to see some waterfalls. Even if there weren't animals we could still enjoy some free falling water. We first went to Heo Suwat, which is the waterfall from the movie "The Beach" with Mr. DiCaprio. This waterfall was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. It was perfect, except that we couldn't go swimming in the chilly pools beneath it. After dozens of pictures we jumped on the little girl bike at went to the south end of the park to its biggest waterfall, Heo Narok. On the way we passed some monkeys hanging out on the side of the road. We also passed some large piles of elephant poo, which proved that there were elephants resided within the boundaries of the park. We finally made it to the waterfall after a 45 minute bike ride and started hiking towards it. 300 meters away from it I could still hear the water falling through the dense jungle. This waterfall had to be 150 meters tall. The biggest I've ever seen. It was pretty, but Heo Suwat takes the cake.
So that was it. We did it. We saw everything that we thought was worth seeing at the park, and it only took us 8.5 hours. We checked out of our room, returned the motorbike, and stuck out our thumbs in hopes of catching a ride back down the mountain. We made it back to town with just enought time to catch the last bus to Bangkok. We got to Bangkok late and quickly bought an overnight ticket to Sukhothai, one of Thailand's ancient capital cities. The bus seats never felt so comfortable. We were exhausted from hiking and traveling all day and we immediately feel asleep once the bus started moving. This didn't last long. At 4:30am we were awoken by the bus hostess screaming "Sukhothai! You get off here!" in our faces. Needless to say we were not pleased, but we were able to check into our hostel and go back to sleep.
The next morning we went into the historic park and rented some bicycles. This was pretty fun. I hadn't jumped on a bicycle and gone exploring since I was 14 years old. We spent several hours riding around Sukhothai's ancient ruins trying to imagine what it looked like hundreds and hundred of years ago. It was fun, but after awhile the ruins start to look the same and we lost interest. Day 2 in the ancient town we rented a badass black Honda motorbike from our hostel and rode to some hot springs for a day of pampering. It took us about an hour to get there, so my aching ass and back were ready for a massage. We first got a massage which lasted an hour and a half then we jumped in a hot tub that was filled with natural spring water. We relaxed for a little while, letting our muscles liquify in the hot stew and then headed back to the hostel. It felt good to relax and unwind for a bit. That night we jumped on the overnight bus back to Bangkok and arrived at the bus station at 5:00am. We then got our 6:30am bus tickets to Kanchanaburi and grabbed some grub from 7-11. 
We got to Kanchanaburi and took a little cat nap while waiting for Connor, Katie, and Becca to arrive. Once we had our travel buddies we met up with Sara and Nell and hit the streets. We checked out the Jeath War Museum at the bridge over the River Kwai. This museum was pretty cool, and it was filled with some very random things. I was able to get a tank top from the night market across the street, so I'd say it was a pretty successful trip. The next morning I woke up not feeling so well from the night before and met up with everyone in the hostel restaurant eating breakfast. We all decided to go to the Erawan National Park to see some waterfalls. I had been looking forward to this for awhile. So after breakfast we jumped in a songtaew and made way for the park. This is home to the famous seven-tiered waterfall. The seventh level is said to look like Erawan, a 3-headed elephant. I didn't see the resemblence, but these waterfalls were truly captivating. When hotels in Vegas build elaborate pools they have these in mind. We swam at a few spots and took lots of pictures and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day we made our way back to our Thai hometown, Wangchan. This trip brought on many experiences. We saw balloons, fireworks, elephant poo, and I somehow managed to be in the King of Thailands birthday parade. It was a trip that left us exhausted and satiated with Thai culture.
This week I have been making a video that documents our travels of the past week. It's called "Evidence of Elephants."
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