Ratchaburi Day 1

On Friday we visited the popular River khwae rock valley hot spring and fish spa.

We took a long-tail boat down the river and got off just before the rapids.

We came to a series of natural hot springs – but first we were given mud masks to wear and sent to the “Dr. Fish Pool.”

This fish pool had the little skin eating fish that Sam and I had experienced in Phukiet, but here there weren’t as many, and we had to share the pool with many Russian tourists.

The western area of Thailand is filled with vacationing Russians, so much so that it is common to see market signs in Thai and Russian before seeing English.
After the fish pond we went through a hot spring and a mineral pool before starting in on the “themed” hot springs.

These six springs each featured separate aromas in the water (like peppermint and coffee).

After each one we’d take a dip in a cool rock pool.

After the first two dips our guide “Mickey” (who took all of these pictures) started bringing us an endless supply of poolside sugar cane drinks.

It turned out there was another fish pool by the “tea” pools, and we took a dip in that one as well. It turned out to be better as there were more fish. These fish were all black, where the first pool was full of white fish.
Our last stop in the spa was to get a cucumber cooling mask treatment.

It feels better than it looks.

The entrance/exit road was lined with these wide growing (banyan?) trees forming a tunnel.

We stopped for lunch at the same roadside restaurant we’d had a late dinner the night before. Afterwards we went to the Tiger Temple. It was too crowded and we weren’t wearing proper attire, so we didn’t do more than stop and snap some pictures of animals (I think this was just me) at the entrance.

Our last stop for the day was Mueang Sing historical park.

This was a cool abandoned temple ruin dating back 800 years.

It is always amazing that these places aren’t guarded and secured like a (just) 200 year old “historical” site would be in America.

We were all free to walk all over the ruins, touching everything as we went.

Nearby was a burial ground of some primitive Thai people that lived tens of thousands of years ago.

Back on the road we passed a school bus. And you thought YOUR ride home was bumpy…

When we reached the Ratchaburi Province we stopped at Ban Hom Thian Candle Making Factory, but found they were closing up for the day.

At dusk we reached Panalee Resort.

This was the best resort from either trip through the rainforest.

The place had a neat “African/Spanish” theme and each “Room” was really its own house, complete with living room, bedroom and a rooftop area to enjoy the mountain scenic view.