Escape from Bangkok (Kanchanaburi, TH)

I arrived Wednesday in Kanchanaburi, a leafy smallish town about 2 hours south and west (I think) of Bangkok. It is a town built along the Kwai River and is notable for being home to the Bridge Over The River Kwai, the history of which I didn't previously know. In case you are equally oblivious, apparently the Japanese killed thousands of POWs during WWII constructing a railway line from Burma through the Thai jungle and right on over the River Kwai. The bridge itself is quite rickety and swarming in enough tourists that it didn't seem terribly unlikely that one might knock me onto a section of weak wood and then perhaps watch me plummet into the murky river below.
Surviving, I had the chance to walk back to my fabulous floating raft guesthouse from the outskirts of town where the bridge is located, at rush hour. The primary mode of transport in Kanchanburi is the motorcycle. Now, given my professional history, reckless bikers aren't a new concept for me, but rush hour in Kachanaburi outdoes any Knievel I've met. Since school is over, clearly you have to transport your children, maybe 2 or 3, in addition to 1 or 2 parents, plus you might need some groceries so you add a few bags of fruit and vegetables to your carefully balanced motorbike from like 1973. Then, perhaps your dog is with you, so you balance the family pet on the bike too. You make sure nobody has a helmet and then you proceed to weave and race through poorly maintained roads with essentially no traffic control devices while everyone else in your city is doing the exact same thing. It's madness. If you're on foot, you're me and you take lots of pictures while children point and laugh, partially because you're taking pictures, but also just becasue you're walking.
A short bus ride from town is a phenomenal waterfall with 7 separate tiers. The water is a strange and beautiful opaque turquoise caused by the presence of calcium bicarbonate from the limestone or something chemical I don't understand. It's incredible enough that movie crew was shooting at the mere 2nd tier. To reach the 7th tier you have to negotiate your way through parts of the falls, over rocks and up makeshift ladders. At the top, and at any level below really, there are amazing deep clean pools you can swim in without even feeling like you'll be pulled over the edge. Fantastic.