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We finally left Bangkok...YAY!!! We caught the bus north west to Kanchanaburi which took a couple of hours with no air con :( but we made it and its quite nice.
When we got off the bus it was scortching hot and as usual we were accoseted by tuk-tuk and taxi drivers. One bloke offered to take us to look round as many guest houses as we wanted for 40 baht (about 60p) on his tiny little rickshaw type thing! So with our two massive rucksacks hanging off the back and the two of us squashed into the smallest carriage possible this little Thai man peddled us on his bike to about 10 guesthouses. Bless him he was so nice as well and got me a Banana he was knackered by the time we settled on Bluestar guest house.
The first eveing we got a moped, which i was quite dubious about but it turned out to be a good way to get around, although i couldnt grasp the lean as you turn thing at all! We went round the area, saw the bridge over the river Kwai and got caught in the rain so we went home freezing and soaked.
The following morning we went to see the allied cemetary, the war museum and the JEATH museum. The cemetary was so sad, its one of three and there were hundreds of bodies there, many of them really really young and quite a few of them were unkown soliders from all over the world. The museum really hit it home as well how many POW's died building the Thai - Burma railway. The British lost 6,000 odd (the highest out of the allied forces) but the Malays lost 80,000 and they reckon that for every railway sleeper laid one man lost his life and the railway is 415 km long. The JEATH museum shows it from a different perspective displaying stories of the individuals who were there, their art work and newspaper articles. It also showed some pictures and the malnutrition of the men was horrific, how they managed to work 12 hour shifts of hard labour is amazing. It also showed how they were tortured and what lengths they would go to for food (going through the Japanese officers excreetment to get the beans that came out whole) it was all a very sombering experience.
We considered doing the Tiger temple the next day, but I was concerned about the animals welfare. They are wild animals that people can ride and have their photo's taken with? After doing research and speaking to a few people we were glad we didn't as they are drugged. The monks drag them around by their tails and they are so out of it they have to pick them up by their tails and their head to make them stand up, everyone that we have spoken to who has been says it was an awful experience and they don't want the photos or any momento' because the way the tigers are treated is so bad. So anyway we went to go and find a nun that meditates in a pool of water and does Buddha poses, sounded more humane and much funnier. So off we set on the moped again in vest tops and shorts. Si insisted that it wasn't going to rain so we didn't need our waterproofs or anything...how wrong we were! When we were half way there it pissed it down, and I mean proper monsoon style, it hurt and we were soaked in seconds. Even hiding behind Si I was wet through and there was no shelter, when we'd been going about 20 mins we found a garage who took pity on us and offered us chairs to sit on and dry off for a bit. The rain lasted about an hour then stopped and the sun came out so we set off again, but alas our luck was out when 10 mins later it started again! This time we just braved it and finally managed to find this temple...only to find it was closed!!! Brilliant!
The following day Tasha arrived (my friend from home) who is doing the same route north as us. So we went out for a drink and met some of the locals in the bars which was fun except we were out until about 3am! The next morning we had to get up really early to go to a waterfall called Erawan falls. Takes 2 hours to get there on a really old ramshakle bus that only just made it but the falls were worth it they were beautiful. We walked up to the 5th tier and and was so hot we stopped and had a swim. The only down side were the cleaner fish, tiny little fishes that eat all the dead skin and bacteria from you, didn't hurt but was very ticklish! You also had to watch out for the monkeys who were everywhere swimming and climbing as they ran off with your stuff! Si was feeling brave and climbed to the top of a big rock where you could jump in, which he did after pushing past a fat Thai kid who was too scared to do it. About 5 minutes later he still hadn't jumped and the his wailing became more intense when we looked up he was cornered in by a monkey that was walking towards him. Another Thai bloke saw this and like a hero ran up pushed past the monkey and shoved this fat kid in really hard and he screamed so loud, it was hilarious I swear even the monkey laughed!
After this we headed down to the second tier where the Thai army were on a day out. Si got straight in but me and Tash were a bit more concerned cus the little tiny cleaner fish were now HUUUUUGE and i mean about 20-30cm long and we didnt fancy one of those having a nibble! But i got in after some coaxing and we swam out to the waterfall which was amazing and the fish only got you when you were still so i swam as fast as i could, only got nibbled once and then we shared a beer with the army. Turned out they were doing their national service and were celebrating the completion of their 2 months training. As we got out they were performing some really odd drill's and it looks like hard work....glad we dont have to do that!
On the night we went back down to the same bar we were in the previous night for "One drink"...yeah right. Again it was 2am before we got in, but even worse news we had to get up at 7am to go on a tour. On the way home from the bar slightly squiffy we were being stared at by this old woman on the road (nothing too unusual) until she stared trying to talk to us, no idea what she was saying but she pointed to Si and then to the large peice of furniture that was next to her on the pavement like a cupboard made from plywood, so we became theives and helped this old woman lift her cabinet into her cart on the back of her bike! she didnt say a word of thanks just rode off with it! We're waiting for the wanted posters to go up!
The tour the next day was brilliant, first we went to Soi Yak Noi waterfall, pretty similar to Erawan but not as spectacular. But then we got to go on an elephant!!!!! They were gorgeous, there was a 41 year old male, a 31 year old female and an 11 year old male called Joey. He was the cutest thing you ever saw and naughty he liked to eat and stopped at every opportunity to munch, it was so funny. He was only a baby and so small compared to the others but he was still massive and i loved him! The ride is odd cus you get thrown around and you have to fight with the jungle but you can stroke him and feel all the hairs on his back and it was just the most amazing experience ever! We also did some bamboo rafting and got soaked! After lunch we headed on over to Hellfire pass. This was one of the most difficult parts of the Death railway to build as they had to blast through solid rock sometimes upto 8 metres deep so that the rails could be laid through. The stories were pretty similar to those we had heard before but conditions here were much worse as the POW's laying the track were moving faster than they could clear the pass so they were pushed even harder to 18 hour shifts with even less food and no shoes, plus the work was much more dangerous. Once we had done this we caught a train on the death railway so that we could go down a few stops. Whilst we were on there a really fat (and quite drunk) Aussie man came up to us and started saying "I know how you brits are crazy like us Aussie's so I want you to do me a favour, just for a giggle, and if you do I'll pay for your beers". The deal was Tasha had to go up to his unsuspecting mate in the next carriage and say "Oi you horn bag...marry me!!!" and when she did the look on his face was hilarious, when we manage to get the pics up you'll see! The final part of the evening was spent doing the bridge again before we finally got to go home and sleep!
Our final evening was spent very quietly as we were so tired and we had to move the next day, on to Ayutthaya.
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