So the nights sleep wasn't the best, we had to be up at 8 to get ready for our taxi at 9. The dogs on site decided to randomly start barking around our room at various points throughout the night, Kara was already freaked out enough due to the lizards we found earlier. The bed was super comfy, the pillow was poor, the air con wasn't much help so all this made the nights sleep a bad one.

We got up, refreshed and packed and waited around for our taxi. This is when it got interesting again. One of the little women came up and knocked on our door and pointed to another woman in a green mitsubishi pickup, great our taxis here we thought. It wasn't that simple…. We had to confirm where we were being taken, pickup time, where we could leave our bags and thats all before we got to the price.

Trying to communicate to the women was impossible, I don't think they really understood a word of what we were saying and visa versa. From using google translate and chatting to a man on the phone and passing it back to her we finally got somewhere. He couldn't understand Hell Fire Pass, so this had to be spelt out for him, H E L L. . . . finally we got there, 1000 baht (£20), to drop us to Hell Fire Pass, leave our bags in the truck, be picked up at 11:45 and dropped to Nam Tok train station. Around 70km all in all, a little expensive but our bags were safe and tbh it was our only option.

The journey to Hell Fire was very quiet, Kara was fixated on a bug on her window, there was no chance of conversation with the driver so we just sat back and took in the views :-) wasn't long before we arrived, about half hour away from our hotel. We rocked up and confirmed with the woman what time we needed to be picked up, this was done by simply writing 11:45 on some cardboard ha ha.

The museum was cool, we were greeted by an army of school kids which wasn't ideal. But we quickly slipped off our shoes and managed to sneak past them and take in the museum before being disrupted by them. The museum entrance was free, but there was a box to leave a deposit. We left 200 baht and some loose change we had. The museum was so enlightening, you realise all the struggle those people had to go through during the war. The museum is dedicated to all the people who lost there life to build the 'death railway' a railway built by hand by prisoners of war to create a supply line for the Japanese during the war. The supply line ran from Burma to Bangkok. Over 90000 asians died and 12000 English and Australians! Thats crazy!

We walked down the Hell Fire Pass which took around 40 minutes from start to finish, this is only a small section of the trail. The whole thing spans across 4km but that takes over 3 hours to complete. We were pressed for time, but just seeing the pass was amazing. The pass is a passageway through the rock, over 10 meters high. All of it was drilled by hand, using a twisting technique and 10 lb mallets. It was then packed with explosives and then all the rubble removed by hand. There was a broken drill bit in part of the wall, seeing things like this really bring it to life for you. A lot of people pay respects there and leave notes and poppies at various places along the pass.

It was an amazing experience and one we wont forget, had some amazing views and really learnt a lot from this. If you ever come to Thailand this is something you really do have to visit. Its called the Hell Fire Pass as this is what the POWs named it, they called it this because they used to make them work 18 hour shifts, they used a bomfire and torches for light which created shadows which made the presence very eery.

After we had finished the pass, we walked back up and waited for our ride. She turns up early which was good and quickly got us to Nam Tok. Once we arrived we were greeted by the locals, they took us into there restaurant and arranged our tickets for us. James had the famous Masaman curry and I opted for the old trusty faithful Chicken and noodles :-) the food was delicious and an absolute bargain, food and 4 drinks came to 300 baht (£6) The train was due to arrive at 12:55, but it didn't actually turn up until 1:30. We gathered why it was late on the way back to Kanchanaburi.

The train was quite empty at the Nam Tok station so we managed to bag some good seats ready to take in the views. We a stream of sellers walking past selling hats, faded books, random thai food, donuts and cold drinks. Once the train set off, we suddenly realised this was going to be a long journey. It was the slowest thing ever and the track conditions clearly weren't great as it was constantly rocking. We were attacked by several bugs an leaves throughout the journeys the trees/bushes were always touching the train. Once the wilderness cleared we got some great views of the rivers and surroundings. You can see from the pictures some of the great sites along the way.

3 hours later we arrived in Kanchanaburi, loaded our bags onto a little motorbike/sidecar taxi and headed off to the good old trusty faithful U Dee Room and Coffee. Getting there was a struggle, our taxi driver didn't have a clue and kept saying U Dee?? U Dee… we told him we would show him so after a painful drive, we arrived safely.

We went straight out for refreshments and a few cold Changs at an ozzie bar, the owner was called Phil. He was from melbourne and told us a little about his life, an some more about his wife (she was thai). Great little bar and something good to get us in the mood for Aus. We stocked up on anti histamines and itch relief cream and we were sorted. On the way back I decided it was time for a haircut, hairs been abit out of control so needed sorting. I was tempted to get it done in Bangkok, but I took the risk in Kanchanaburi. The risk paid off and my hair actually came away looking pretty good. 100 baht (£2) for a haircut is a bargain, Kara got to see there cat bring in and play with a Lizard so this made it entertaining for me and horrifying for her!

The evening was spent chilling, enjoying the finest steak and pizza in Kanchanaburi at Meat & Cheese and getting ourselves funky fresh ready for our trip to Bangkok in the morning. Look out for our next update and what lies ahead for us in Khao San Road in Bangkok. 140 baht each for an A/C mini van, could be interesting!

J&K over and out!