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So we arrived in kanchanaburi around 11 am.It was a three-hour bus journey and possible one of the hottest one's to.You pay extra to get a mini bus rather than a local bus and the air con is still non-existent.So we get dropped off at some guesthouse but decide not to stay there so we slip him 10 baht and get him to drop us off down the road at one called sugar cane 2.A huge room for only 650 baht.For accommodation in Thailand that is quite expensive but as i'm only here for a couple of night i'll let it pass by with out worrying me.So we speak to our reception desk about tours and they tell us some local lady will be round shortly as she stops at every guesthouse to arrange packages for everyone.We walk out on to our jetty, which is on the river Kwai to check out the views and there it is the famous bridge.It's not much to look at but the history surrounding it is unreal and the amount of lives lost building that as well as the rail way is devastating.
So about kanchanaburi then!!Basically it is a little town in the middle of a jungle.Surrounded by lush green trees, wildlife and of course great Thai people.I doubt Kanchanaburi would even be on the map if it wasn't for the famous bridge.I'm sure many people arrive here to the bridge but its hidden gems are definetly out of the town.Once on to the beaten trek the sights of beautiful waterfalls will amaze you, Rice fields more green trees.Yeah i know trees don't sound to great but this is what makes certain places.
So we waited around for the lady to turn up to discuss different tour options.When she arrived we booked an afternoon tour to the tiger temple leaving in a hour or so and the next day it was the Erawan waterfalls, Hellfire pass death railway, a ride on the train and the bridge over the Kwaiit's self.
Before we went on the tiger temple tour Lisa discovered that her flight leaves at 11 the next night so unfortunately we had to cut our trip here short by a night.Easily done.
So a truck came and picked us up and off we went to the tiger temple.After 20 minutes or so we arrived.A walk through a track then through a clearing and then down in to some huge dusty pit.There must of been 20 tigers all laying around doing what tigers do best which is sleep.The main question, which stuck in my head, was???"Were they sudated"?After a brief introduction by some guy and he explained all about this.So he claims they are tigers saved from the wild, maybe so.He also went on to explain how it was a monk charity organisation, which runs this.And then the million-dollar question came."The tigers are not drugged at all.Alot of them have been hand reared so they are use to human presence" b******s.There's no way that you can have a tiger comfortable with humans stroking, patting it.Maybe the cubs are not drugged as some were a little to lively to say the least but the big one's which would tear us apart given a chance.I'm sure you can rear a tiger but it would be use to the person who did it not hundreds of people visiting you and touching you.If people kept touching me i would certainly bite them.After that we still went and had our pictures taken with these gorgeous animals.We even got to touch 2-week-old cubs, which were just cute fluff balls.So after some great photo's it was time to head back.That evening we headed out for something to eat.Before going in to town we looked in the lonely planet to see where it recommends.Rule number one of travelling never go by what the book says.It's all right for a basic guide but that's it.I learnt this first time round but still fail to obide my own rules.So we get in to town and head to this bar.It's an Australian bar, which has a good reputation for food, so the book says.It's no oil painting to look at and the food is highly over rated.At least the beer was cold.When it came to choosing places to eat Lisa and me have never been good at that.Even after time apart we still can't choose a good place.After that we wanted a few drinks so we headed back to a bar in the direction of our Guesthouse and stopped off there for a few.So this morning we had to be up by 8 as we had a busy day ahead of us.We got picked up in a minibus, which was full of ZEEEE Germans and started our tour.The first stop was the waterfalls.In total there was seven of them all ascending up this mountain.The first one of them had a huge pool at the bottom and a rather large waterfall cascading down in to it.(Just as you would expect I guess).For me it was a bit to early to get in to it so we decided to head up to the others.After it warmed up a bit we decided to test the water at about the forth one.It was rather cold but for me the main problem was these fish.They weren't that big but they kept sucking your toes, which was not a nice feeling.I decided to get out something else to see if they liked that.(Joking).After about an hour and thirty-minute climb we reached the top.This waterfall wasn't that bid but it was rather spread out with lots of pools.Ok so here comes the nature side of me.Walking up there was lots of monkeys in the trees doing their business (not pooing).But at the top there was a couple of them cuddleing each other picking out there flea's and eating them.All very lovely and nature at it's best, but it gets better.After watching them for 5 minutes we realized there was a baby monkey in the middle of them only a matter of days old by the looks of it.They were also grooming it and just showing their love for it.After trying to get closer and get some photos the male got rather protective and started to rear up at us, heading towards us we started moving back.To see something like this in the wild is great, the love which the parents showed for their baby was un real and this male monkey was prepared to take on about 6 humans to protect it's love one's, which to me is endeering.After almost getting our arse's whooped by a monkey we got in to the pools of water braved the fish just about and had a little swim, more of a dip really.Whilst Lisa got out she proper slipped over and almost pulled down some girl with her.Her legs went higher than her head.It was proper hillarious but highly embarrassing for her i'm sure.Trying not to laugh too much I went over to see if she was all right, which she was.Play it cool Trigg.Then whilst I'm drying off she takes another splash.I didn't see it this time I just saw her getting helped up by some girls, who were trying not to laugh.She only did it again.Bambi on ice comes to mind.I will also quickly add in that she stubbed her toe about 15 times whilst walking up and stumbled an untold amount of times.We rushed back down to the car park to quickly get some lunch and then headed off to the Hellfire pass.Looking back I have to go back to this place just to get my photo taken in the first waterfall.A lot of people have had their photo taken there and it looks great so therefore I feel as though I missed out.So Hellfire pass is a stretch of railway built through some huge rocks either by prisoners of war or by he Japanese during World War 2.The history to this part of the railway what makes it famous is the amount of deaths occurred whilst building this part of it?Thousands of lives were lost building this, mainly through accidents and ill-treating such as long hours, lack of food and by different infections going around.We took a walk down an area of it and there are still metal stakes in the rock from where they were digging away at it.From there we went on to death railway which is a train journey along a side of a mountain supported my wooden poles.This is a regular route which locals still use now.I can only think its named Death railway for obvious reasons.It doesn't look safe what so ever and it's only a matter of time before another disaster happens there I'm sure.Now this was the last leg of our tour.We visited the famous Bridge it self and walked across it.It's just a huge bridge going over a river, yeah.It certainly is.Whilst building the bridge it got bombed in the war and than another time it callaposed.It's not just the bridge, which makes it famous, but also the whole epic journey, which lies behind the construction of the railway.The bridge it's self is an important piece of history but to them it was just another stumbeling block they were to experience along the way.The whole purpose of the railway was for the Japanesse to get weapons and supplies to and from the Burmese border.I suppose looking back on it no it may appear a waste of time and effort for the Japanesse as we nuked them and won the war.That's just science for ya kids!!!So from here we got dropped off at a local bus station to catch a coach back to Bangkok so Lisa can get her flight home.Another tail of my journey. We got back and said some more rushed good byes and off she went.Tomorrow I leave for Sydney
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