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The new surroundings of Kanchanaburi were a welcome break from the go-go-go of Bangkok. At least Mark could venture out on the crutches without being worried about being trampled on by the mass of locals, being run over by the constant stream of cars and taxis or getting harassed by tuks-tuks who would see his plastercast and feel compelled
to offer an overpriced journey.
As we pulled in to the Kanchanaburi bus station the first thing that struck us was how busy it was (not quite what we were expecting). Lisa jumped out and Mark followed after a bit of a struggle. No sooner had we hit the pavement than a local woman asked what had happened to Mark's foot, where we were staying and then coordinated a taxi transfer (at a cheap price)....what a touch. A really helpful local.....and she was wearing a Man Utd t-shirt so clearly a woman of impeccable taste.
We were soon checked into the room at the Sabai@Kan hotel. A nice place with an ample sized room, swimming pool, small restaurant area but, unfortuately, no bath !!! We forgot to ask when we booked. Looks like washing with the cast would be a nightmare again.
Given Mark's injury we limited what we did during our stay at Kanchanaburi. That said, we did visit the Bridge over the River Kwai which seemed to take Mark longer to cross on crutches than the 16 months the Prisoners of War took to build during World War II. He is
so stubborn at times so he was not going to let a torn ligament stop him crossing the bridge. It is one of the main things he wanted to do so crutches or no crutches, he was going to do it. Lisa on the other hand had a lot of reservations. She has a touch of vertigo and was therefore pooping her pants with every stride. It didn't help that parts of the bridge have no railings and it is therefore easy to fall the 30 or so metres into the river!! A couple of tourists were close to doing just that as they were concentrating too much on taking photos.
A couple of days later we actually took the train across the bridge to a town called Nam Tok. The railway is now known as Death Railway given the amount of people that died building it (>100,000). Towards the end of the 2 1/4 hour journey, we crossed a narrow 65 year old wooden bridge with a sheer drop on one side. A bit scary but we got some good
photos. The journey was pretty comfortable as we went into a carriage where seats were 300 Baht (about £6) rather than the standard 100 Baht. Initially, we went into the cheaper carriage and found that all of the seats had been pre-booked by tour parties. The next carriage was more expensive however Mark gave up hobbling any further so we decided to sit down and swallow the extra cost. It didn't seem too bad as we were given a cushion to sit on. The next minute we were given a towel to freshen up followed by a coffee, packet of Oreo bisuits each (nice), a bottle of water and a bun/cake thing. Immediately after,
another guy came round with glasses of Coke. Pretty good value for money.
At the end of the journey, we had planned to go to Hellfire Pass, which was a pass created with just hand tools by the PoWs in WWII. As we neared the end of the train journey, one of the conductors informed us that the pass was 20km from Nam Tok. We could however get a taxi for the rest of the way - good times. Unfortunately, the taxi can only get to within 2km - bad times. With that, we paid the same fare again and went all the way back to Kanchanaburi without getting off train.
When we got back, we went to the JEATH Museum which is 100 yards or so from the bridge. This museum depicts aspects of World War II and the history of the bridge, which would have been more interesting if things were laid out better and they bothered to clean the display glass so you could look at the exhibits. What we couldn't understand was why they had a "Miss Thailand over the years" and a small rock exhibition in the same building. It seemed a bit inappropriate after reading in the prior room about the thousands and thousands that perished during the bridge's constructiion. We came away feeling little short-changed by the poor presentation despite it only costing about 1 pound each. That should tell you something about the poor layout!!!
For a town with so many international visitors, it was strange that so many of the locals spoke little or no English unlike elsewhere in the country. For example, Lisa asked for fries with her lunch one day and got a bottle of Sprite instead. In another place a girl had to get a menu because she didn't understand the words "Coke" or "Coca-Cola". There were too many other incidents to list. It was all a bit bizarre though as we had been to more remote parts of Laos and Cambodia where it was easier to be understood.
A little gem during our stay was "The Rabbit Bakery" that did excellent smoothies and even better cakes. It was just a little way down from our hotel which was handy, so too was well presented "The Resort" restaurant with it's outdoor surroundings, low lights and
music. We went there for dinner one evening but found that no one spoke English. It was so funny as different members of staff kept coming up reading back the previous person's understanding of our order but it was always wrong. Not only was there a language barrier
but waitresses were a little hopeless too. Inspite of this, our main memory was Lisa's Thai Green Curry which was hot (spicy) enough to strip paint off walls. Someone must have dropped a whole pot of Chillis in there, not that we could actually see as the outdoor
lighting was so low. Luckily we had a small keyring torch on us otherwise we couldn't have read the menu. We dread to think what the spicy option was like as this dish was meant to be mild!!!
The last morning Mark sat by the pool with his cast on while Lisa took a dip. We left the pool with plenty of time to get showered before the minivan we had booked (due to arrive at midday) would be outside reception. Mark was still struggling with showering with the cast on when a member of the hotel staff came to our room to say the minivan had arrived.......at 11:30am and we need to hurry up as the driver wanted to leave early. Those of you that know Mark will be aware that he doesn't "do early" in fact doing "on time" is generally a struggle for him. So, we rushed around like maniacs and were at the van before 11:45am. What happened next was frankly a joke. The driver wanted to charge for another passenger because we have bags even though the hotel had told the company the day before that we had luggage. When we explained this to the driver he was so rude it was unreal. Ultimately, the driver took our bags off the minivan as we said that no one
mentioned about paying for baggage so we didn't think we should and then, to our disbelief, he drove off without saying a word to us. We were now left having to get a 6+ hour bus to our next stop, Hua Hin. After 30 mins considering our options, we jumped into a tuk-tuk bound for the bus station. What was the most frustrating part was the fact that we go to go via Bangkok (different direction) and change as there wasn't a direct link between the two towns. Oh no, that meant a bus change at the infamous Bangkok Southern terminal again (the scene of Mark's accident)!!!
All in all, we had a good time in Kanchanaburi despite Mark's cast but, inevitably, it was time to move on again.
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