Hey all

We have just got back last night from 4 days in the jungle on the River Kwai. What an experience!! The area is 65% mountains. We both felt great to escape from Bangkok. We only took our little backpacks and left the big ones in the hotel. Can you believe it Jen and Lis actually fitting 4 days worth of stuff in a little backpack!

The first day there we went around the POW graves and to a death railway museum. For those of you who did A level English and read the Railway man it brought everything to life. We walked accross the River Kwai which was actually quite scary there were holes in it that we could have easily fallen down into the river itself, you can still stand on the bridge as trains are going on it, obviously not on the track though. Very scary stuuf and we kept thinking how different things would be if it was England - it was soooo dangerous and little kids were just hopping about all over the place!!! Arrr!!

In the afternoon on the first day we caught a long tail boat for 45 mins down the River Kwai to our jungle abode for the next 3 nights. How amazing, talk about back to basics! No electricity or hot water. The hotel was a jungle raft which floated on the River Kwai, Our room was one of of 16 huts that were joined together by little bridges. There was a dining room and a bar in the middle very handy for pina coladas!! He he... Each room had a terrace with a hammock. The rooms were very basic just a bed and a separate bathroom (if you could call it that!) We couldn't find the flush on the toilet so we asked the guide where it was, he was actually wetting himself laughing and said the bowl next to the toilet that is the flush, you are in the jungle you know, no flushing toilets. So to flush our toilet you had to fill up a bowel with water and pour it down really fast to flush!! You can just imagine the dramas we had ..... HA HA HA!!!! Never again!!!! \we have made a pact together - What went on in the jungle, soooo satys in the jungle!!! We now have no boundries and have resigned ourselves as being friends for life as we know too much .... ;0)

This place really was paradise though. The next day was what we had been looking forward to, elephant riding in the Mon village. We fed them first with banannas, which they ate whole and lapped them up! There are 40 different types of bananna in Thailand, some look well dodgy though!! Our lovely elephant was called Noi, she was so naughty and kept trying to eat everythinh in sight and wanted to take us off on her own tour of the jungle!! We therefor nicknamed her Naughty Noi!! They are such beautiful animals though and have the ability to make you feel very humble. In the afternoon we went on a bamboo raft down the river and then for a swim in a posh hotels pool, also in the jungle. Just what we needed to cool off and have a bit of luxury!!!

The next day we spent the morning chilling in the hammock catchin some rays (although still as white as when we left) then we decided we wanted to go and see Erawan waterfalls, we just got a ride there and decided to trek by our selves. It was amazing - see the photos, the water was so blue and you could see all the way to the bottom. There were 7 tiers of falls but we only made it to 5 as we ran out of water and it was very hot. On the way down we were going to go for a swim. This was until we saw about 4 monkies going through someones unattended bag we decided against it as we didn't fancy a monkey running off with our cameras.

The last night at the jungle rafts we spent in the bar drinking cocktails really sad to leave this place but I think if we didn't leave then our clothes would have walked of us by themselves We have never been so smelly in all our lives!!! Back to smelly Bangkok to get clean.

We have changed from our original plan we are leaving tomorrow for the islands we've decided not to go to Chang Mai as it is apparently really busy and we couldn't get a 1st class carriage on the overnight train! So we are heading for Krabi then the last week we are heading for Ko Samui - woo hoo!! Time to work on the tan im afraid and so trying to prepare for the hard work ahead of us...!!! Ha ha ha ...

Hope WORK is all ok for you back home in old Blighty, Speak soon,

Jen and Lis ... Thai kisses to you alll x x x x x x x x x x