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Up and at 'em at 5.45am Tuesday morning, we started by heading to the 7/11 for toast with butter and sugar (?!) and a pizza bread before getting picked up by a small mini bus just after 7am.
The 2 and half hour journey to Kanchanburi was smooth and much more comfortable than we have been used to so far! Our first stop in the small, but busy, city was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetary, where many of the British, Australian and US victims of the Thailand-Burma railway are buried. The immaculate cemetary was moving as so many of the dead were so young. Following this it was a brief drive to a small museum, which we didn't fancy looking in, and the infamous 'Bridge over the River Kwai'.
We walked across the bridge without really knowing much about it's significance as there was little signposting, but its meaning would become more apparent later in the trip. It was definately a wonderful experience and big tick of the ever growing 'list'.
After the bridge we got back into the minibus - with people being mixed around the numerous buses, according to what shape and colour sticker you had on - and made the drive to the railway station to embark on our journey across the 'Death Railway'. The scenery was spectacular and the 50 minute journey to Nam Tok was very enjoyable, despite us knowing how many people had died for the track to be used.
Upon arrival at the train station we were taken straight to our 'digs' for the night which was a floating raft on the River Kwai, so serene. Our buffet lunch of rice, pumpkin curry, mixed vegetables and omelette, we went back for seconds!! After lunch we headed into the town for a couple of hours in a park, which was home to a few caves and a beautiful waterfall, so clean and nice that we thought it may have been man-made, a walk to the source of the fall proved us wrong. We also wandered the streets of the small town where we were and were offered numerous fried fruit and vegetables, including sweet and salty bananas and taro (we are still not sure what this is but it looks like potato!) it was great to be able to 'try before you buy' and obviously we took full advantage!
At 4.30pm we headed back to out 'floatel' and chilled out with our fellow travellers (although the tranvestite thai and its boyfriend had refused to stay on the boat as the showers were too cold! Shame!) before having a lovely buffet tea of more rice, pad thai, stir fried veg, green beans and thai green curry. We sat up talking and playing cards till around 10.30pm, drinking coffee to make sure we kept warm as the temperature by the river was much colder than we have been used too! We slept very well to the sound of the river, snuggled under a lovely warm duvet!
Today we awoke at 7.30am and had a breakfast of toast and fried eggs and more coffee before heading out to the Hellfire Pass, a museum and memorial, sponsored by the Australian government, set up in memory of the ten of thousands of allied prisoners of war and asian employees who lost their lives in the terrible conditions. The walk to Hellfire Pass was enjoyable (but with a few too many steps) and the views were again spectacular but being so deep within the rocks made you all too aware of the conditions faced by the workers. The museum was interesting and moving and gave us much more information on what we were seeing, making us appreciate our surroundings and the experiences from the day before much more.
From the museum our trip moved away from the story of the railway workers and the real fun began! Firstly we started with an ELEPHANT RIDE!!!
What an amazing experience, we were both sat on a seat on the elephants back with a 'driver' sat over the ears, we each took our turns moving into this position! We trekked over some hilly terrain through the forest with the elephant stopping to eat anything it could find every so often. The experience was amazing and neither of us could remove the smiles from our faces!
After this was a tranquil trip down the River Kwai on a bamboo raft, the first one we attempted seemed to start sinking so we soon changed onto a more sturdier vessel! The trip was so serene and we could have spent all day laying on the raft in the sun, but unfortunately by this time it was 1.30pm and our tummys were rumbling so it was back to our raft for more of the same food and to collect our bags before the 3 hour drive back to Bangkok. We, luckily, had a lovely driver and sat in the front listening to music, singing along and smiling from the elephant ride still!
Back in Bangkok, we dumped our bags and headed straight out to the street market, buying yet more clothes! Then it was back to the hotel to attempt another early night!
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