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Hello All
Firstly I must say how deeply gutted I am that England didn't win on Wednesday Night. I've just seen some of the highlights whilst eating lunch and it turned my stomach watching it knowing that we haven't qualified for Euro 2008...Anyway, enough said about that, life goes on I guess! Now, what have I been up to the past few days….
We arrived back in Bangkok (after 14 hours on the train!) at 6.30am which concluded the first tour, and after saying our goodbyes to Sarah & Tess (who had a flight to Southern Thailand), a few of us including a new addition to the gang - a guy called Gerry from Ireland piled in a taxi and drove 2 hours north to Kanchanaburi.Our driver was lovely but quite speedy! On the way there we overtook a police car (with its sirens on!!) which was in the fast lane!! Quite funny! There don't seem to be any rules when it comes to driving over here! As it stands the maximum number of people I've seen on a moped is 4!!
WARNING! FACTUAL INFORMATION! Anyway, our first stop was the JEATH War Museum which was established in 1977 to collect various items connected with the construction of the Death Railway by prisoners of war (PoW's) during the second world war, 1942-1943.The museum is called JEATH as it is an abbreviation of the names of the six countries involved: Japan, England, America & Australia, Thailand and Holland.
It was very emotional seeing all the exhibits but even more so when we went to the war cemetery and saw the hundreds of graves and read some of the very touching messages on the plaques.Prior to going to the cemetery we went on a longtail boat ride (which was more like a speed boat!) on the River Kwae and then we walked across the Death Railway Bridge.
WARNING! MORE FACTUAL INFORMATION! The Death Railway was a strategic railway built between Thailand and Burma. Construction began on September 16, 1942 at Nong Pladuk, Thailand by approximately 30,000 prisoners of ward from the afore mentioned countries and more than 200,000 impressed laboured from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma & Thailand. Of these, more than 16,000 PoW's and 100,000 impressed labourers died of many diseases, due to the starvation and lack of medical equipment.The first survey by the Japanese engineers predicted that it would take at least 5 years to finish the railway line but the Japanese army forced the prisoners to complete it in only 16 months. It was completed on 25 December 1943.
It really was a very emotional morning but I'm glad we got to visit Kanchanaburi, and I was able to learn about all of the above.Okay, lesson over!!
After lunch we piled back in the taxi and drove to the Tiger Temple. This place was amazing!! All of the tigers have been hand-raised by monks and imprinted to humans and therefore have no fear of people.They have been regularly handled from a very early age and thus have become desensitized to being touched by people.We were able to stroke them and have various photos taken - I look pretty scared in mine!! I will be sending out the link to all of my photos very soon I promise!
There were also other animals, including deer, wild boars, buffalo, ponies, cows, horses, and wild goats, all of which can roam around the grounds of the monastery freely!!The monastery is situated in Kanchanaburi province - an area lying adjacent to Burma. The Western Forest Complex hat stretches along the border is the largest protected area in Asia and believed to be the home of the largest surviving tiger population in the region. It was an extraordinary experience that's for sure!!
Emma, James & I arrived back at our hotel in Bangkok just in time for the next tour group's meeting.I was pleased to see more than one guy in this group and everyone seemed nice.We should have gone out for a group dinner but were absolutely exhausted so the 3 of us were excused and allowed to have a nap before getting ready to go out on our own.
I had arranged to meet Nat on Kho San Road at 8pm, however after standing on what I thought was Kho San Road for five minutes I overheard a guy saying he was hungry and I suggested he walk down the road we were on for somewhere to eat only to discover it wasn't actually Kho San Road. How I got this wrong I'll never know, as it's one of the noisiest streets ever!! I blame too much sun and sheer exhaustion after non stop traveling for 2 days!
Anyway turns out the guy's name was Dave, he was from Australia and joined Nat & I for dinner. After dinner we went to a live music bar and enjoyed some rock songs whilst sampling a few cocktails!!I got a tuk-tuk back to my hotel at 1am and had to wake up my new room mate as we only have one key between us!! She was cool though, her name is Cristal & she is from Norway, it's nice not to be the only single traveler in a group and I'm sure we'll get on fine.
This Morning I've chilled out, met Nat for lunch and said goodbye as she is flying back to Oz today. Our group leaves Bangkok at 4.30pm and we're catching ANOTHER overnight train down South!! I'm looking forward to just laying on a beach for a few days and soaking up the rays!!
I'll be in touch soon, take care of yourself and each other! xXx Ps.
Third blonde moment of trip so far… I'm with the Nationwide Bank which is great because you can withdraw cash from anywhere in the world for free.Now, I was under the impression this is only with Nationwide Cash points!! So since I arrived I've been trying to find out where I can find a Nationwide branch!! Nat even took me to a bank and I was like 'no no, I think I'll wait to find a Nationwide as it's free!!' It was brought to my attention by Kate & Gareth that there are no Nationwides apart from in the UK and that I can infact withdraw from ANY cash machine for free!! My tour group, in particular James has found this very amusing and have been teasing me for days!!
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