Bangkok to Kanchanaburi

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Had a great flight over with Quantas airline (highly recommended) only we did however encounter your classic reclining passangers in front of us as well as a gentleman and his Thai bride but only minor distractions from an otherwise pleasant journey.

While walking down the hussel bussel street taking in the unique mouth watering smell of authentic Thai cooking and the vibrant colours of the tuk tuks we came across our first hostel

ARRIVAL - After arriving at Green House BKK, we were glad to be relieved of our bags and headed out for some much needed cold Changs and food, after scanning through the menu we decided on a Thai noodle soup and a Pad Thai for myself, on arrival both dishes looked and smelled delicious.

The first nights sleep in the hostel was a hot affair as Lex had decided to take the key out of the box which kept the fan powered in the room while I was sleeping off one too many Changs.

Day 1 - Explore the sights and smells of Bangkok. First stop would be the Grand Palace and Military building. On the way up to the first check point a cheeky Thai fellow decided to help us with our journey by informing us that the Palace was closed today and that his tuk tuk friend would take us around Bangkok to other temples at a "special holiday rate", we politley refused his offer and headed into the grand palace.

To our surprise we found ourselves standing on the side of the road awaiting the arrival of the King & Queen to pass in their

After brushing shoulders with Thai royalty we headed around the local temples including Wat Bowon Niwet, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Kaew (emrald budda), Reclining Budda and Wat Pho. Each one had its own unquie design of gold and jewels encrusting the front of the temples.

Day 2 - A quick trip to the Hualamphong train station to deposit our large bags, us being ambitious we decided to walk 4KM back to Banglaphu to check out of the hostel and get our small rucksacks that we had packed for the next 12 days (be impressed Lex living on only 4 tops!) we crossed the Chao Phraya River and treked to Thonburi the second of the cities railway stations, to take the train to Kanchanaburi (home of the Bridge over River Kwai). The train journey was awesome, really interesting to see the countryside, think it was a good call rather than the bus.

Kanchanaburi was almost polar opposite to Bangkok with a lot more relaxed way of life and not tuk tuks on every corner looking out for there next victim. We arrived at the BlueStar hostel to book in only to find we had booked for the month of Feb and not Jan, luckaly the manager was most kind and organised alternative accomodation for the night before we returned for two with the bluestar - a really relaxed feel with mini bungalows and lots of wooden seating and chill out areas on different decked levels.

DAY 3 - Walk to the famous bridge over the River Kwai, that was quite the tourist hotspot (with lots of coaches with people on day trips from Bangkok) none the less we headed across the bridge towards Burma and took some great photos (which we promise will be published as soon as we can).

DAY 4 - A bus trip to Erawan Falls national park: an amazing national park we had to climb 7 major levels to reach the top to see the start of the waterfall which has a drop of 1500m. At the top is a goregous clear dipping pool, that we swam in with lots of fishes biting our feet which was strange but fine once you got used to it, in Bangkok you had to pay £2-£5 to dip your legs into a fish tank for the fish to get rid of dead skin - a cleansing treatment. After a quick change Lex made the mistake of taking a carrier with crisps in and putting on the ground and within seconds a monkey had appeared snatched it out of my hands and was up a tree munching on them!!

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