Monkey Business!

Please note - we are writing our blogs together however at some points we write in first person to avoid confusion!

Hi all!

Thanks for your emails, its nice to hear from you all! It seems that after our last post, the folks back home are a little concerned that we are not finding any food to eat, so just to reassure you please see the pictures attached!

We had a great time in Kanchanaburi, upon arrival we picked a random riverside guesthouse out of our Lonely Planet book called 'Sugar Cane Guesthouse'. It was one of the cheapest in the book and we had our own bungalow with double bed and shower!
As expected, the town was so much calmer than bangkok, we felt relieved that we could actually relax and enjoy our the sourrounding river and other attractions.

We booked ourselves on to a tour for the first day and along with 3 other farang people (westerners) visited the main sites of Kanchanaburi learning about the areas involvement in the second World War and the thousands of POWs that died here whilst being forced to build a rail route (known as the Death Railway) from here to Myanmar by the Japanese.

On our tour we also visited the Erawan National Park to be surprised to see a monkey sitting up in a tree watching us. We were even more surprised when there was another larger monkey sitting on the floor just ahead of us! Our tour guide warned 'be careful THEY BITE!' the next thing we know he jumps out on us and starts running after our tour guides bag of food! In desparation our tour guide ends up throwing her breakfast at him and he eventually back off up a tree! It was ok though because we (3 blokes included) all ran in opposite directions and left our friendly female guide, Toi (who was two foot tall) to fight the battle with the screaming beast with huge teeth, alone! When we turned round to see that the monkey was trying to eat her and not us we breathed a sigh of relief and waited patiently for it to finish with her so we could get on with our tour.

Next we took a 2 hour train ride back to the town along Death Railway and managed to take a nervous walk (noting the signs that say 'we accept no responsibility for any serious injury') along the railway on the 'Bridge On the River Kwai' with hundreds of other tourists for a great but dangourous view of the river! The railway is still in use today so as well as avoiding the holes we were also looking out for oncoming trains!

After our eventful day, we decided to relax for the evening with the other farangs for a steak in a new restaraunt. We were awaiting our food and chatting about different accomodation when I (Suz) mentioned that i wasn't bothered as long as there were no insects. As conversation moved on i felt a stone hit my back and looked over my shoulder to find out who threw it. Then i realised it was still on my neck- it had fallen through my hair and was caught under my collar... At that point i knew that it wasn't a stone, but an enourmous monster that had fallen from the rafters above our heads. As i turned to Steve trying not to panic and hoping i was wrong, his faced filled with horror as he backed away from me in his chair and said 'Oh my God!' I started shouting 'Get it off!" so he reluctantly (and far too slowly) lent over and flicked it off me... over to the other side of the table and onto Tim's arm (who we were eating with), after realising, Tim screamed and flicked it back at us but by this time we had thought ahead and legged it from the table. By now the restaurant owners thought we were being murdered and came out to see what the problem was... Apparently it was a grasshopper, obviously they get fed better in Thailand as this was about three inches long, and rather heavy i might add.

The evening was finished off with a few beers at a bar watching a Thai band playing English songs!

We have had a great time here and are now moving to Lopburi (apparantly there are more monkeys here roaming the streets than any other town in the country, so we are prepared for war!).

We will update again soon.
Steve and Suz x

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