The Bridge over the River Kwai & surrounds

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Leaving the island lifestyle behind us, we arrived back to the bustle of Kao San Road, where we booked a tour/trek to Kanchanaburi for the next day.

Kanchanaburi is famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, a bridge built by Allied prisoners of war in WW2 and made famous by the movie. In the area we did some trekking through the Hellfire pass (named after all the torches lit up at night, allowing the p.o.w.'s to work up to 18hrs a day), up some hills and to a cave system which is now a Buddhist temple. After lunch, we got to ride some elephants again, this time with the added bonus of 'washing' them. So it was on with the swimmers, and into the river with the elephants! It was quite an experience, having the elephants (read elephant handler) trying to dunk you into the river. Sometimes we managed to hold on, but almost every time we fell off the elephant (into the river) and had to clamber back up.

In the evening we stayed in basic huts, what made them special though was that they where built on rafts on the river, connected to the shore by a bridge. The next morning we floated down the river on bamboo rafts, visited some waterfalls, and took a train back to Kanchanaburi via the Death Railway (not to worry, it isn't as dangerous as the name suggests).

Back in Bangkok, I organised my visa for Vietnam, joined Marlene and JC on one of their shopping spree's, which Bangkok is a haven for and said my goodbyes to Kao San Road.

So ends the adventure in Thailand.

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