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Published: October 24th 2007
Wow - how peaceful is it to get out of Bangkok. We got a nice air conditioned bus from Bangkok, west, to Kanchanaburi. It took about 2 hours and Nikki slept like a baby all the way!
We stayed at a guesthouse called Apple Guesthouse which is just beautiful - nice little bungalow with just a fan for company and a cold shower which is all you need in this heat. The food at the guesthouse was amazing and attracted a lot of travellers who are staying in Kanchanaburi - Nik now loves Red Thai Curry although she can only have 1 star of heat!
Its been sooo crazy here as there is so much to do in such little time. We started at the Tiger Temple in the afternoon that we arrived(sunday). It sucked! It was basically a giant tourist trap where you paid a lot of money to queue up and pat a bored looking tiger. Nik wanted to let them off their leash but decided it might upset the monks!
Monday was a much better day. We decided to head out to Hellfire Pass. This is where, during the 2nd World War, POW's and Asian
labourers were forced to build a railway line for Janpanese linking Thailand and Burma. Hellfire Pass is where the Allied troops were forced to cut a huge pass through the hillside by hand using basic tools. There is now a museum and memorial there that the Australian Government have helped to set up in memory of the 16,000 allied POW's who died whilst building it as well as the 100,000 forced Asian labourers who died.
Instead of signing up for a tour, we decided to make our own way there using public transport. The buses here are fab - as long as you mind the holes in the floor and sit near a fan or open window!
On Tuesday we had another brilliant day. We headed out to Erawan National Park to Erawans 7 tiered Waterfalls - they were completely breathtaking. It was a 2.2km trek to the highest waterfall. The first km there was a nice path to follow and after that it got a bit more off-road. After climbing over rocks and trees we reached the 7th tier and went for a swim in the pool where we were attacked by little fish! Luckily because we
went independently, we avoided the big groups of westerners and there were only a handful of local Thais there.
Today we checked out of Apple and walked down to The Bridge Over The River Kwai which was interesting to see. This afternoon we are going to catch the bus back to Bangkok where we have the Sleeper Train booked overnight up to Chiang Mai.
Good to see Pompey still on a roll!!!
Love you all
Craig & Nik x x
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Bryan
Bryan and Miranda
Monkey Sign
Loved your photos. . . especially the Monkey Sign!