Kanchanaburi

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21/08/08 Thursday Day 7 Tayto day, Kanchanaburi and it’s backwardness
Not a very much eventful day at all today. Packed up the bags to leave Bangkok and head to Kanchanaburi. Got a taxi from the hotel to the south bus station and of course your man ripped us off. The bus journey was grand. Met another couple from the states travelling around. They were on their last two weeks of travelling. Went to the TAT (tourist office) here to find out where our hostel was. When they didn’t know it didn’t look good. We decided to ask one of the taxi drivers and they didn’t know either but they did ring the place to find out. It turns out that the hostel is about 6kms out of the town itself but only about 1km from the bridge over the river kwai. So this is where we’re at now. The hostel isn’t too bad once you can ignore the small ant like creatures walking the bathroom walls! We’re about 800 metres from the bridge which isn’t too bad considering we’re here to see that but it’s another 4km to downtown! We gave a walk down there tonight to see if we could find an eating house of some sort. We did but it’s like each local family have set up their own little restaurant outside their house. Near the bridge was like an abandoned town although in saying that we didn’t go downtown so it might be a bit busier down there. Oh yea, there’s a few loud speakers around the road where our hostel and it starts blaring out some kind of speech. Sounds like one of Hitler’s speeches!
Every one here gets around through either mopeds or motorbikes. We might get a moped tomorrow. It’s easier to get around that way!

22/08/08 Friday Day 8 Chips
Well we got ourselves a moped today. Lady at the hostel organised it for us. A grand yoke it is. Flying around all day today. Got fine colour from the sun and the breeze too. All I need now is a pair of biker sunglasses and I’d be like one of the cops from chips! You can buy small bottles of petrol from the small stalls around the place but they’re a complete rip off. It was about 60 bahts for a quarter of a tank but we went to the petrol station after driving around for a bit and filled it up to the top for 85 bahts.
Walked across the bridge over the river Kwai. Nothing spectacular about it other than it’s steeped in history! There’s loads of war cemeteries too around the place.
Yesterday was a Tayto day. Today was a cooked day and brown bread. Bought couple of small items in the afternoon. Got a full cooked chicken. Damn nice it was too. Will find out in the middle of the night if it was a real chicken or not! Ate that stuff back at the hostel. We have a table and chairs outside our cabin.
Actually as we were walking around town, a small bus load of people arrived. Next thing we heard this country Irish accent, probably from Limerick or Waterford saying “I though we were going to the elephant trek”. I think he wasn’t long in this country. They probably stopped off here to get them to buy souvenirs like all the other dodgy tours.
This little town isn’t too bad after all. There’s loads of bars and restaurants around the bridge area but there doesn’t seem to be much down town except for the markets.
Tomorrow we go to the waterfalls some 65 kilometres away.
Took a spin down town to the tourist area to get a bit to eat. Found a restaurant with a live band that were rubbish. Food was nice though but the restaurant was very quiet. We checked out all the bars and there was about 3 to 5 people in most so we didn’t bother venturing in. We then came across a night market by accident. Everything and anything was on sale, even puppies! We didn’t bother buying anything. We don’t have room anyway!

23/08/08 Saturday Day 9 Erawan Falls
Today we took the 65 kilometre trip to Erawan Falls on our little moped north west of Kanchanaburi. Not a bad trip. Stopped once along the way and on the way home for some water. Was very hot today. The tan is coming along nicely, thanks to the wind in our hair!
The falls were pretty good alright. There’s a 700 metre walk to the start of them and there are 7 separate little water falls in total. You can also swim around in the little lagoons underneath some of the falls. The water is very refreshing and there’s loads of small fish in them. To go up to the very top and back down again took about 2 hours.
There’s isn’t much else really today. It’s now half 4 and it’s pouring out of the heavens. We could see the clouds as we came into the last few kilometres of out journey. So we’re going to wait for a while before heading down to get a bite to eat.
Took a spin down town again last night. We ate dinner in the evening at one of the floating restaurants which was ok. My deep fried chicken was wrapped in what can only be described at rushes, for any of you farming types! All the pubs were empty again with only about 2 or 3 people in most. So we decide to go back to our cabin. It turned out that a film with Catherine Zita Jones as a chef was on TV. It was rubbish. I fell during the thing.

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